[m1ckz]

hi,,my sweetcorn is about 4in tall now,,should i repot into 3in pots,,there sown in a tray all together  ty

[DD.]

You should really have started them individually.

I'd pot them on, they stand a better chance now than when they get more established.

[GrannieAnnie]

I start mine off individually in 3" pots.  They stay in them until I put them outside.  The less root disturbance the better I think!

[finleyfreyaseth]

did mine in paper pots half the size of a large aerosol can 2 wks ago just popping up now in GH hoping ill be able plant straight in the ground still in pots in few weeks ,did peas in paper pots had 84 out of 100 germinate so easy just pop them into the ground we out disturbing the plant so much easier and cheaper than buyin trays and popping them out to plant

[DD.]

Going slight off at a tangent - re the peas, the recommended spacing is a triple row, with each pea spaced 3" apart. This is difficult to achieve if they are in single paper pots.

A good compromise is to put 3 or 4 peas in one pot and so only plant 4 or 3 pots per foot. The number of peas needed for a decent row is often underestimated.

[m1ckz]

ooops...ill pot them up tomorrow  ty for replys

[Armleywhite]

When is the best time to plant them out properly?

[andy dewar]

totally agree with GrannieAnnie i do exactly the same and plant them out when about 8 inches tall and iv never had any problems i also do 2 sowings about 4 weeks apart to prolong the season , hope this helps Andy 

[mumofstig]

When is the best time to plant them out properly?

when you think you will have no more frosts

[seaside]

I understand why parsnips dislike having their roots disturbed, that's pretty obvious, but could someone tell me exactly how sweetcorn suffers if roots are disturbed when planting out ? ,,, is it just a case of a short sulk or something worse ?
I always plant separately in toilet rolls and find a tap root pops out the bottom really quickly.

[JayG]

It probably depends on the degree of root disturbance - planting with the rootball intact from a pot, or planting a paper pot complete will minimise the shock - planting bare-rooted would of course be a very bad idea.

Having said that the biggest cause of sulking is probably low temperatures after planting out, although they are bound to stall for a while as they establish their root systems in the new soil.

This website (which also contains other useful advice) advocates using a high phosphorus feed after transplanting to help establish the root system, but I guess most amateur growers don't bother with that, if only because high "P" fertilisers are not easy to come by.

[gavinjconway]

Yeah - In Zimbabwe we used neat Potassium "P" (sorry its Phosphorus)  with all our planting out - be it planting a new lawn using runners, veg or flowers or even to our farm where Dad used it on all the crops as well. (I know it as Super Phosphate). This is in addition to any general fertilizers added when preparing the bed/land.. 

Here I found a bag in a local farm supplies shop so using it this year.. It really does help a good root system develop.

[simonwatson]

I've got my sweetcorn in paper pots in the greenhouse at the moment. I don't want to plant out until June. They are 1" tall and the pots have 6" of soil in them. Should I start putting them outside to slow them down do you think? I'd normally spend a week hardening them off but I'm worried that they'll be very pot bound by June if they stay in the greenhouse until then.

[JayG]

I think the possibility of becoming pot-bound is far less of a potential problem than trying to slow them down by subjecting them to low temperatures - they don't always fully recover from their sulks and there is a chance of killing them outright, of course (at 1" tall they're only just through - they should be fine by the time they are ready to be hardened off.)

[DD.]

I also don't worry about them becoming pot bound, they're not in that condition long enough to worry them.

You get far less root disturbance with pulling a plant out of a well filled pot, than you do trying to plant a loo roll.