Transplanting chile at Parr Field

Today we took our chile seedlings from the Grow Dome and transplanted them to be part of the Parr Field Garden Project.  These chile plants were starting to outgrow their pots in the Grow Dome, but we kept them hanging on with compost tea and fish emulsion until the big transplanting day.  All in all we have about 150 chile plants of four varieties.  We chose to do this today since the danger of frost is pretty much over (we hope) and we chose to do this in the afternoon to give the plants a chance to settle into their new soil before having to experience the intense heat of high noon. First we dug holes in our rows where we intend to put the individual plants.  Then we filled the holes with water so that the root zone of our plants is moist.  Then we begin the transplanting process.  In the picture above is Desirae Gonzales, left, and Dion Martinez, right, who were instrumental in competing this process.

Each plant was placed in the hole and backfilled with soil.  We are sure to pack the soil around the potted part of the plant to make sure their is good contact between the seedling soil and the surrounding soil so that the roots can expand into their new home.  After the transplanting was complete, we gave another watering with watering cans and then set up drip lines.  Last year we had a great chile harvest and this year we expect the same, especially from one of our rows which came from the seed we saved from last year.  In the future, we intend to establish more traditional varieties of chile and see if we can become more proficient in the differences between the varieties in terms of adaptability and taste.