Rootrainers

[dave45]

Considering these, but they look flimsy and expensive (8 quid for a few grams of moulded polystyrene !)... any happy user recommendations?

Can you start off root veggies like carrots and parsnips in them?
Are bog-roll centres just as good?

[grahamhobbs]

I agree with SusieGee compleely. But I think you should be able to find them for nearer £5.

[oldjerry]

Agree with that,here's a thought,years ago I used to grow sweet peas as acut flower crop,and the profit was in the early Aut.sown ones.I didn't have the GH space or expertise so bought young plants from Spencers(there is a point to this in case your losing the will to live)well...they arrived planted in Polystyrene long root trainers,and these Must be available to commercial growers,I reckon these would be really cheap.

[dave45]

Thanks for the info everybody.
Can't find them for a fiver even on ebay ! do they have an alternate name?

[MKG]

Take a lookee here ...

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/ind ... ic=58733.0

It ws the fourth post down when I read it - home-made root trainers.

Mike

EDIT - Oh - I wouldn't use loo roll inserts either. They belong with "peat" pots (actually wood-fibre) on the "gardening fairy-story" shelf.

[Odsox]

Loo rolls are just fine .... provided that after you plant them in the garden the soil stays moist. If the tube dries out it sets like concrete and the plant remains restricted in a 1.5 inch column of dry compost. Peat pots are the same if then don't remain moist except they are even smaller.
Thanks for the link Mike, I think I will try that this year as I have plenty or excess damp course and my saved loo roll inners would be better suited to stuffing with saw dust for logs.

[gregorach]

Rootrainers are great, but I've also had good results using loo rolls. Just don't leave them out in the sun, as the plastic will become brittle.

[wulf]

What is a root trainer? As I understand it, a system to encourage roots to grow down and from which seedlings can easily be removed and placed into a more permanent planting situation. Describing it like that sparks quite a few ideas for how alternatives could be created from materials at hand - personally, I find temporary pots made from newspaper quite useful. When planting out, I tend to tear down the side of the pot, which is already quite degraded by the damp, and remove quite a lot of the paper. This year, I am thinking about experimenting with a longer, thinner design, which will be a bit more like the root trainer systems you can buy.

Wulf

[Big Al]

I had this quandry a few months back and I asked on here for suitable "plant pot" recomendations etc. Rootrainers came to the fore and although I've used them a few years ago I have decided to go this route again now, even if it means buying one or two a week / month as money allows as they are expensive in my oppinion. Having said that you get 32 pots per tray complete with thew support and a cover to act as a mini green house etc. The best thing about rootrainers is that they let air get to the roots and this makes the roots fatter and denser.

They also come in two depths for different types of crops. In one of my older gardening books the author gets a polystyrene brinks cup and cuts three slits in the sides from the base up two thirds of the side at 1/3 the diamiter of the base, equidistent to each other.

This was the most sucessful root systI have no proof of this, lol. The only problem is that you cannot get polystyrene cups that easy now.

I know this sounds like a rootrainer advert which it's not ment to but they also stand flat on the bench and don't fall over like plantpots.

edited to add;

Wulf have a look here for an explination. http://www.haxnicks.co.uk/Gardening/Plant-Cultivation/

[wulf]

Training pots by basswulf, on Flickr

Here is my first attempt at constructing paper "root trainers". They should encourage seedlings to grow deep root systems (plenty of soil there and some degree of barrier effect from the rolled paper) but a slit along the side should make it easy to release them. Once emptied, the tubes will be too degraded to reuse but can be thrown on the compost heap to assimilate with everything else.

To make them, I took a newspaper and tore each double page sheet into six, down the major fold and then into thirds across each page. I then took each strip of paper and rolled into a loose cylinder. A wine bottle proved a good form for tightening the roll (not too tight though, otherwise you can't lift it off once done) and I worked round the ends, folding them down a few times (a couple of folds, then reversing the tube on the bottle). I ended up with 3-4 small folds at each end, which is enough to hold the tube shape and give the ends some strength.

To complete them, I stuffed them with my potting mixture (a mixture of fine compost and perlite) and watered them. Later today I'll water again and then pop some seeds in. Here is the finished collection:


Training Pots Ready by basswulf, on Flickr

Wulf