^{Ultra Sleeve}

^{Transplanting Made Easy™}

^{Garden Planting System}

(These are the directions that come with each kit.)

General:

 ·        Each sleeve is made of durable, inert polyethylene which will not dissolve or degrade in garden soil. At the end of the year, during garden clean-up, it may be removed for reuse or recycled.

 ·        If a sleeve will be reused, rinse and then soak in a mild chlorine bleach solution for a minimum of one hour.

 ·        If the sleeve is left about a half-inch above the surface of the ground, it will prevent or at least discourage most cutworms and pillbugs from getting in near the base of the seedling and damaging the stem.

 ·        The more important the seedling, the more it will benefit from this system. If you are planting only a few seedlings of a certain variety, for example, this will give each one better odds for survival by allowing it to “hit the ground running” and be strong, deep-rooted, and robust enough to better fend off the inevitable first assaults of insects and weather. On the other hand, easily restarted varieties or those that can withstand early adversity through sheer numbers (lettuce and carrots, for example) don’t normally require use of this system.

 Planting:

 ·        Insert one sleeve into one cell and fill with pre-moistened starter mix, tapping the base against a firm surface to gently compact the mix. (If using a fine mix, drop a small pebble in the outer cell first to prevent the mix from running/washing through bottom hole.) Water lightly, and top-off sleeve so there is about a half-inch of empty space at the top.

·        Plant seed level with the top of the cutouts in the sleeve.

·        When seedling is ready for transplant, start by creating a matching hole in the soil by pushing in a spare, dirt-filled cell. Water the transplant thoroughly and pre-loosen the inner sleeve. Then remove the sleeve and insert it into the hole. If the seeding is more than a few weeks old, check to see if the roots have become “tucked” inside the sleeve. If so, use a toothpick or small twig to tease out some of them so they’re hanging loosely as you plant them. Repeat for each seedling, then water in thoroughly. NOTE: If the sleeve does not seat to its proper depth, do not apply pressure, as this will curl the bottom of the sleeve. Instead, remove the sleeve, reform the hole, and try again. If the sleeve goes down too far, remove it, drop some soil into the hole, and try again.

·        It can also work well to prepare an entire row or area of planting holes in advance, particularly to take advantage of good weather. To do this, fill extra cells with soil, prepare the row or area, and “plant” the cells. The only caution with this method is that, if it’s done too far in advance (longer than a month), the walls of the holes can become compacted or slightly “solidified” by the coating of green algae or mold that may form, which may confine some roots and prevent them from spreading out laterally into the soil.

·        A corn seedling should be planted in a shallow depression, with the sleeve about a half inch above the surface of the bottom of the depression, to discourage cutworms. Later on, after the plant is a few feet tall, the depression can be filled in, to better allow the secondary roots (which begin above ground) to spread out over the top of the sleeve.

Other Tips:

·        A slit-open plastic drinking straw, cut to length and then placed around the bottom of a seedling that has a vulnerable stem, can offer great protection against a variety of bugs. (To put it in place, insert a pair of tweezers into the straw, expand it by opening the tweezers, slide it in place around the stem, then slide it off the tweezers and onto the stem.)

·        More coordinated and adventurous gardeners can work with only the cells by manually removing the seedling. The best way is to thoroughly water the seedling, massage the cell to loosen the soil, perform an “inverted shake” to free it, then gently tap it out onto a curved metal or plastic tent stake. Place another stake over the top of the soil plug, carefully maneuver both stakes into the planting hole, and withdraw the stakes. (You can also use a vertically-cut-in-half cell in place of the two tent stakes. Cut some off the bottom too so the halves can be withdrawn without catching the soil.)

·        A variation on no-sleeve planting is to use the sleeve to easily extract the seedling from its cell, then gently open the sleeve and let the root/soil plug onto a tent stake (or half of a vertically-cut-in-half cell) and then complete the transplant.