I will be potting on some tumbler toms from 3" to 5" soon and am
tempted to use peat pots so that I dont have disturb the roots again
when I plant them out to the hanging baskets. Is this a good idea ?? I
have never uysed these before - does they truly decompose to nothing
once planted in compost, or might they continue to restrict the growth
of the roots ?? Will they start decompossing before I plant them out if
I water them too much ?

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I will be potting on some tumbler toms from 3" to 5" soon and am
tempted to use peat pots so that I dont have disturb the roots again
when I plant them out to the hanging baskets. Is this a good idea ?? I
have never uysed these before - does they truly decompose to nothing
once planted in compost, or might they continue to restrict the growth
of the roots ?? Will they start decompossing before I plant them out if
I water them too much ?


Once you get the hang of upending a pot in your hand with two
fingers on either side of the stem,* tapping the pot around the
edge at the bottom and it coming away cleanly, you'll never worry
about disturbing the roots of a plant ever again..

If the compost is just the right consistency **, it will maintain
the pot shape and you can even prepare correctly shaped holes
in the baskets beforehand using a spare empty pot.

* For larger size pots cut out a cardboard disk, with a wide slot
cut to the middle to accomodate the stem. Then put that on top of
the compost before upending the pot, and that will prevent
any compost dropping out and settling on the underside of the
leaves of the upended plant.

** this will depend on the correct moisture content, depending on
what compost you're using. Too dry and the compost will run away,
too wet and it will be a soggy mess. Just in between is ideal.
A bit of experimantation is all it needs, maybe just with
some spare compost in a pot.

Although this might sound a bit complicated, once you get the hang
of it, it's a peice of cake, and you'll never want to look at a peat
pot ever again.



michael adams

....

They will decompose and disappear. roots can easily grow through them,
as they can old cardboard cores from toilet rolls, and they are much
cheaper.

Mike

wrote:
They will decompose and disappear. roots can easily grow through them,
as they can old cardboard cores from toilet rolls, and they are much
cheaper.

I collected toilet roll cores from the toilets at my work all year, and
have now planted in them all. All the seedlings that have come up have
been much healthier than those planted in previous years in 10cm pots,
and they are very easy to plant out.

I'd also like to thank the person who last year suggested that I use
John Innes compost. I'm now using something made by Westland called
'peat free compost with added John Innes', which I can heartily
recommend: much finer than normal peat-free compost, and much better at
retaining water. It contains something that Westland called 'West+', a
'secret ingredient' harvested from a 'sustainable resource'. I suspect
this is moss; the compost looks as if it contains quite a lot of it.
I'll just have to trust them on its sustainability.

Rhiannon