Corn worries.

[amphibian]

Normally I start my corn off in root trainers, but this year I decided to give Jiffy forestry pellets a go, they're basically HUGE jiffy pellets.

The problem is the roots are growing through the side walls of the pellets and will probably start pushing into neighbouring pellets. What can I do to reduce this issue?

I am worried that the corn will suffer if the roots are disturbed too much at planting out. Will the corn be okay, if these external roots get damaged, providing it has good roots inside the pellet?

[amphibian]

[gwynnethmary]

I was thinking about paper pots as these seem to be working well for runner beans, sunflowers, and for potting on tomatoes.  Can anyone see a problem with this? -I'm a newbie!

[amphibian]

Paper pots work for corn, the paper holds the roots back until it gets saturated, the problem is the jiffy pellets are root penetrable from the outset. Tree nursery's place each pellet in a tray which separates it from the next, mine are squashed together cheek to jowl and the roots have just grown out the side of one and into the side of the next.

I'm going to gently price them apart and wrap each one in plastic.

[lottiedolly]

I use toilet roll tubes and plant them in the ground in the tubes  :)

[amphibian]

I use toilet roll tubes and plant them in the ground in the tubes  :)

I did a trial a few years a go with toilet rolls versus root trainers, I got better results across the board with root trainers.

I thought i'd give pellets a go this year, but after hand wrapping 140 pellets in plastic I suspect I'm not going to repeat the experiment.

Back to root trainers next year methinks.

[Jeannine]

Plant them on into 4 inch pots , they will be OK then, when the time is right plant them. Don't keep them cramped, corn likes to be left to go .It is best sown no more than 3 weeks befor planting out, if longer it sulks and goes dormant, it does pick up, but you can't get a quicker crop by planting early because  corn simply won't go for it XX Jeannine

[amphibian]

Plant them on into 4 inch pots , they will be OK then, when the time is right plant them. Don't keep them cramped, corn likes to be left to go .It is best sown no more than 3 weeks befor planting out, if longer it sulks and goes dormant, it does pick up, but you can't get a quicker crop by planting early because  corn simply won't go for it XX Jeannine

Thanks for the reply, my intention was to plant them out three weeks from now, as per the advise posted by you in previous seasons. I figured the forestry pellets being bigger than the root trainers would be a good starting medium and less fiddly than the root trainers.

These pellets are very large, about 6' deep and 3" across, I have wrapped each one in brown paper now in the hope the roots will just curl back into the growing medium. Quite a few of the roots snapped off, where they had penetrated into their neighbours pellet, others lost the fine hairs from teh exposed roots.. I hope the seedlings recover. If tehy don't there's still plenty of time for resowing.

I would pot on to 4" pots, but I simply do not have 140 pots nor the compost.

[Jeannine]

They are ready to go but a bit early, two choices.leave them as they are, they will sulk when planted out. or plant them out and be prepared to fleece them, they still might sulk for a bit..let your local weather decide for you.The pots sound great by the way and if OK to plant out now they have done a good job..as I am now in Canada can't help so much cos i don't know the weather. Good luck, it sounds as though the sowing was a great success. I wouldn't worry too much about the roots growing through, you only have to get them over a bit of a wait for the weather to be OK,. Iften plant things with the roots coming through.

XX Jeannine