[kippers garden]

Can I ask...if you fill the toilet roll with compost and then add a parnip seed, at what stage do you plant out?...if the seed has germinated and you can see it from the top then surely the root will have already come out of the bottem of the toilet roll at this stage and then fork when it's planted?

Any advice on this would be welcome as i've got to say my parsnips were c..p this year!
Thanks

[Kristen]

I grow mine in newspaper pots that are about 6" tall (so a bit taller than loo roll).

I plant out as soon as the first true leaf (i.e. the third leaf) arrives, and even by then one or two have a root appearing out of the bottom (this year I will plant them at the "end of the row" so I know whether its just those that do the Parsnip-glove imitation!)

From my notes:

Sowed   11-Mar-2010
Germinated   18-Mar-2010
Planted out   10-Apr-2010

so only about 3 weeks from germination to planting out, so they need to start hardening off a fortnight after germination I reckon.

[Swing Swang]

A bit of parsnip root poking out the bottom doesn't result in forked roots (personal experience)

SS

[NorfolkVeg]

If growing parsnips in newspapers pots like richies paper pots, does the edible part of the root stay within the newspaper or has the newspaper rotted away by then? and if using for parsnips, do you have to make the paper wides wider than the ones shown in Richies picture snaps?

Rick

[Kristen]

My Newspaper pots are about 2" diameter (and 6" tall). Never seen any newspaper when I harvest them, and they are a lot more than 2" diameter when I dig them up!

This was the Christmas harvest.  Parsnips were started in newspaper pots

[shokkyy]

One thing that puzzles me about the paper pots. I always like to water seedlings from below, i.e. stand the pot in water and let it soak it up. Surely if I did this with paper pots they'd just get so wet they'd fall to bits, wouldn't they?

[JayG]

One thing that puzzles me about the paper pots. I always like to water seedlings from below, i.e. stand the pot in water and let it soak it up. Surely if I did this with paper pots they'd just get so wet they'd fall to bits, wouldn't they?

You can't treat paper pots exactly like plastic or clay ones because they're obviously not as strong.

I put mine in a suitably-sized plastic container; they support each other and you can water either from the top or the bottom. If the container has drainage holes you will need something underneath to catch the drips (especially if indoors and the OH is looking!), if not just go easy on the watering; they easily last through normal seed germination until planting out time. 

[strangerachael]

I always find that anything I plant in toilet roll tubes goes yellow and sad looking as soon as I plant it in the ground. I don't know if this is something to do with them using up the nitrogen as they rot, but last year my toilet-roll-tube-grown sweetcorn was so rubbish compared with my plastic-pot-grown ones that I decided not to use toilet rolls again. Same with sweet peas. I use them too make crackers at Christmas or just compost them.

[JayG]

Sweetcorn readily sulk if not hardened off sufficiently and/or planted out when the weather is too cold for them; they go very pale and refuse to grow until it warms up!

I would have expected it to have affected the plastic pot ones the same though; were they all treated the same and planted out at the same time Rachael?

[Kristen]

I was sceptical about newspaper pots the first time I used them - assumed they would fall to bits etc.

You do have to handle them gently when planting them out, but considering its only a sheet of soggy newspaper its remarkably robust!

I stand mine (very tightly) in a gravel tray [no drainage] and the bottoms are very soggy when I plant them out, but I think that's a good thing as I want the roots to grow downwards easily.  Loo Rolls have no bottoms, of course, so that problem is  ... errmmm ... not a problem

[galen]

I use both loo rolls and Ritchies paper pots. When I plant anything out I take both the top cm or two of card / paper off and in the case of the  paper pots rip off the bottom as well. Had no problems in either instance of the "pot" being around come harvest time. 

[sachkrimbo]

I hoped to try toilet rolls this year.  However, when I mentioned it at the dinner tble there was mutiny.  Apparently the only toy that keeps 'the girls' (our 2 gerbils) happy would be toilet rolls.  Guess I'd better scrub those pots from last year then!!

[kermit]

I use them, but after first year where they didnt rott down too well and got lots of mould, I now tear them away and then plant the seedling.  Usualy most of the soil stays around the roots (just).

[strangerachael]

Sweetcorn readily sulk if not hardened off sufficiently and/or planted out when the weather is too cold for them; they go very pale and refuse to grow until it warms up!

I would have expected it to have affected the plastic pot ones the same though; were they all treated the same and planted out at the same time Rachael?

Yes Jay G, both treated in exactly the same way, hardened off both the same as well. when it came to planting  out, the  pot grown ones were already slightly bigger, and they romped away while the toilet roll ones sulked and went yellow, and never really caught up.

[Totty]

Well i use 3 inch cardboard tubes (Cut to the length i think my parsnips will grow, usually about 30inches!! ) I get them from where i work, i dig a trench to the depth of the tubes and fill them compost. This way the roots cannot hit any stones or hard ground and cannot fork. Seeds are sown directly into the top.

Totty