Fibre pots

[Dorothy rouse]

What do experienced Grapes, think of about using little fibre pots to start off seeds, I have used them in the past, and then when seedling has grown sufficiently,moved up to plot. Are they worth it?

Also what about 'root trainers', have never used these, but seen them mentioned on here, if you recommend them, what seeds would you use them for?

DottyR

[rustylady]

Tried them, hate them. If you keep them too dry the roots can't penetrate them, and if you keep them too wet they go mouldy.

I use toilet roll inners for peas and beans (open at the bottom so roots can get out into the soil), and celltrays for smaller seeds.

[Bren In Pots]

Dotty i use loo rolls for beans then newspaper pots for things like lettuce, beetroot and swede, both pots soon decompose in the soil.

[Bigmallly]

Yeh,I agree with both RL & Bren. I couldn't get on with fibre pots, loo rolls were better either whole or cut in half. If you decide to use rootrainers, they are mainly for peas & beans that grow long roots but loo rolls do the job just as well.

[Dorothy rouse]

Ok, thanks, better start scrounging from friends then, I only have 2, so that's 2 runner bean plants!

[Bill HH]

Ok, thanks, better start scrounging from friends then, I only have 2, so that's 2 runner bean plants!

You can cut up long cardboard tubes as used on cling film or foil, wrapping paper etc.(Some are too thick though)

[Two_Sheds]

I've tried every kind of seedling container you could think of: loo rolls, yog pots, newspaper pots, root-trainers, normal ordinary plastic pots, cell trays.

My favourite overall is the 3" plastic pots: infinitely reusable, but they take up a lot of room and are more difficult to move around, ie up to the school or lotty.

I also like cell trays, but the quality is pretty poor and they only last a season or two, most of them.

I do use loo roll innerds, esp at school because the kids always like the recycling aspect of it. I use them in April for fast-growers like beans, because in winter they get too wet & mouldy.

[scarey55]

I tried the fibre pots and I didn't like them. I found that, not being the most diligent of gardeners, mine dried out too quickly and I ended up taking them out of the re and re-potting into plastic ones. I couldn't get on with those made from bio degradable recycled material either, just didn't hold the water as well as the plastic ones.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I am with the majority on this I hate fibre pots.

I have well over 100 3" & 2 1/2" plastic pots along with cell trays.

Like 2Sheds I found the plastic pots take more messing about with when moving them until I started to use polystyrene fish boxes as trays. These will hold around 24 pots and due to their high sides hold everything very stable.

Potty

[rustylady]

These are good - being square they are easy to group into seed trays. They do other sizes too Wilko Get Growing Plant Pot Square Black 7cm x 15 at wilko.com

[Penellype]

Have to agree with the majority on here - the only time I tried fibre pots they went mouldy then dried out. I much prefer the 3" pots, or the 4-packs/6-packs that bedding plants come in.

I've always grown my peas in ordinary square pots (much like the Wilko ones linked to above). I grow 5 seeds to a pot, one in each corner and one in the middle and dig a trench then plant them up against each other in the row. I find I get fewer air gaps that are awkward to fill if I use these rather than round pots. I don't grow beans so I can't comment on those.

[Chippy Minton]

I'm with most others here, fibre pots end up being mush, so in reality it's like them just being in a tray of compost, or too dry for the roots to get out of. I also read they can wick moisture away if not fully buried (which makes sense to me). My favourite is the newspaper ones made with a Paper Potter, they do go a bit mushy but seem better able to contain the plant as I try to carefully plant it.

[Alison]

I use various things depending on what I'm sowing but never use peat or fibre pots as they're rubbish and you only get one use out of them. For tomatoes, peppers etc I sow in teeny newspaper pots and then plant on the whole thing into 3" pots pretty quickly and the newspaper breaks down well in the damp compost. I like the fact that they're very small means that I can fit lots in my propagator and any seeds that don't germinate don't waste much compost. Beans always go in root trainers, they can break but if you're careful then you can use them for years (I have some about 10 years old), squashes etc in 3" pots, 1 per pot and brassicas about 10 to each 3" pot. Salad stuffs in module trays, peas in guttering etc etc. You see, one size doesn't fit all for me

[Dorothy rouse]

Pretty unanimous thoughts, which is good, I won't bother with them this year then.

Ta

[chris]

I also like cell trays, but the quality is pretty poor and they only last a season or two, most of them.

On that note, I've just bought some "decent" cell trays... will be using them shortly, and if they're durable, I'll post a mini review.

I did go as far as prototyping a different type of cell (reusable), but the more I researched it, the more I realised that the market is huge for disposable trays, they're so cheap... To make it worth while, I'd have had to price at £8.75 for a single tray - so I decided that the small niche it'd appeal to wouldn't make it worthwhile! Initial volumes, and lack of interest at the "main" garden centres were quite an eye opener as to the horticultural market. One biggie as well, was the fact that its not very green to create such material.

Still, onto my next idea hehe