PLANTING GUIDE

Starting with a healthy seedling goes a long way toward a beautiful crop.  Here are a few tips for success in your garden!

  • Give each plant enough space.  They may be small now, but they'll get bigger!  Crowded plants compete with each other for light and nutrients and lack of airflow is an invitation for disease because leaves can't dry periodically.  Here's a handy chart that lists many of our crops that contains spacing recommendations and other info.
  • Be prepared! Before planting, make room for air and water to reach your plant's roots by loosening the soil. Many people tell us that their soil is "clay".  While this may be true- glaciers did scatter many and sundry soil types across our region - it may just need some soil building and drainage encouraging practices.  Start by forking, double digging, rototiilling or letting your kids loose with beach shovels and buckets (least reliable method). Note that overtime, rototilling makes a hard pan at its tiller depth which will need to be broken up periodically.  During this process is a good time to incorporate nutrients into your soil.  Compost provides both nutrients and helps with both soil structure and water retention. We also use a mix of rock and animal based soil amendments... Maine soil is generally has a low pH which makes nutrients less available to plants. We recommend checking your pH at least, or even better, submitting a soil sample to the UMaine lab
  • Know when to hold 'em: We "harden off" our plants by introducing them to more direct sun and breezes before sending them home with you (with occasional exceptions). That said, it's best to plant at the end of the day or on a cloudy day.  Avoid planting on the windiest days.  Keep an eye to the forecast, cold-sensitive plants such as tomatoes and basil should be protected from temperatures below 40° by either waiting to plant or protection from row cover, a sheet or tarp.  If you need to keep your transplants in their trays longer than expected, remember to keep them out of the wind and well watered.  
  • Time to plant! Make sure your plugs are thoroughly watered before putting them in the ground.  Most plants should be planted at a depth with just enough soil to cover the top of the plug (the soil they came in). Tomatoes make new roots from the hairs on their stems so can be planted much deeper or even laying on their sides.  This can keep them from starting out leggier than need be. Make sure that the top of the plug is not exposed.  This will make it susceptible to drying out.  Pat the soil firmly down to set the plug in place which keeps it from falling over and lets its roots contact the soil around it.  Don't push so hard as to smash its roots or overly compact the soil you worked to loosen. Pay particular attention to watering when your plants are getting established and water regularly during stretches where we don't get regular rain.