Transplanting Seedlings into your Flex Acre (Part 5 of 6)

Updated

Plant your Flex Acre one rockwool cube at a time: squeeze out the excess water, seat the cube flush in the Panel, and check every seat.

After preparing your Flex Acre for transplant day, you can begin planting. Follow the instructions in this article every grow cycle, once your Primary Pump is unplugged and your first tray is up the ladder with you. Leave the cart, the doors, and the ladder to Preparing your Flex Acre for Transplant Day (Part 4 of 6). Follow the steps in Keeping your Flex Acre Clean before you begin.

Gather Tools:

  • Non-Draining Planting Tray
  • Ladder

Checking your Density for Lettuce

  • Check the rockwool cube in your hand before you plant it.
  • Plant 1 lettuce plant per cube, and no more.

Checking your Density for Herbs

  • Check the rockwool cube in your hand before you plant it.
  • Plant more than 1 herb plant per cube.

Lettuce carries a single plant per cube and herbs carry more than 1, so settle the density before the cube leaves your tray. Read the heading for the crop in your tray before you plant, as the two crops do not carry the same number of plants and a seated cube is not worth pulling back out to correct.

Squeezing your Rockwool Cube

  • Hold the cube over your planting tray.
  • Squeeze the cube to drain the excess water into the tray before the cube goes into the Panel.

The squeeze is what keeps the water in the tray instead of on the wall of your Flex Acre. A cube that goes in saturated sheds that water down the face of your Panels, onto the produce below, and onto your Light Bars. Keep water off your Light Bars.

CAUTION: Squeeze firmly but do not crush the plant itself.

Seating your Cube in the Panel

  • Push the cube into the plant space on the Panel.
  • Twist a larger cube slightly as you push it in, as the twist helps the cube seat.

Handling your Long Roots

  • Guide a long root system into the hole straight and carefully.
  • Trim no more than 1/4 of the total root length once the roots will not guide in straight.

Taking more than 1/4 of the total root length can damage or kill your seedling, so guide the roots in whenever you can and treat trimming as the second choice.

Checking the Final Seat

  • Look at every cube once you have seated it.
  • Push the cube in until it sits flush with the hole or slightly behind it.

Check the seat as you go, one cube at a time, rather than at the end of the tray.

CAUTION: A cube sticking out of the Panel will drip water onto the produce below it.

Working Across the Side

  • Repeat the squeeze, the push, and the seat check on every cube in your tray.
  • Bring up your next tray once the tray in your hands is empty.
  • Repeat until the entire side of your Flex Acre is planted.

Take your trays up 1 at a time and leave the rest on your cart, as the cart is what keeps water off your floor.

Your batch moves into active growth once that side is planted, and the first nutrient dose is the next task on your schedule. Follow the steps in Checking & Adjusting your Nutrients & pH (Part 3 of 4).

Your seedlings are seated across the side you opened. Well done!

Previous: Preparing your Flex Acre for Transplant Day (Part 4 of 6)

Next: Harvesting Lettuce & Herbs from your Flex Acre (Part 6 of 6)