Toilet roll holders - expanding peat thingies

I've saved ALOT of cardboard tubes from loo rolls - not sure what to start off in them.

Anybody else use them for starting seeds off in? If so - what do you plant?

Ive also got about 100 of the small circular 'peat bag' thinymebobs for seeds. Where you add the seed, water & it expands & you plant the whole thing. Any ideas on what I can use in them? (Cant remember the proper name )

 

I have used loo roll for starting seeds (mainly flowers) but ended up with a soggy mess.

Last year I used those circular peat pellets and successful grew: lobelia, geranium, fushia (it was a hanging basket kit )

I also started off some sweet peas and tomatoes, but I wasn't successful with the tomatoes (think it was a poor year for toms last year anyway).

 

I've never used them before so will probably also end up with a soggy mess

As for geraniums - I sowed a few last year & none of them made it! So this year I planted double of what I need incase half died off - they've all made it & yesterday it took me a couple of hours to repot them all

Maybe I could use the peat pellets (thanks for the name reminder @"M" ) for the petunia seeds?
Am a little bit late with them this year.

Would sweetcorn be ok in loo rolls do you think?

 

Hi cannyfullpots, I have just used loo rolls for sowing veg and fiber pots for petunia plugs and like M said they turned into a mess :( I threw the veg in loo rolls out, it was a nightmare trying to get the balance of watering right it was either too wet or it would dry out too quickly, in the end they fell apart! Have just had to repot some petunia plugs as there was white mould all over the side of the pots too. Don't want to put you off, you may get some lovely plants out of it and its always a bonus to reuse something

 

How strange I saved a load of them and ended up putting them in the compost bin only yesterday ...looks like i may have made the right choice thanks folks

 

@BeeHappy I saved loads too but more I read about them more I thought best just try a few to start.. did think about painting them and tying up like bunting lol

 

@Lynd LOL now there's an idea we could keep saving them for the next Coronation Day

 

I've been sowing Parsnips in toilet roll tubes for several years now and it's completely overcome problems of failed germination in my cold, wet, clay soil, so no gaps in the rows and bigger Parsnips from an earlier planting. Coincidentally, today (16th March) is the day I've sown on for the last couple of years.

I place a blue plastic mushroom box full of upright tubes under cover in a poytunnel and they normally start showing 3 weeks after sowing. They must be planted out immediately, because the tap roots get to the bottom of the tube within a day of the leaves showing, and if they get out/damaged they'll fork. I have a patch of ground ready to plant the tubes and often keep this covered with plastic sheet to prevent it from waterlogging. The tubes get checked every day for those that need planting.

One thing I've learnt is do not sow them a week before Easter if going away on holiday when they're due to start germinating.

 

Loo roll inners are a good idea if you plan to use just a few, lets say less than ten.

The problem with them is that you never fill them right to the brim so the actual plant will always be half an inch or so below the brim of the tube, when planted out this leaves a fair amount of tube poking out from the ground.

This causes a problem because the tube will dry out and "wick" moisture from the soil away from your new young plant. You could cut the cardboard away from a few tubes at the top to stop this wicking, and that's why I say good to use in amounts less than ten.

Paper pots are better as it is easy to push the paper out of the way under the soil surface.

Sweetcorn grows so fast and my first couple of years of growing I sowed them in pots and by planting time there was a mass of roots going round and round the pot, they never really established well when final planted.

Then I bought some root trainers and I have had good healthy plants and a decent crop of cobs ever since. The inside of root trainers are crinkled so that the roots hit them and travel downwards, at the bottom they are "air pruned" off. So come planting time, the roots are going in the right direction, down and not round and round.

Steve...

 

I ended up with a soggy mess as well !

 

The problem I've had with loo rolls is that they become covered in a white fuzzy fungus - that love's the damp cardboard.

Keeping the rolls separate to allow air to circulate between them does help a little.

The fungus will damage the seedlings if left unchecked.

I had the same problem with the 'peat' pots.

I'm growing Canary Creeper in this years loo rolls.

I wonder how long it will be before the b&q tea bag approach is made available to the public.

 

I also saved a lot, then droped them together when cleaning

 

This is very interesting , many how-to gardening sites extol the virtues of toilet rolls for sowing seeds - and how very clever they are . (the site that is not the rolls ! )But it seems on GC we have a 90% failure rate

 

I think they're ideal for anything that grows really fast. I've used them for runner beans and peas and courgetes with success. Small seeds producing slow growing flowers were a bit less successful.