VOA慢速英语2021--How to Transplant Your Garden

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

If you have never grown your own transplants for your garden, perhaps this is the year to try.

First, what is a "transplant?" In gardening, transplant is the process of planting seeds inside and then moving the new growth, or sprout¹, outside.

Transplanting is easy and often costs less. You get to watch the new growth happen up close. It also lets you grow different kinds of fruits and vegetables that may have trouble growing from seed outside.

If you are new to this type of gardening, do not worry. A garden expert and writer for the Associated Press, Lee Reich, recently shared this advice.

Reich suggests starting with flowers or vegetables that are easy to grow from seed. Flowers such as zinnia, calendula, and cosmos² are some of the easiest. Good choices for vegetables (depending on where you live) are lettuce³, kale, cabbage, and the ever-popular tomato.

However, Reich and other experts warn that some vegetables should not be grown as transplants. Root vegetables -- such as carrots, beets⁴, and parsnips -- do not transplant easily. The process can hurt the roots.

Vegetables such as corn, squash, cucumbers, melons, beans, and peas do not like to be transplanted. They can be transplanted with care, but you are better off planting them directly in the ground.

Container and soil

To get started with transplants, you will need a container and soil. The container should be between 5 to 10 centimeters deep. Some seeds need deeper dirt than others. You can use containers you may have around your house, like egg cartons.

Most important is that any container have one or more holes in the bottom. This is so some water can drain out.

Garden soil, even good garden soil, says Riech, will not work. It does not drain quickly enough in a container. Our expert suggests using a special mix called potting soil. Potting soil has additional material such as perlite, vermiculite, or sand to improve drainage.

Fill the containers with the potting soil and push it down – but not too much.

Plant the seeds

Then plant seeds, three or four in each container. Do this by making a small hole into the mix and put in the seed. Cover the seed with the potting soil and press gently again.

Place the containers in a pan, or any flat, open, and larger container that could hold some water. Put water into the pan until the water reaches halfway⁵ up the containers with the seeds. After a few hours, remove them from the water.

Germinate⁶ the seeds

Seeds need warmth to germinate. The amount of warmth needed is different from plant to plant. (Here, the word "germinate" means to cause a seed to begin to grow.) A good average temperature for just about all seeds is about 24° C.

If the temperature is colder or warmer, seeds will still germinate – just more slowly. Most seeds do not need light to germinate. So, you can place them anywhere in your home.

To keep moisture from drying up from the containers, cover them with clear glass or plastic.

The excitement begins!

Now for the exciting part -- waiting to see little, green sprouts⁷! Remove all but the strongest sprout from each container. Just be careful not to hurt the roots of the sprout that remains⁸.

Your goal now is to grow strong transplants that can survive a move to the outside garden. For this, you need lots of light and cooler temperatures. Even tomatoes, a summer vegetable, grow best as transplants with temperatures between 16 to 20° C.

Do not worry if you do not have perfect growing conditions.

A sunny, south-facing window works well, especially if the room is cool. Turn the plants daily so they grow in one direction toward the light.

You can also use a grow-light, either fluorescent⁹ or LED. Put the light close to the plants. Although these lights look bright, they do not compare with sun light. So, use both!

Be careful not to overwater or underwater. For strong growth, plants should be slightly underwatered.

In four to six weeks, most transplants should be two to three times the height of their containers. They should be strong and ready to be transplanted outside -- or almost ready.

Get them used to their future environment with a week of just being outside in the containers. Protect them from full sun, wind, and cold.

Now ... they are ready to go into the garden!

Words in This Story

garden -n. an area of ground where plants (such as flowers or vegetables) are grown

sprout -v. to send out new growth

carton -n. a light box or container usually made of cardboard or plastic

drain -v. to remove (liquid) from something by letting it flow away or out

potting soil -n. a mixture of dirt and other substances that people use when placing plants in pots

pan -n. a shallow open tray or container

germinate -v. to cause to sprout or develop

1 sprout   

n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条

参考例句：

• When do deer first sprout horns?鹿在多大的时候开始长出角？
• It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout.这些种子大约要一周后才会发芽。

2 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

3 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

4 beets   

甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红

参考例句：

• Beets are Hank's favorite vegetable. 甜菜根是汉克最爱吃的蔬菜。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

5 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

6 germinate   

v.发芽；发生；发展

参考例句：

• Seeds will not germinate without water.没有水，种子是不会发芽的。
• Can thin and hollow seeds germinate?瘦瘪的种子能够发芽吗？

7 sprouts   

n.新芽，嫩枝( sprout的名词复数 )v.发芽( sprout的第三人称单数 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• The wheat sprouts grew perceptibly after the rain. 下了一场雨，麦苗立刻见长。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The sprouts have pushed up the earth. 嫩芽把土顶起来了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。