Good Tip for First Time Growers (transplating)

If your worried about transplating, just use a cheap plastic beer cup at your convience store or food store. 16 OZ will work fine. Basically cut the cup in half so that the height is around 3 inchs as opposed to 6 inchs. Put your weed in and after it finishes its 4 leaf (including 2 beginning ones), cut the cup to the bottom and make 8 hortizonal cuts around the cup. Then take a flipper or any tool that has a large flat base on it and place it under the soil. The roots should maintain the integrity of the soil so that it doesnt fall apart. Then lift it up like your cooking eggs and place in your new pot. Put soil around and spark some on the top if you wish and your done.

wasnt that hard was it

another good way is buy some organic jiffy peat pots which are the same shape as the cups but allow the roots to grow straight through them & can be placed straight into a larger pot with out any damage at all. I've also used some little foam like blocks i forget the brand name. but they are full of nutrients for seedlings & u just slide seed into the slit in the top keep it humid & moist then the seedlings grow out of that which again can be transplanted straight into a larger pot when the roots start breaking through.

I used to be a big fan of expanded peat pellets until my local farmer supply changed the brand they carried to one that is wrapped in mesh so thick that the roots just can't penetrate. MY seedlings just sat there doing nothing after I transplanted them and eventually I dumped out one of the pots to find that there was NO root development outside the pellet. Now I just use nursery 6-packs with compost, vermiculite, and sand. If you wait until the seedlings are pretty pot-bound to transplant you should have no problems just yanking the whole mess out.

Also, create a space identical to the size of the pot you are transplanting from in the new pot. Do this by adding soil to the new pot to get the desired height (place the plant and current pot in the new pot and + or - soil to get the height). Then remove the pot, water, and repeat (soil will settle a little when you first water). Then place the pot back inside and sidefill till you get the height you want. Water throughly and you will probably have to repeat. Make sure that soil is wet. Then remove the pot from your soil....and presto....nifty little space identical to the current pot (you can add root stimulator to the hole). Remove the plant from its current pot and as quickly as you can without damaging the root mass put it into the hole.... should fit nice!

Remember do not press the soil down, let the water settle the soil. If you press the soil down the roots have a harder time getting into the new soil.

it has been the easiest way for me.....

IMO this should be done inbetween waterings, if the soil is to dry then you have soil falling from the root mass, if it is to wet then the weight of the root mass breaks it apart when removing the plant out of the pot.