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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Peat Pots for Transplanting

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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Peat Pots for Transplanting
  • Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2006 08:41:40 -0500

On Mon, 2 Jan 2006 11:24:35 -0600, you wrote:


>To those who dislike peat pots: Are you allowing the outside surface
>to dry? That will certainly inhibit root penetration.
>

I don't use them anymore and haven't in years, so I don't
really remember.

But I certainly had a number of experiences where the peat
pot-and-plant were transplanted outside, with the peat pot
completely buried (tomatoes, for instance) and then the
plant kept well watered ..... but ..... the plant never grew
much or thrived and several months later, when I dug it up,
I found that roots had not gotten through the peat pot. This
was enough to convince me never to use them again.

I also don't like the fact that they are a one-use item. I
use the little plastic 6-packs, and then transplant the
plants I want to become larger before setting outdoors
(tomatoes, again, being a good example) to 4" pots.
Sometimes I then transplant them into gallon milk jugs (one
plant per milk jug) or larger pots, before they go outside.
I'm always fighting a *very short frost-free season* here -
last frost can be from mid-May to nearly the END OF JUNE
(June 20) and first frost is generally during the first week
of October. (Our area CAN even have frost in July or
August, but thankfully it is very, very unusual.)

So it matters a lot how well grown my tomatoes, eggplants,
peppers (and others) can be before they go outdoors. A
larger vs. small tomato plant being transplanted out can
mean the difference between having no ripe tomatoes on that
plant or having ripe tomatoes before frost. (We have a
hoophouse now, I'll be using it for the first time this
spring - if it doesn't collapse under snow load first - so
far, so good. It should be a big help with the fight
against the short season.)

No peat pots here, thanks. :)

Pat
-- Northern Pennsylvania
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of their
leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they
are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack
of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works
the same in any country." Hermann Goering, Nuremberg Trials




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