But how many pea transplants can a gardener care for? I grow about sixty feet of double rows of peas in my garden, from which I expect about twelve pounds of peas. Granted, his peas were a foot high indoors when mine were just breaking through the ground out in the garden. Many vegetables could be easily transplanted, yet aren’t worth the effort. I’ve even heard of gardeners even transplanting carrots - very carefully, no doubt. If the roots were not yet crowding each other against the plastic, and if the plants were gently slid out of their containers, the transplants will survive. My sister told me that her zucchini plants were growing in plastic cell packs. (To paraphrase Archimedes, “Give me a big enough shovel and I can transplant any plant.”) Enormous trees can be, and are, relocated if taken with sufficient roots (and money). A plant doesn’t even know it has been moved when a large enough ball of soil is carried along with the roots. Any plant can be transplanted if enough care is taken not to damage the roots. This is not to say that it is impossible to successfully transplant squash, poppies, and the like. If bent or broken while young, forked, rather than straight, smooth carrots and parsnips result. Their taproots become the harvested roots. Carrots, parsnips, and many other root crops also transplant poorly. But the roots of plants like corn, poppies, melons, cucumbers, and squashes (zucchini included) resent disturbance. Roots will sprout even if just a stem is in moist soil.
Tomato plants yanked out of the soil will resume growth in a few days if their roots are covered with moist dirt. I pointed out that not every plant likes to be transplanted. “Have some faith in nature.” Transplants on sale this time of year too often entice gardeners to set out set them out in the garden rather than drop seeds into furrows. A recent telephone call to my sister caught her setting zucchini transplants in her garden.