T.P. Tubes

Has anyone ever used toilet paper tubes for seed starting.
Your supposed to fill the tubes with your medium and plant your seeds..
When ready to transplant cut some slits in the bottom of the tube and plant the whole thing.

It sounds like it might work. Does anyone know??

Paul

I use toilet roll middles for Sweetpeas (Lathyrus odorata)since they need the extra length for roots.

The big drawback is the fungus that grows rapidly on the cardboard after a week or two, it doesn't seem to affect the plantlets but it does sometimes encroach on the top of the soil where it can begin to cause problems. I powder the top with ground cinnamon when it starts to happen. The second is the rolls don't always stand up well after they've been wetted a few times, you need to pack them in a tray next to each other to keep them upright. I sometimes cut the rolls in half to sow other seeds as well, bearing in mind the fungus.

They are good for quick growing seedlings that will be planted out or potted up in a short time, I find about 4-6 weeks is the maximum.

Baa, Mavie Rose uses a peroxide and water solutuon to control fungus. Wouldn't that work here for Paul? I think it's well worth the try.

"eyes"

I don't know Eyes it might.

I'm not keen on using bleach or other detergents as pesticides except when washing pots, just a personal preference.

Camiolle tea works great to control fungus.
1 tea bag to 1 quart of water, let stand for 24 hours.
Spray seedlings once a week.

Paul

Paul

It's not the seedlings it's the cardboard that has the fungus problem but you could try Chamomile tea on it.

Eyes

A reason not to use bleach is because the cardboard wouldn't stand up to the chemicals

Here is my spin on the TP for sweetpeas -- I took a zip lock freezer bag folded down the sides put as many tp rolls as I could inside to help the bag/rolls stand up fill with the starting mix - plant and pull the sides up - the plants are up and running no fungus but I can tell the sides of the tp are showing some breakdown but I think the boom to the long roots of the sweat peas will fair better this year than last.