Is it okay that I started my tomato seeds in peat pots?

13 years ago

Hi,

I am very new to starting plants from seeds but my very first experiment was starting tomato seeds. I planted them in peat pots and they have grown into nice little plants (11 out of 12 made it). They look healthy and I am thinking about setting them into the ground.

I showed them to my neighbor and she said that the roots won't go through the pots and that I should remove them or, at least, take out the bottom of the pots. I am very upset about this as I purposely planted them in the peat pots (one seed in each) so that I wouldn't have to disturb the roots when I planted them in the garden.

Could it possibly be true that their roots won't go through the pots? Thanks a lot! Genie

Featured Answer

neohippie

13 years ago

Stripping off the pot seems to kinda defeat the purpose of peat pots in the first place, which is to reduce transplant shock (when you strip off the pot, you disturb the roots).

You know, I've had the opposite problem with peat pots before, that the pot rots and falls apart before I'm ready to transplant.

Either way, peat pots are not ideal, but they're not HORRIBLE, so I don't think you need to worry too much.

You might want to use up the peat pots you do have, but invest in reusable plastic pots in the future.

Comments (10)

christine1950
13 years ago
I've started my tomato's in peat pots for years and never had a problem. I put mine in the ground on 5/21 and they have grown 4" already. So dont worry your doing great,so get your babies in the ground. :>)
colokid
13 years ago
I used to use peat pots and I had no problem with them.
The last couple of years I had all kinds of problems. Maybe they changed them. Even a commercial tomato from Bonney did not grow through the pot and was a no go. Could be my dry soil. I do not know, but if I were you I would tear the bottoms out, and when using a peat pellet remove the netting.
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DWD2, thank you for posting your methodology. It always good to see how others grow their seeds and compare methods. I have grown my own starts (36+ tomato varieties) for the past 5 years. Before last year, I had not had too many plant health problems, except for the first year when my light system was not close enough to my plants. In that year I had problems with leggyness. I strongly suspect that my problem last year was the seed starter mix, but it could have been a few other things. I may have introduced disease into the first batch by incorporating compost into the mix. I think this is unlikely because in other batches and other treys I did not use compost in the mix but still had the same problems. Also, once the plants were in the ground they recovered and grew well the rest of the summer. If it were a disease I would have expected that the plants would still have had problems after planting, which they did not. Tomatoes are really amazing in what they can take early on and still produce well. For example, I had a mouse eat all the leaves of two plants shortley after they were in the ground. There were only stems left and I thought they were done, but I did not pull them out. Both plants sprouted new leaves again and became bushy healthy plants. I was astounded. I have had others suggest that with an approximately 50/50 mix of vermiculite and peat, I may have had water retention problems that suffocated the roots. Thats possible, but I was pretty careful about my watering. I can't totally rule that out. It may also have been too many nutrients from a dilute solution of fertilizer at watering as the problems occured shortly after that. I have read that new seedlings don't need many nutrients becuase they get what they need from the seeds/cotyledons. Some have even suggested that you will cause more problems by fertilizing than just not fertilizing. The reason why I fertilized is because we had a number of storms in May that pushed my planting date back 3-4 weeks longer than our average frost date. So I fertilized a little. I may also have had root binding problems. There is another possiblity which DWD2 suggested. I used a seed heating matt for the first time last year and most of the tomatoes had it under them for at least a day. So I may have over-heated the soil a little and damaged the roots. However on the last seed trey that got started late, I did not use the heat matt because I suspected it may have caused the problems. Yet I still had the same problems in the last trey. My strongest suspicion is still the starter mix. I have read the ingredient list on several seed starting mixes. In most cases, they usually contain peat (as the main medium plus it has high cation exchange capacity) + vermiculite (for micro nutrient exchange and water retention) + lime (to balance the PH of the peat). They sometimes include perilite, but sometimes not (example Jiffy), they also sometimes include a few other things (mycorrhizae for example or a source of nutrients). The main ingredient that I was missing that most starter mixes have is lime for ph balance. I could not find lime in any stores in Utah at the time. They do sell it here, but it is not a common soil amendment in Utah because most Utah soils are slightly alkaline (PH 7.8-8.2). So most folks would not want to add lime. This year I am interested to try mixing my own starter again but I wanted actual recipies to get an idea of the right proportions to use. Also I had no idea that mycorrhizae was available so I am defintley going to use that in my mix. Alternatively I could just buy a pre-made starter mix, but I wanted to save money and its a learning experience as well.
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digdirt2
13 years ago
Like your neighbor said the standard recommendation is to strip away the pot when transplanting them.

Many discussions about the problems with them are over on the Growing from Seed forum here and lots of pictures of stunted transplants and root bound plants still in the pot have been posted. So many that experienced growers won't use them at all. But since you did, the pots are easy to remove prior to planting so you can avoid all the problems. Simply soak the pot and then tear it off.

Those who have NOT had problems transplanting with the pot intact are the minority.

Dave
digdirt2
13 years ago
Like your neighbor said the standard recommendation is to strip away the pot when transplanting them.

Many discussions about the problems with them are over on the Growing from Seed forum here and lots of pictures of stunted transplants and root bound plants still in the pot have been posted. So many that experienced growers won't use them at all. But since you did, the pots are easy to remove prior to planting so you can avoid all the problems. Simply soak the pot and then tear it off.

Those who have NOT had problems transplanting with the pot intact are the minority.

Dave
homegardenpa
13 years ago
I've grown seedlings in peat pots for years - but only because I like to cut down on the trash I make. I guess I could get better slightly better results using the plastic cells, but the plants I grow are strong and healthy with thick stems and take off soon after transplanting - most with flowers and small fruit and they are now approaching 4 ft. tall in 24" cages - huge by most standards in my zone given the current date.

All that being said, I do strip off the pots as much as I can easily, but I don't fuss with them too much. If the roots are already into digging into the pot, I just peel off as much as I can while minimizing any damage to the roots and then I put them into the ground. After that I'll take all the peat pot scraps and throw them into the compost pile. The tomato roots can definitely go through a peat pot, but I don't like to force them to have to.
euarto_gullible
13 years ago
I personally think Americans get overly worked up about disturbing the roots of tomato plants. When I lived in Macedonia, they sold grocery bags of wet bare root (and I mean bare white) tomato seedlings. People would take them home, poke a row of holes in the ground, pour water in the holes, and stick the bare root seedling in them. While it stressed the plants, and they were wilted for a couple days, nearly all of them bounced back, and produced heavily. In comparison, removing a plant from a container and tickling the roots out seems pretty tame.
If you are really intent on not disturbing the roots, you could try making soil blocks, which completely eliminates the need for any container at all, and which is probably the ultimate way to avoid transplant shock (though not worth the extra labor in my book).

Here is a link that might be useful: Making potting blocks.
msgenie516
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi again!

Thank you all for your help. I think I will coax the bottoms of the pots off when I plant the tomatoes. I am now concerned about leaving the peat pots totally intact.

However, I did purchase a Brandywine plant from a nursery that was started in a peat pot and I planted it, pot and all. This plant seems to be doing fine and has grown quite a bit but, as another poster mentioned, the pot was ready to fall apart when I planted it, so I guess that's why it's seems okay.

Thanks again for the help! Genie
susan2010
13 years ago
You can simply score the pot with a utility knife, just to give the roots some easy exits.

My experience may be different from others, but I've never found tomato plants to be overly sensitive to root disturbance during planting.
aloha10
13 years ago
Hi There, msgenie,
As usual, lots of good advice here. However, while peat pot bottoms have been thoroughly discussed, noone mentioned the tops. When you plant, either bury the entire pot or tear off the top rim. It can wick moisture away from the soil if significantly exposed to the air above. Just for the record, I use 16 oz. styrofoam or plastic cups for my seedling transplants (whatever is currently scroungeable). Don't like transparent plastic though. It just seems like the resulting plants are runts of the litter. Guess tomato roots were designed to work best in the dark. I have also found that tomato transplants are pretty tough critters and would not worry much about root damage. They are the Hostas of the veggie world when it comes to transplanting. Bringing them all the way to lucious fruiting is another story.

Is it okay that I started my tomato seeds in peat pots?

neohippie

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Is it okay that I started my tomato seeds in peat pots?

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