Root Trainers

[Florence Fennel]

I've just taken delivery of my first ever root trainers. What have you got in yours now please? I'm itching to play with them.

[Two_Sheds]

Sweet peas and peas are in mine

[smallblueplanet]

Broad beans.

[Bigmallly]

Sweet peas at the moment but am curious if anything else can be sown in them besides peas & beans.

[Suky]

I, too, have peas and sweetpeas in mine. I have used them for almost anything if I needed to sow something and some were empty and last year I sowed my parsnips in them. Yes, I know you aren't supposed to transplant them but the results were OK, not too forked at all and I just didn't have room to sow direct.

[oldie]

I grow just about everything in them. Only carrots get sown direct and parsnips are in loo rolls.

[Alison]

Just use mine for beans, sweet peas and sweetcorn - oh and started some sweet potato slips off in them last year too. At the moment the only thing in them is broad beans but sweet peas will be going in soon. Start peas off in guttering as I don't find they need the extra depth.

[vegnut]

I have to sow some broadies in mine. But every year i sow courgettes, ridge cucumbers and butternut squash to name but a few.

[Nes]

My root trainers have garlic in at the moment, ready to donate to mum who was too busy this autumn to deal with them and now can't find any in the GC, and a neighbour who has just taken possession of her first plot. Mine are all in the ground already. Will be doing sweet peas when I get round to it, and sweetcorn later...

[Aberdeenplotter]

I will start of my exhibition peas in mine. Don't know if I would buy them again though. They are incredibly fragile and the plastic is easily fractured. used loo rolls work just as well.

[Alison]

I will start of my exhibition peas in mine. Don't know if I would buy them again though. They are incredibly fragile and the plastic is easily fractured. used loo rolls work just as well.

Maybe the quality has gone downhill, I've had the same ones now for about 7 years, using them 2 or 3 times every year and there are only one or two which have torn along the hinge.

[HeyWayne]

Pardon my ignorance, but what advantage is there using plastic root trainers over loo roll centres?

[FionaH]

Pardon my ignorance, but what advantage is there using plastic root trainers over loo roll centres?

You don't end up with a bathroom full of empty loo roll middles

[Alison]

Pardon my ignorance, but what advantage is there using plastic root trainers over loo roll centres?

The ridges help the roots to develop in a good way (don't fully understand but it does seem to work) and chanel them downwards, the frame supports 32 plants in a relatively small block which is stable (loo rolls can be a pain to support), you can reuse for years (I wouldn't collect enough loo rolls even if I collected all year round and the hinged bottom means that you can have a look at the root development without harming the growing plant. Honestly they're great.

[HeyWayne]

The ridges help the roots to develop in a good way (don't fully understand but it does seem to work) and chanel them downwards, the frame supports 32 plants in a relatively small block which is stable (loo rolls can be a pain to support), you can reuse for years (I wouldn't collect enough loo rolls even if I collected all year round and the hinged bottom means that you can have a look at the root development without harming the growing plant. Honestly they're great.

Have you considered a job in sales for Root Trainers Inc?

Cheers Alison.