Let’s talk about something that can deeply concern newer growers. You’ve got these beautiful plants, put them in the ground and then bam, it all seems to immediately fall apart. Your plants look like they got hit by a train!
You’ve definitely heard of what this is, but it can still be alarming nonetheless! This is called transplant shock and it exhibits itself in many ways. Your plant’s leaves can look sunburned, leaves can shrivel up and in worse case scenarios, you sometimes experience partial plant necrosis. This is a natural thing that happens when the plant’s environment radically shifts from a cozy container into the ground, subjecting itself against all the world’s elements.
You’ll also likely notice that some plants are unaffected, and others will be worse off than other similar plants. This is what confuses newer gardeners and makes them think something is wrong. But, we recommend doing very little!
As long as you keep giving your plants water and perhaps a bit of water soluble fertilizer, they’ll bounce back just fine! We mentioned this before, but the plant will not repair itself. You should watch for new plant growth as a positive sign that your plant is recovering.
This is one of the reasons why we say that all this early plant growth is expendable. The real effort of growing a transplant is to get it to develop a decent root structure, so the plant can take in the nutrients it needs to get bigger once in the ground. It’s those roots that are the most important thing the plant develops from seed to transplant size!
Our squash are definitely looking a bit pissed off about being subjected to some high 30 degree days! But, aside from a bit of extra transplant shock, they’ll get over it. It looks like we made the right call getting them in a week ago. They’re well on their way to recovering now, which is why we try to jump the gun a bit once we are confident frosts are over with.
Gardening is an exercise in patience! It’s important to exercise it on the regular. Before you know it, you’ll have big, bushy plants ready to produce that wonderful harvest for you!
