Fibre pots

hwalkerh

Hello

I bought a pack of fibre pots yesterday. I am growing lots of things from seeds this year and thought they would be good for when i take them out the propagators before they are ready to be planted out.

I assume that as the pots are like egg carton material they are made to be planted straight into the soil. My only question is as i wanted to use them for growing the plants in a little before they are ready to go out will they be ok for this? Will they start to fall apart after a couple of waters?

I have never used them before so any advice would be great

amcluesent

>any advice would be great<

Tried them, don't like them. I found that when planted into the ground, the fibre pots seemed to cause local drying out/shrinkage in the planting hole so that the plant roots struggled to extend into the surrounding soil. This year I'll be sticking to split-apart root-trainers and old-fashioned 5cm pots you can knock the plant out of.

Wookey

I start a few things of in em before moving to either the ground or a larger pot, i tend to pull em apart and drop the plant and its soil into the pot/ground, very little or no root disturbance.

WestonDave

I find the inner tube from toilet rolls does a similar job just as well for free! Plus as the bottom is open it encourages the roots to head downwards into deeper soil where water supplies are more consistent.

oldsam

You could make recycled paper pots from newspapers you have around the house, A wooden mould is needed for the job , which you find in the garden shops or make one from a cut down wooden rolling pin from a pound shop- a money saver- I had trouble with fibre pots the crow family like to lift them of the ground , also they tend to cramp the roots .

Jake'sGran

I didn't like the peat pots either but remove the plant when it is ready like the OP said and drop it into position. If you want to have a go at make newspaper pots just Google for the instructions. I have this info somewhere but can't find it. Normally I would have started a lot of seeds by now but, as it is so cold, I am leaving it for a week or so because some seeds come up very quickly and then you run out of room in your greenhouse or potting shed and the seedlings get leggy.

A._Badger

I've got mixed feelings about them, too. My sense is that fine roots find it hard to penetrate the material and that it can be hard to get watering right because of the way they dry-out.

Even worse are those horrible Jiffy 7 pellets that people used to use. Half of them didn't expand properly when soaked and the netting didn't decompose, which I feel led to root restriction.

The one type of disposable pot you used to see, but which I haven't come across for a few years, was what used to be called the 'whale hide' pot (they weren't made from whales). They did decompose well and the roots seemed to grow thorough quite nicely.

valk_scot

If you've got them, use them. They have drawbacks but they're okay, they don't fall apart in the propagator and unlike many toilet roll inner "pots", they don't grow mould on the outside. One tip though...when you do plant them out make sure you bury the edge under the soil, otherwise the pot edge acts as a wick and draws the moisture out from the compost contained within the wick. Ideally you wait till the seedling roots poke through the side of the pot, btw, so don't try pulling the pot off at this point.

Zazen999

I don't use them either; if any of the pot is above ground level they act as a wick drawing all moisture from the roots and into the air; completely defeating the point.

Even Alys on GW was struggling to get them off when planting out. You end up ripping half the roots off.

ETA: cross posted Valk....

RHYSDAD

This subject is one i'm debating with myself at the moment. I have some leftover fibre pots which i'll use for runner and climbing french beans, as well as my peas. The roots on the legumes seem to push through the pots walls just fine. However, for smaller seeds/plants i agree that the roots might not be man enough to deal with the thick side walls of them. But i want to avoid sowing in trays and pricking out so i'm wondering about sowing directly into the plug trays, or in 9cm post straight off to bypass this fiddly bit. Especially with my toms, chilli's and flower seeds.

What do you guys do?

Zazen999

If you sow into bigger pots then you water out all the goodness from the compost before the plant can use it. Don't forget seed compost should be nutrient free and the next potting on should have nutrients to use as it grows.

I use small and medium modules and sow into those. Then pot on as I go as soon as the roots start to show through the bottom. I only sow into trays for my OH who for some reason likes them.