Sowing seed direct v plug plants

[Sue]

Hi
It's always said that root vegetables should always be sown direct but for two years now I've not had any success with swedes and turnips. So I tried them, growing in plug trays and planted them out when they got their second set of leaves. Result, a bed of healthy plants that look as if they're growing very strongly.

Did this advice come from before plug trays were available? or will my plants suffer from being transplanted? I did try this method with my winter radishes last year and they grew amazingly well after being transplanted.

Growing as plugs means you can select the best plants, give them a chance before they face the slugs and insects and don't have to do any thinning out etc which for me has always resulted in clumpy growth as with my eyesight can't see properly when I'm sowing in a drill. It also means that you have plants growing that can be popped into any empty space.

Anyway would be pleased to hear your views.
Sue

[norazina]

I think this is extremely convinient for all the reasons you have mentioned - I HATE thinning; besides, most people on the Vine seem to be using loo rolls a lot, when sowing root vegetables.

norazina

[rainbowbrite]

i grow pretty much everything in the greenhouse before transplanting out for several reasons but the main one being the slugs, it gives the plants a bit more of a fighting chance. the only things i really can't grow in the greenhouse first is carrots and parsnips but i do start them in a large pot first before moving them on. even sweetcorn which apparently don't like much disturbance are doing grand after being grown in the greenhouse in trays.

on saying this i only grow from seed and wouldn't buy plug plants from the garden centre. something much more satisfying on seeing the seeds growing.

[Cutecumber]

The advice for root veg is really only for carrots and parsnips - I can promise you that if you start these in plugs you will get stunted roots. I've done it, just to check!

Beetroot, swedes and turnips can all be started in plugs or modules and transplanted successfully.

[Flummery]

I've never managed to grow decent swedes and turnips. I've stopped agonizing about it - life's too short. We can't all be good at everything!

[parrot1974]

Glad to hear someone else is not a success with root crops. The only ones that I've ever managed to have success with are potatoes (in pots) and beetroot. Everything else refuses to grow outdoors, or even germinate!

[lottie dolly]

I sowed some salad onion seeds into smaller,thin trays,and transfered them to the lottie when they were quite tall but still thin,i gentley slide the slip of a tray out into a depresion in the soil,all 5 of them,it seems to have worked out better than direct sowing,next time i will sow a lot more,because they were started in compost they were easier to harvest than in the hard dry earth,i wonder if a length of guttering would work as with peas.

[Sue]

Cutecumber
That's interesting re the parsnips, I grew three (don't really like them very much) in plugs and planted them out, I shall be most interested to see what happened re your comments.
And if the general consensus is that it is only carrots and parsnips that don't work in plugs I shall carry on, after two years of mostly failure with root crops it does seem as if this is the way forward, at least for me.
Sue