Editing Gardening (section)

=== Transplanting ===
[[File:Cashew_grafted_seedlings.jpg|thumb|Cashew (''Anacardium occidentale'') grafted seedlings ready for transplanting at the Agroplan Mudas nursery, in Pacajus, Ceará, Brazil.]]
Many gardeners, especially those who live in colder climates, will start seeds indoors prior to transplanting the young plants outside.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ashworth |first=Suzanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wb-KAgAAQBAJ&dq=seed+starting&pg=PA13 |title=Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners |date=2002 |publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing |isbn=978-1-882424-58-0 |language=en}}</ref> This provides many benefits such as elongating the growing season, ensuring adequate quantities and quality of light, ensuring seedlings have adequate nutrients in the seed starting mix, ensuring seeds stay at correct humidity, heat, and moisture level for germination, and saving space in the garden.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bubel |first1=Nancy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vp9GDwAAQBAJ&dq=indoor+seed+starting&pg=PP1 |title=The New Seed-Starters Handbook |last2=Nick |first2=Jean |date=2018-01-30 |publisher=Rodale |isbn=978-1-63565-104-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Thomas S. C. |last2=Bedford |first2=K. E. |last3=Sholberg |first3=P. L. |date=2000-01-01 |title=Improved Germination of American Ginseng Seeds Under Controlled Environments |url=https://journals.ashs.org/horttech/view/journals/horttech/10/1/article-p131.xml |journal=HortTechnology |language=en-US |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=131–135 |doi=10.21273/HORTTECH.10.1.131 |issn=1943-7714}}</ref> Many crops will not be harvestable unless they are started inside so if a gardener wants to plant these crops in their garden without starting the plants themselves, they will need to purchase transplants which are commonly available at [[Garden centre|garden centers]], [[Plant nursery|plant nurseries]], and [[big-box store]]s. It is crucial that transplanting is done correctly. This generally implies providing the plants with enough soil so they do not become root-bound (roots wrapping in circles around transplant container), providing a hardening-off period (slow exposure to sun, wind, and cold), providing sufficient light, water, and nutrients, and choosing the correct plants to start indoors as some plants do not do well with the transplanting process.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Wei |last2=Tian |first2=Shijie |last3=Wang |first3=Qingyu |last4=Jiang |first4=Huanyu |date=August 2023 |title=Key Technologies of Plug Tray Seedling Transplanters in Protected Agriculture: A Review |journal=Agriculture |language=en |volume=13 |issue=8 |pages=1488 |doi=10.3390/agriculture13081488 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2023Agric..13.1488L |issn=2077-0472}}</ref>

There are varying methods of starting your seeds. The most prevalent method would be to start seeds in transplant (plug) trays or in planters/pots. Another method is starting seeds in soil blocks (small cubes of compressed [[potting soil]], [[compost]], and/or other seed-starting media), which may reduce transplant shock and stop root-binding because they allow air pruning of the roots.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dihingia |first1=Pramod Chandra |last2=Kumar |first2=G.V. Prasanna |last3=Sarma |first3=Pallab Kumar |last4=Neog |first4=Prasanta |date=2017-09-03 |title=Production of Soil Block Seedlings in Plug Trays for Mechanical Transplanting |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19315260.2017.1319889 |journal=International Journal of Vegetable Science |language=en |volume=23 |issue=5 |pages=471–485 |doi=10.1080/19315260.2017.1319889 |issn=1931-5260}}</ref> Some plants such as onions and various herbs may be efficiently started by scattering their seeds on top of soil in a large tray where the seedlings will later be teased apart from each other and replanted in the garden or pots.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Aboukhadrah |first1=S. H. |last2=El - Alsayed |first2=Abdul Wahed Abdul Hameed |last3=Sobhy |first3=Labib |last4=Abdelmasieh |first4=William |date=2017-08-01 |title=Response of Onion Yield and Quality To Different Planting Date, Methods and Density |url=https://agro.journals.ekb.eg/article_3712.html |journal=Egyptian Journal of Agronomy |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=203–219 |doi=10.21608/agro.2017.1203.1065 |issn=0379-3575}}</ref>