Peat Pots?

[Canadian Farmer Guy]

Hello Gardeners

My local seed store sells little seed-starting pots made out of peat.
The product description reads as follows..

"Jiffy Peat Pots. Inexpensive pots made of compressed peat. Ideal for growing plants that do not take well to transplanting such as beans, melons, cucumbers ect...
Plant pot directly into garden as the roots grow right through the pot with no transplant shock.
OMRI certified for organic Farming"

Does anyone have experience with these pots? They are inexpensive and certainly sound useful.
But I'm Dutch and hate wasting money

Any input is appreciated.

CFG

[DoubleDogFarm]

CFG,

Hate them. This topic has been discussed before.

I feel they cause rootbound plants. They don't break down fast enough when planted out. There is the problem of wicking also if not planted deep enough.

I use 4" plastic pots that are easy to come by and are free. With a pot of this size, I see no transfer shock.

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Greenhouse%20Photos/DSC02030.jpg[/img]

Eric

[stella1751]

I have had good success with peat pots, CFG. I agree, though, with DDG that they can cause rootbound plants. The trick is to soak the seedlings thoroughly before setting them out. You can then easily tear off the bottoms of the pots before planting, making certain the roots are able to spread

[jal_ut]

I too do not like the peat pots. They dry out too quickly. Also if left on when planted out, the roots do not go out of them as advertised.

I have used Solo 9 oz. plastic cups and potting soil. Punch a hole in the cups. These are good.

[TZ -OH6]

Peat pots are supposed to be an easy, trouble free thing, but in order to make them work as well as traditional plastic pots every time you have to pay more attention to the watering and even tear them open when planting out for best results.

[Halfway]

If you use them, insure you heat up the water a bit because they do not like to absorb cold water. Same goes for watering once they are up potted into the gorund or larger container. It will just "run off" if the slightest bit cold. I notice the same with MG potting mix or any mix with a high amount of peat.

[rainbowgardener]

Agree. They are seedling killers. Not only as mentioned above (never plant anything in the ground still in the peat pot, despite what they say, the pot does not break down, stays there and smothers the roots). But I start a lot of seeds indoors under lights. In those conditions, with bottom watering the peat pots get moldy, hold too much water, cause damping off of the seedlings. Plastic is much better, which can be just plastic drink cups, sour cream containers, or regular plastic nursery pots which can be purchased pretty inexpensively and last a long time; I reuse mine over and over.

[Canadian Farmer Guy]

Thank you everyone for the advice, looks like I should find an alternative to peat.
Maybe I can convert my empty pop bottles. Save some money.

CFG

[ACW]

I have used them to start my 6-10 tomato plants and sweetcorn for planting out , all have needed the bottoms slashed with a knife.
I have a few left which I will use this coming season ,but when they are gone they are gone .
Living in a big city reusable plastic pots are easy to come by and are probably a far better bet.
On the same sort of thing the peat pellets in small net bags are very poor for getting the roots going well ,and they biodegrade very very slowly !