PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING : Page 69

Season of Year for Transplanting. Planting seasons in differ-ent localities are influenced by many factors. Soil conditions andclimatic conditions are the most important, as seen in Chapter II.Heavy soils are more friable during the fall, while during the springthey remain heavy, cold, and wet until quite late. In such soils if butlittle planting is to be done it is better to plant during the springmonths for the reason that clay soils tend, through frost action duringthe winter months, to heave out material which is planted in the fall.It is undoubtedly true that fall planting, especially in heavy soils,requires more thorough winter protection than spring planting in thesame soil. On the other hand, if a quantity of planting is to be doneit is much safer to plant during the fall in a heavy soil, especially as arainy season is frequently experienced during the early spring months,thus delaying planting work until growth is too far advanced. Thereis little actual difference between the desirability of spring plantingand fall planting. There are arguments on both sides of the questionand, with the exception of those plants which are adapted for trans-planting only at a specific season, the writer suggests that plantingshould be done whenever the soil is ready to receive the plants, whetherit be spring or fall. This is especially true in the loamy soils. Trans-planting should not be done too late in the spring, for the reason thatgrowth will be too far advanced for the plants to be moved withsafety, and the season will become hot and dry before the plants arewell established. It is for this reason that plants taken from a colderclimate to a much warmer climate should preferably be transplantedin the fall.