[PupStar]

Can I use toilet roll tubes for potting on and not just sowing or are they not suitable or wide enough?

Regards

Mark

[DD.]

You're better off with these:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=11390.0

[mattwragg94]

to answer your question yes - you can use them for all sorts of things, im using them this year for sweetcorn and parsnips, however i will also be making my own paper pots too.

[DD.]

I would not pot on sweetcorn and parsnips in toilet roll tubes.

That was the question.

[mattwragg94]

me not reading it properly again! i meant i was sowing sweetcorn and parsnips in them!

[Alastair-I]

Toilet tubes (and kitchen roll tubes cut in half) are handy pots and it makes sense to use what you've got available.

I put about 2-3" of compost in the bottom and then poke it hard to compress it down to 1", that creates a nice bottom to the pot and the loose compost you add on top doesn't fall through.

I usually use them for sowing (sweetcorn) rather than potting on, although I have used them for potting up lovage seedlings that have self-seeded around the garden.

[PupStar]

I was mainly thinking of my chilli's and sweet peppers as they will be ready for potting on in hopefully another week or so (and the empty tubes are building up lol)

Is there anything that I currently have germinating that wont be suitable for the tubes.

Lettuce
Tomatos
Aubergines
Courgettes
Peas

?

Mark

[JayG]

Hard to think of a plant so small that a toilet roll tube would be a step up in size! 

Best to use them just for individual seeds so you can plant out the whole thing - of the things on your list I would say that toms, aubs and courgettes would all need potting on from toilet roll tubes, which would create more faff  than if you'd sown in plastic pots to start with.

[mattwragg94]

it may work with all of them, but i would personally put the toms, aubs, cougettes, sweet pepers and chillis in 3 inch pots, you can put the lettuces in cell trays and you could put the peas in the loo roll's (how big are they - as they may be able to go into the open ground)

[PupStar]

it may work with all of them, but i would personally put the toms, aubs, cougettes, sweet pepers and chillis in 3 inch pots, you can put the lettuces in cell trays and you could put the peas in the loo roll's (how big are they - as they may be able to go into the open ground)

Its only the chilli's and the sweet peppers that will hopefully be ready to pot on in another week or so.

The others are more forward thinking at the moment.

Mark

[nuzuki]

I like the idea of making use of something you would of otherwise thrown away but I thought cardboard and water equals mould?

[JayG]

I like the idea of making use of something you would of otherwise thrown away but I thought cardboard and water equals mould?

It does!

More so than with paper pots, probably because of the glue used to hold the spirals together.

Doesn't seem to be of a type that affects seedlings adversely though in my experience.

[PupStar]

so the general feel is then forget about the loo rolls and use 3in pots or paper pots.

Might have a go at making the paper pots tonight whilst the better half is at work 

Mark

[JayG]

For what you are proposing to sow, yes! 

(If you decide to grow beans and sweet corn then toilet roll tubes would be ideal for sowing them in, although I've actually stopped using them - paper pots can be made to any size within reason, and rot down quicker in the ground than cardboard too.)

[DD.]

The year I tried loo roll tubes, 50% of the sweetcorn failed to germinate, but they rolls grew some nice fungus!