Plants which form tiny hair roots (most veggies) can more easily penetrate the porous peat pots than they can the less porous toilet paper rolls (cardboard). I think that in most cases either will work, but the advantage of peat pots is their porosity which allows roots to grow through and the advantage of a toilet paper roll is that it is opened bottomed which allows roots to grow.

Of course, that would depend on how many toilet paper rolls one goes through.

Are you implying that gaetanol poops a lot? LOL

It's nice to know I'm so well understood. LOL

Actually, I have a very steady supply of rolls, and not because I'm a super-pooper: I'm a physical therapist and my practice uses paper to line the treatment tables for each treatment. I go through a 20" long roll every 3 days or so. I've trying to find something useful to do with them for 10 years, so I got very interested when I saw ther reference of using rolls for starting seedlings.

Well in that case definitely use them for seed starting. Sure, they won't break down as quickly or be as porous as peat pots, but they are open bottomed so it really doesn't matter.

Use what ya got!

You could use the rolls and when you get ready to transplant seems that you would only need to use a spatula to move them. :)

I hear that the rolls keep the moisture much more consistant. And conversely, when you plant the said seedling with the peat pot into the ground, the roots do not always grow through the peat pots. The may grow through one or two holes and other roots follow through there, but it is not as widespread as one might think.

Use the rolls, they are free!

Take the paper roll, plant up, and when getting ready to transplant, take a utility knife and score the sides of the roll. Should help with the root development. The scoring of the side and bottoms should also work for peat pots.

Y'know, they might even work as protection from cutworm when you plant out. The folks in the soil forum love cardboard in their compost so it now has a twofold benefit.

Plant both the peat pots and toilet paper pots deep enough that the pot does not reach above the soil. Moisture will be wicked up and evaporated away if any of the pot is above grade. The dry hard pots are then very difficult for roots to penetrate. I've planted deeply and had good results with peat pots if I keep the soil reasonably moist for a few weeks after planting. Some toilet paper pots I made this year are covered with mold. That might be due to overwatering and not related to the pots. The plants seem to grow fine though. I plan to rip up the tube some when I plant out since it seems very rigid and no roots are poking though as they do with my peat pots.

I used the toilet paper pots last year with pretty good results. I found that if I tore them down the sides when planting out, it worked better than leaving the sides intact. This year I'm using only rolled newspaper pots because a nice neighbor gave me a pot maker for Christmas. Works like a charm!

Regarding keeping the top of the pots below the the soil, I've read conflicting information about that. On the one hand, I've read that when you fill a pot for seeding, you don't want the mix to go all the way to the top of the container (to allow for easier watering). On the other hand, I've read that for most transplants (excluding tomatos), you want to transplant to the level of the native soil.

If I were to do both these things, I'd always have a bit of pot above the soil. Then on third hand, you have to be concerned with wicking (which I've also read elsewhere).

Personally, I've been handling this by trimming the top of the pot when I transplant, though I would like to skip that step if I could.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

I've found a problem with peat pots, which I think has been mentioned here before. Even when I plant the pots deep, such as with tomatoes, I've later, after the season's over and the plant's gone on to veggie heaven, dug the plant out and found a moreorless intact peat pot. I'm sure the poor plant felt potbound. This year I'm going to make sure to cut the peat pot and/or remove the bottom so the roots have an easier time expanding into the soil.

I'm wondering if you can use toilet paper or paper towel rolls and then slide the plant out or cut apart the roll when you're ready to plant it in the ground. I've been tossing the rolls into my compost bin, but they don't seem to break down too quickly.

The toilet paper rolls of the brand I use come unraveled upon wetting and won't work at all. (I guess I could get up and check what brand it is.) I got the idea watching some reforestation people with many thousands of trees growing in rolls that looked like toilet paper rolls so I came home and tried it and my experiment fell apart when I added water.

I, personally, use newspaper pots made from old telephone book pages, just wrap the paper around a couple of fingers to make a cylinder and put one piece of tape on it to hold them together. They have to be stacked close together after you plant the seeds, since they'll lean, but they're easy to water from the bottom. No need to water the surface at all.

There's another way to do it, too.

Use small paper or styrofoam cups with the bottoms cut out. Turn the cups upside down so the small portion is at the top and punch a couple of drainage holes on the bottom sides. Fill with planting soil and plant your seeds. When it's time to set out the transplants, use a spatula to keep the bottom soil in place to set them in the planting hole. Then just carefully lift the cup straight up and pack the soil around the root ball. Nothing surrounds your transplant then.

IF you use styroform cups take a hacksaw blade and cut three cuts down into the bottom and then three NEAR the top leaving that ring at the top in tack. When you transplant take your fingers and snap that top at each sliced area and you will be able to carefully lift the soil out in tack. For those that collect all those used cups. soak them in a bleach solution and allow to dry before using to prevent future problems. I stil like newspaper pots. Just soak your newspaper and find a glass or cup the size you like and let them dry some before removing so they don't fall apart.

I have tried peat pots and rolled up newspaper pots and I still find bits of them in my garden that have not broken down at all. Still, I like the toilet paper roll idea. I would problably poke many little holes on the sides to allow the roots to escape.
In this forum, I found a couple of website references to sites that teach you how to make contraptions to make dirt cubes. These contraptios seem easy enough to make and so very inexpensive (compared to the ones you can buy already made)

http://www.pottingblocks.com/soil_cell.html
http://www.toppers-place.com/soil_blocks.htm#Small%20bottom