A day before 3 weeks and it's time.
First pre-wet some soil for seedlings and then get a pocket formed to accept the transplant..
Then i try to get that plant unpotted with minimal damage..nice enough roots at this point, im happy..
And then back fill and gently compress sides with fingertips to make sure there are no air pockets at the bottom...that will kill roots and possibly plant..
Then rinse ur pots or wipe off..dont be a slob, and ur done..
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I dont always water in...depends on situation. During july out behind the garage after a transplant i will likely do a water-in you know...not today. I pre-wet my transplant soil so the dry negatively charged roots go bonkers with growth if you get it right.
[ISPOILER]
The root surfaces are negatively charged after the dissociation of acidic functional groups (Meychik et al., 2005;Wu and Hendershot, 2009). The negative charge on the root surfaces of different plants varies with plant species
[/ISPOILER]
I wont bore you with the details lol...i think too much..im used to living in my head.