Measuring Seedling Survival to Improve Crop Planning
Seedlings that vanish between tray and field quietly erase profit. Tracking every cohort’s fate turns vague optimism into hard numbers that guide next season’s variety choices, tray density, and transplant dates. Modern vegetable farms lose 8–12% of transplants; on a 50,000-head operation that is 4,000–6,000 plants, or roughly one acre of high-value crop. Replacing them…