Starr 070906-8906 Solanum lycopersicum var

Plugs in

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

are small-sized

seedlings A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

grown in

seed tray A tray is a shallow platform designed for the carrying of items. It can be fashioned from numerous materials, including silver, brass, sheet iron, paperboard, wood, melamine, and molded pulp. Trays range in cost from inexpensive molded pulp tray ...

s filled with

potting soil Potting soil or growing media, also known as potting mix or potting compost (UK), is a substrate used to grow plants in containers. The first recorded use of the term is from an 1861 issue of the ''American Agriculturist''. Despite its name, lit ...

. This type of plug is used for commercially raising vegetables and bedding plants. Similarly plugs may also refer to small sections of

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. L ...

grass

sod Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...

. After being planted, lawn grass may somewhat spread over an adjacent area. Plug plants are young plants raised in small, individual cells, ready to be transplanted into containers or a garden. "An alternative to field-grown transplants is the use of container-grown, or plug plants. Plug plants rooted in soil-less media offer the advantage of being grown under controlled environmental conditions that practically ensure that the..." Professionally raised vegetable/flowering plants in controlled conditions during their important formative period (the first 4–6 weeks) can help to ensure plant health and for plants to reach their maximum potential during the harvest/blooming period. Establishing a garden using plug plants is often easier than doing so starting from seed. According to the American National Standards a plug is a cylinder of medium in which a plant is grown. The term is generally used to describe seedlings and rooted cuttings which have been removed from the container but with the medium held intact by the roots.https://cdn.ymaws.com/americanhort.site-ym.com/resource/collection/38ED7535-9C88-45E5-AF44-01C26838AD0C/ANSI_Nursery_Stock_Standards_AmericanHort_2014.pdf

Overview

Planting from plugs reduces the time a

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

resides in the ground, and is functional for those with limited space. Plugs can improve yields: a healthy, stocky plant will grow rapidly and symmetrically when planted out, with a potentially greater capacity to withstand pests, disease and drought. Raising some types of seedlings successfully can be difficult, so plug plants can be beneficial for less experienced gardeners. Plug plants are beneficial for gardeners who want to try a new variety or a range of varieties without purchasing numerous packets of seeds and starting the plants from seed. Plug plants are very useful if the sowing window is missed, and plugs can be purchased quickly to replace a crop which has failed. As a garden develops, interplanting (

intercropping Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice that involves growing two or more crops in proximity. In other words, intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field. The most common goal of intercropping is ...

) existing crops with plugs plants, ideally companion plants, can improve the productivity of the space and so maximise harvestsa sown crop may not be able to compete with established plants. Plug plants are much easier to weed than sown seedlings, and

weeding Weed control is a type of pest control, which attempts to stop or reduce growth of weeds, especially noxious weeds, with the aim of reducing their competition with desired flora and fauna including domesticated plants and livestock, and in natu ...

will need to be done less frequently. Having semi-grown plants simplifies designing a vegetable plot or container. As plants that have already started growth, the time to attain plant growth is lessened. Within days of planting signs of growth are typically visible: leaves will perk up and roots anchor into the soil. Air pruned plugs are grown in a manner to promote very rapid growth almost immediately after being transplanted to new soil. Plugs are sometimes used in hillside

plasticulture The term plasticulture refers to the practice of using plastic materials in agricultural applications. The plastic materials themselves are often and broadly referred to as "ag plastics". Plasticulture ag plastics include soil fumigation film, i ...

applications, due to the ease in which they are transplanted.

Plant cultivation and growth

Plug plants grow more consistently, as has been noted by the commercial scale vegetable growing industry, and more rapidly; large-scale brassica field crops are planted almost exclusively from soil block plugs in some parts of Europe, a trend which is growing in the UK. This success at the commercial scale is testament to the success of plugs in the ground. It is of note that many varieties actively benefit from being transplanted as severing the

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...

encourages bushier root growth. Traditionally nearly all heading brassica are sown in a separate seed bed, thinned, and the best ones planted in a prepared bed after about 6–8 weeks. Many pests want to eat baby

brassica ''Brassica'' () is a genus of plants in the cabbage and mustard family (Brassicaceae). The members of the genus are informally known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, or mustard plants. Crops from this genus are sometimes called ''cole cr ...

; this in combination with its long growing season makes planting brassica from plugs a much easier option.

Root vegetables

Root vegetable Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans as food. Although botany distinguishes true roots (such as taproots and tuberous roots) from non-roots (such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, although some contain both hypocotyl a ...

s are typically, but not always, sown from seed, rather than transplanted from plugs, where they are to mature and then be thinned. The thinning action is highly beneficial in itself as it provides soil aeration at depth without disturbing adjacent roots systems. The initial concentration of seedlings also dilutes damage from pests and provided some food for the gardener or the compost in the form of thinnings. Beetroot, carrots and the root brassica family- swede, turnip- will simply not reach their full potential with any check to early root growth. In addition, these seeds are typically inexpensive, and the seedlings are delicate; hence there is little value to the gardener in buying or growing them as plugs.

Images

File:Starr 070906-8904 Solanum lycopersicum var. lycopersicum.jpg, Plug

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

plants (''Solanum lycopersicum var. lycopersicum (habit)'') File:Starr 070906-8903 Brassica oleracea var. botrytis.jpg, Plug

cauliflower Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species ''Brassica oleracea'' in the genus ''Brassica'', which is in the Brassicaceae (or mustard) family. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed. Typically, only the head is eaten – the ...

plants (''Brassica oleracea var. botrytis (cauliflower habit)'') File:Starr 070906-8894 Lactuca sativa.jpg, Small plugs of

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

(''Lactuca sativa (Manoa habit)'')

Overview

Plant cultivation and growth

Root vegetables

Images

See also

References

Further reading