Kitchen Garden Forum

I am growing a load of french beans in toilet roll inards but have ran out. I was wondering if beans will grow ok in a plug plant thats about 1 inch squared? as i have some good trays from professianal field growers.

I need to grow loads for my polytunnel but need to not grow in situ as im putting black sheet down to stop the weed.

Any tips please?

Beans really do need a deep pot. I find that 7" root trainers always give very good results. They are not so expensive when you consider that with care they can be used many times over.

John

I have five deep root trainers and love them to bits, We grow all our broad beans,dwarf beans and sweet peas and one set we have had for four years and they are just starting to break down. They cost us about £7.99.ea.

Knowing how we seem to get through loo rolls in our house at a rate of knots, I'm sure your neighbours/work colleagues will be very happy to keep you supplied with their empties if you let them know what you need them for. I start collecting them in a carrier bag around Christmas time and by sowing time I've managed to collect all I need. Any surplus ones get torn up and thrown on the compost heap.


I think any container which doesn't have a reasonably deep root run will impair the progress of your beans, especially if they need to be kept in there a little longer than you'd planned for some reason.

Run out of loo roll cores ? Improvise. Don't forget paper towel cores, wrapping paper corres etc cut down to size. When they run out, cut strips one loo roll core length wide out of corrugated cardboard, cutting across the corrugations. Fold at 2" intervals into a square tube, cut off the excess and tie with sisal twine (which will biodegrade). Use in the same way as a loo roll core.

I am with Catherine there, I swear by root trainers. Having used loo rolls etc in the distant past, I found that the roots did not always break through the cardboard when it was too dry. If I kept them too wet before planting, the roots grew into each other - buy some deep root trainers, they will last for years (no, I haven't got shares in the company!).

Catherine wrote:I have five deep root trainers and love them to bits ... They cost us about £7.99.ea.

£!!!

I find 10cm pots fine for all beans. My local gardening centre gives away plant pots of all sorts of shapes and sizes. It's a bit of an old saw about deep rooted beans. I've never noticed any difference in eventual performance between beans raised in root trainers / toilet rolls / deep whalehide and those brought on in ordinary pots. I'm all for something being free. But then I'm tight.

I've had lots of success with Root trainers. Several of mine must be 10 years old or more. Even those which have split apart still work when pressed together in their cage.

I am using my version of paper pots to start my beans for the first time. They come out at about 6" long by 1" across and work fine. The only problems I have had are keeping them watered in the greenhouse as the paper dries out and one bean which decided to push through the side of the pot and eventually rotted off when it was developing a good top.

I also use them for my peas.

Hi geacher,
To come back to your original posting I really do not think that black polythene in a tunnel is a good thing. You will end up with soil totally baked and as hard as rock.
I have just converted one of my tunnels, that was covered with Mypex for some years back and had benches for propagating plants, to planting direct and it has taken literally thousands of gallons of water to get even six inches of soil. To me weeds in a tunnel are not a problem. I admit that my tunnels are commercial size but the fact remains that with a smaller tunnel the problem will still arise.
JB.