Round, Square, or Peat Pots Plugs?

shatbox · April 8, 2010

I've been flip flopping over the past two years about whether to invest in more plastic trays of various sizes or keep buying peat pots. I've been loving the pots- they go straight into the ground, but they are hard to keep watered at the right levels. Plugs are great although I get tired of all the poking and pulling when it's time to plant. I think I spend more money going with peat - that said, anyone see an advantage with round over square plugs or the opposite? How about seed mix. Does Pro-Mix BX work in the 288 plug inserts?

sBox

habitat_gardener · April 11, 2010

Depends on what works for you. In my experience (only 3 years growing tomatoes from seed), the critical factors are a sterile medium (so that I know what's sprouting) and protection from the weather (since I grow outdoors).

FWIW, I've used the dense-planting method with mostly 3-inch and 4-inch plastic pots and Nutrapeat from OSH (which I learned this year is supposed to be mixed with perlite for seed starting -- but it still works without the perlite, though it's not as fast draining). But this year I had some peat pots sitting around so used them, and I don't like them as much. I grow my tomatoes outdoors in cold frames, where it hasn't been warm enough to germinate most seeds the past few weeks. Some nontomato peat pots have been growing mold on the outside. Also, they wick water out of the potting medium. The only advantage is that they are smaller so require less medium. The few tomato varieties I planted in plastic pots germinated a few days before any of the ones in peat pots.

I also prefer small individual pots to a plastic tray, so that I can move the pots around as their seeds germinate.

The only thing I buy is the seed-starting medium. I've found all my pots on freecycle or similar. When it comes time to pot up the tomatoes to give away, I will either get more pots on freecycle or else make some paper pots.

April 8, 2010	#1
shatbox Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Los Angeles County, CA Posts: 258	Round, Square, or Peat Pots Plugs? I've been flip flopping over the past two years about whether to invest in more plastic trays of various sizes or keep buying peat pots. I've been loving the pots- they go straight into the ground, but they are hard to keep watered at the right levels. Plugs are great although I get tired of all the poking and pulling when it's time to plant. I think I spend more money going with peat - that said, anyone see an advantage with round over square plugs or the opposite? How about seed mix. Does Pro-Mix BX work in the 288 plug inserts? sBox

April 11, 2010	#2
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,540	Depends on what works for you. In my experience (only 3 years growing tomatoes from seed), the critical factors are a sterile medium (so that I know what's sprouting) and protection from the weather (since I grow outdoors). FWIW, I've used the dense-planting method with mostly 3-inch and 4-inch plastic pots and Nutrapeat from OSH (which I learned this year is supposed to be mixed with perlite for seed starting -- but it still works without the perlite, though it's not as fast draining). But this year I had some peat pots sitting around so used them, and I don't like them as much. I grow my tomatoes outdoors in cold frames, where it hasn't been warm enough to germinate most seeds the past few weeks. Some nontomato peat pots have been growing mold on the outside. Also, they wick water out of the potting medium. The only advantage is that they are smaller so require less medium. The few tomato varieties I planted in plastic pots germinated a few days before any of the ones in peat pots. I also prefer small individual pots to a plastic tray, so that I can move the pots around as their seeds germinate. The only thing I buy is the seed-starting medium. I've found all my pots on freecycle or similar. When it comes time to pot up the tomatoes to give away, I will either get more pots on freecycle or else make some paper pots.