Late Fall Planting and Transplanting Tips

Late Fall Planting and Transplanting Tips

People are asking; "Is it too late to plant?"

The answer is no.

You can plant right up until the ground freezes. If you have
a plant in a burlap ball or a container, that plant is going to
be much happier in the ground than on top of the ground.
Even if the ground is cold and almost frozen.

When planting do not apply any fertilizer, and make sure
you don't plant too deep. The top of the root ball should
be about 1" higher than the existing grade. In heavy clay
soil you should plant them a lot higher than that and then
mound the soil over the root ball so the roots can breath.

The rules for fall "Transplanting" are slightly different.

Transplanting involves digging an existing plant out of the
ground, and that is sure to cause some trauma to the roots.
Therefore, you should not do any fall transplanting until the
plant is completely dormant (sleeping) for the winter. Once
sound asleep, you can transplant away.

"But Mike, how do I know?"

Plants go completely dormant after they've experienced
the first really hard freeze of the season. Not a heavy frost,
but an actual freeze where the temperature dips below
32 degrees F. for several hours.

So far, here in northern Ohio, zone 5, we've yet to experience
such a freeze. We've come close, but now it's warmed back
up a little, so we'll have to wait a little longer. Probably
around November 17th is my prediction.

Once your plants do go dormant, you can safely transplant
them from then until early spring. Once they start to wake
up in the spring, it's "Game Over" until next fall. Successful
gardening is all about timing.

And now for that skill that I'm going to teach you . . .

Check this out, you'll be the only person in town that can
do this:
http://tinyurl.com/5ud9rf

That's it for now, have a great week!
-Mike McGroarty