Kitchen Garden Forum

Six weeks ago I bought a pack of busy lizzie and geranium plugs from Morisons. They were in a mini type transperant cloche and the plugs were housed in a transparent gel. I potted the plugs in to 2 inch pots of compost. since then the plants have hardly grown at all in the greenhouse and on further exaination i have found the root system has not formed even though the plants are not dead. they have just not grown.
Has any one has a similar experience of these plugs set in gel and what is the cause of them not developing into stong healthy plants that I was now hoping would be able to plant out.
Help apreciated.
Regards brenjon

Hi BrenJon

I've bought plug plants in gel many times and grown them on for my hanging baskets. I have never had a problem with them and they've almost all grown into lovely plants. I did however, plant them up into 4" pots.

Are you using new compost?

Yes Chantel I did use new compost and I also gave each pot a sprinkling of Vitex Q4 perhaps this didn't help.
Regards brenjon

I've never heard of problem with this gel. I think that its just used to stop the plants drying out too quickly when they are on display.
If everything else has been OK like not too much or too little watering or conditions have not been too hot or too cold, I guess the problem is too much fertilizer. At this stage of growth a half-strength soluble fertilizer is far better than a sprinkling of the solid stuff.

If you think the plants still have life in them I suppose you could repot them into fresh compost. I've known both of these types of plant recover well from a bit of my forgetfulness in past. As they are still small I think that your 2" pots will do.
Busy lizzies like plenty of moisture down below but geraniums are best left to get on the dry side before re-watering.

Hope this helps.

John

I have grown plants from plugs in gel without problems and, I think, as long as you keep them moist, they should grow away as normal. Perhaps they have been too cold?

maybe the roots are tangled, try teasing them out a bit before replanting?

Mandy