Kitchen Garden Forum

Got some of these for my birthday along with a propagator and a sub to KG Mag (yaaaaaaay).

I’ve never used root trainers. Are they good for all plant types? I’m assuming you wouldn’t want to put any root veggies in them as it states the long tap root will die back upon contact with air. They sound useful for getting a good root system going before you plant into the veggie bed.

Sweet peas love them….oh yes, that’s not a vegetable.

oldherbaceous wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 9:58 am Sweet peas love them….oh yes, that’s not a vegetable.

Lol

There are two depths, I only use the deeper ones. I use them for peas (2 per cell), broad beans, runner beans, sweetcorn, sweet peas and gourds every year. This year I experimented with leeks. Instead of sowing them in a pot then lining them out to grow on before putting them in their final place I sowed thinly then thinned to a couple in each rootrainer cell and let them grow to planting size, seemed to work OK. I think they are brilliant though a little expensive.

I'd never have thought of using them for leeks Geoff, what a great idea. WIll definitely do that next year! Thankyou.

I’ve used them for a few years now, mainly for broad beans, peas, runners and French beans. I’ve found them really good, they definitely help to develop a good deep root system before planting out. It can be a bit of a delicate process I find though extracting the plants from the modules when planting out!

I sow my sweetcorn in them, works a treat

I have used root trainers for years and always had a great results.

This year my germination rates for

Peas
Broad Beans
Runner Beans
French Beans

have been very poor. I keep the root trainers in the utility room so it should be warm. I have used the same compost - why have my germination rates been so poor ?

Pea and bean poor germination in rootrainers seems to be down to moisture content or vermin. Having said that I can't get sensible germination of borlotto beans however much care I take.

Ah, this might explain my sweet pea germination rate in the root trainers… 2 out of 50 seeds sown. No vermin in the conservatory so assuming not enough water?

Or might be the compost Myrkk? Seen a lot of posts online saying this years peat free is even worse than last year, not from the content of twigs & stuff as that has improved, but just the compost itself. Maybe the twigs & bits held some moisture??

There are a lot of twigs