Various questions - can ye help me?

[avinabacca]

Ugh - due to one reason or another, this weekend's big, heavy-duty allotment session didn't quite happen.

So we never managed dig over the beds as we'd planned - nor to get in the rest of the garlic. So, a few questions really, if anyone can help it'd be great......

- the garlic. I'm planning to make newspaper-pots one evening this week and pop the garlic into those with some compost for now, keep them well-watered and get them up the allotment as soon as we can. Would this work? I'm not entirely sure about whether it would need more space to start off in, but I've heard that paper pots are good as you can plant the whole thing, which'll then rot down over time. If anyone can share their own experiences/advice/ridicule, etc on this one, it'd be appreciated.

- propagators. Do I need to shell out money on proprietary propagators and such, when I've perfectly good plastic trays and polythene sheet at home? I can't see much of a difference between the two in terms of the growing environment for the seedlings to be honest, and in fact there seems to be more flexibility from a home-made version. Anyone got any thougts here?

- bean trenches. I've heard that it's good practice to dig over a trench ahead of planting broad beans, fill it with kitchen waste and the like (which would ordinarily go on the compost heap) and then plant the beans on top of this. Now - is this worth doing in the next couple of weeks, ahead of planting some beans early next month? Also, how should this be done? Do the beans get planted, as it were, into the composty layer, or does this then get covered over with soil and the beans planted into the soil layer? Also, is it just broad beans which benefit from this, or can I use this method for runners and french-beans too?

Thanks for taking the time to read this - if you've any comments or advice and such which might help here (and to be honest, for all my talk I'm very much a novice), I'd appreciate it!

Thanks y'all.....

[vicky]

Hi

1 I sometimes plant garlic into pots then transplant it in to the soil, I'd be inclined to tear open the bottom of the newspaper pots to ensure the roots do get out - should be easy to quickly tear the wet paper
2 I use the tray/clingfilm method which is fine for most but those which like heat (toms, cues, peppers etc) I reckon mine are slower and I have less successful germination. Have you a really warm room?
3 put stuff in trench, cover with soil, plant into the soil. Only ever heard of this being used for runner beans???? Anyone?

[Two_Sheds]

The bean trench is for runners and Frenchies, not broadies. Only because, it's meant to rot down over the winter, for planting into in May ... and broadies usually go in much earlier: November or February

[Jenegade]

I planted some garlic in newspaper pots at the beginnning of January, their shoots are all happily growing, I'm now hardening them off outside during the day, might plant outside at the weekend. I put one garlic bulb in newspaper pots of 5cm diameter and 3 in the 10cm diameter newspaper pots.

[allotmentlady]

dont overwater your garlic!!! propogators, I manage well with my seed trays and see through plastic bags, they generate a moderate amount of heat. your bean trench, prepare it will now and when it comes to sowing, just sow into the soil above as you normally wood, might be a good idea to try and get a few started off under glass.