[Kristen]

I've had great fun with Richy's Paper Pots and sown Parsnips and potted on Sweetcorn.

I start off as many of my veg plants as possible in pots, rather than sowing direct, as my clay soil is very rough (needs a few more years mucking before it becomes lovely loam! and makes fine seedbeds).

Anyways, I'm running out of 3" plastic pots and rather than buying more is there any reason not to grow everything in paper pots?

The Parsnips I presume will take about 2 weeks to germinate, and then I will plant them immediately (before they form much-if-anything of a plant or roots).

The Sweetcorn was chitted and now has a green shoot about 1" tall. I expect I won't be able to plant out for a month (to avoid frosts), is that going to be a problem? Will the newspaper have got to the sogginess where it will be impossible to plant them out, or the roots have grown from one pot into its neighbour, making the planting out a nightmare? (I could wrap each pot with clingfilm, I suppose, but that would be a BIG FAG!!)

Are there any tips about how long I should expect to be able to keep things going in paper pots? I suppose my lettuce only need a couple of week, once pricked out, but I currently grow them on for quite a bit longer than that before planting out.

And what about things like Sweet peas that I sow in the Autumn and over-winter in the greenhouse?

I could make the pots from several sheets of paper for things that need a longer growing-on period ... but I'd appreciate any experiences you can share which will help to reduce my failures!

[tam]

I had peas sat in paper pots for 3 months of so over winter and the pots held up fine. I did wrap bubble wrap around the outside of the batch - mainly because it was winter but I think it helped stop them drying out too. So clingfilm/plastic around the outside might help, the pots in the centre stay nicely moist better so no need to wrap individual ones. I've been doing all sorts in them, different shapes depending on what type of roots. Tall round ones for peas, short square ones for some flowers/lettuce etc.

The pea roots grew out the bottom but still were easily separated. They didn't grow back into the next pot just down the outside/gaps.

Tam

[richyrich7]

I too have kept sweetpeas in them overwinter, parsnips grow a tap root real quick 

[Kristen]

Many thanks.  Do you use just a single piece of paper (given that it may actually go round more than once), or several bits of paper?

[richyrich7]

Just one, it usually goes around one and a half times or twice at least, some times it's folded double thickness, really depends on what paper I'm using at the time

[Kristen]

OK, I shall be BOLD then! I'll try a few different sizes and see how I get on.