"J.C." wrote in message
...

I start seeds in styrofoam cups. I do exclusively square foot
gardening and have several boxes going. I use the 32oz cups that I buy
in bulk from Sam's Club. I put about 1 inch of potting soil in the
cup.

When it comes time to plant I just cut the bottom out of the cups and
plant the whole things. This leaves me the proper amount of empty cup
to do the watering called for in the Square Foot Gardening book.

Well, everything that happens, wilt, browning leaves, low yield, bugs,
disease etc., happens because I PLANT THE DANG CUPS, according to my
wife. She, and others, say this is a definate no-no. I disagree. What
do you say and why?

Snipped much discussion of problems with styrofoam cups, cups in general,
various other solutions ...

J.C. wrote:
If you are familiar with this method, as portrayed in the book, you will
recall that the method calls for making a "saucer" type impression in
the square and putting the plant right in the middle of that. Then, you
water each plant by pouring one cup of water into the impression either
daily, every other day or weekly, as the particular type of plant spec
calls for.

Now, we are talking about some 100 boxes here. Having an employee going
around with a bucket and a cup and making sure he gets everything
watered properly is a waste of time and money in my opinion. So, I
decided to experiment by using a 32 ounce cup, leaving enough of it
empty so as to hold the alloted amount of water so the fellow could just
go around with a wand and fill up the cups. We only tried this with 12
boxes and we had a few problems and my wife blamed everythiing on
planting those dang cups.

I know styrofoam is not biodegradable so I know it does no harm to
anything in the box. I know that when we remove the plants to rejuvenate
a box for future plantings the roots are NOT rootbound or anything. I'm
pretty sure, as the boxes are filled with a plant medium mixture of 1/3
vermiculite, 1/3 well composted cow manure and other organic material,
and 1/3 spanghum peat moss, that there is ample aeration. So, what I am
trying to determine is whether or not the cups are detrimental or have I
just run into a run of fungus, disease or something.

For my two cents, I'd just soon take the started plants out of whatever
they are started in, and plant them directly into the square, but the
problem with that is, unless I'm following the guys around, they
inevitably overwater, washout or just plain wipe out a whole box.
--
J.C.

helco wrote:
Okay, since you seem loyal to your method, how's about conducting an
experiment next summer? Put half your plants out in the sort of plastic
cups you want to use, and put half out in peat pots. (Or one third in
plastic, one third in peat, one third without a cup of any sort.) Don't
clump each type together, in case there are variations in different areas
of the soil. Then compare the results and report back to the News Group.

helco

J.C. wrote:
We did that this year. That's why I'm asking others what experiences they
have?
J.C.

So if you conducted that experiment this year, what were the results? If
your wife suggests that any damage that occurs is due to the cups, does that
mean that only the plants in the cups suffered the damage? If that's the
case, there's your answer. If plants suffered equally no matter how they
were planted, then there's a different answer.
helco