Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: rowlandwells on January 07, 2021, 12:32
-
as we raise all of our veg seed in the greenhouse before planting out I'm thinking about using two and a half inch peat pots for potting on the seedlings for mainly brassicas although i had thought about trying carrots in peat pots as well
the main thought behind this was for less root disturbance particularly cauliflowers that don't like root disturbance and maybe try Parsnips and swede
what's your thoughts on this topic
-
Have you looked at the paper pot maker.
https://www.thebestthingsdirect.co.uk/paper-pot-maker-8120-p.asp
-
paper pots are even cheaper made the forum way :lol:
https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=11390.msg145648#msg145648.
Personally RW, I don't like peat pots, if they dry out after planting the plants die-off. Whereas, from experience paper pots are never a barrier to the roots. Plus you can make them deeper using a taller can, so the tap root has more room before it hits a barrier, important with carrots and parsnips.
You need to wedge them tightly together in a deeper tray though, I use the blue veg boxes for mine, with just a piece of plastic lining the bottom.
-
Agree with mum - in my dry sandy soil at least, peat pots don't break down anywhere near fast enough to avoid obstructing the roots, a problem made even worse if you leave part of the top sticking out of the soil.
Only solution is to partially break open the pot when planting, which somewhat defeats the object of the exercise in using biodegradable pots in the first place. :(
(You do need to make sure the tops of paper pots are buried too, although they are more forgiving than peat pots in my experience.)
-
i take your point with using paper pots and i have used paper pots in the past when my wife bought me the paper pot makers and although that did work to an extent i did fined quite a few of them split when handling and I've tried putting them in pots and in blue to trays
so i thought the peat pot method mite be worth trying and as you said one needs make sure the pots are buried that's not a problem so its going to be suck it and see thing as a trial
but your comments are worth noting and you may be quite rite it could be a wasted excise only time will tell
-
Hello at the market garden I use to work at we used 275,000 3inch peat pots for tomatoes they went in to these pots at 2 true leaf stage, when we planted the tomatoe plants we always stood them in trays of warm water for half an hour before they went into the ground they never looked back the pots went in half an inch below soil level so never dried out jezza
-
that's a very interesting reply Jezza never thought of doing that but I'm going to give that a try when I start gardening I suspect you know by working at a market garden the best ways of growing most things your a wealth of knowledge thanks mate RW