I hate peat pots, they are horrible in my limited experience and opinion. I LOVE working peat into my potting and planting mix, it seems like great stuff to me. And my potted plants are thriving, and my germination rate is nearly 100% for everything I have planted.

This year I decided I would put my remaining Jiffy strips to use on a plant I don't really care about. Marigolds. I love them, but they are so cheap to buy I didn't much care how they turned out.

I planted them in Jiffy strips as well as 72 cell plastic nursery trays. I used the same potting mix in both. They are the same variety mix from the same packet. The plants in the Jiffy strips are not even half the size of those in the plastic cell packs.

I was quite surprised the difference ended up that significant. The Jiffy strips hold more mix per cell than the nursery trays do which makes it even more surprising.

Peat is really some crappy stuff. It gets dry by surprize, then pretends it's getting wet, yet remain dry on the inside.

When it's wet enough it holds the moisture enough to still feel soggy, the day before all of a sudden it's dry!!!! You get rot and drought all at once!!! It's a paradox!

You hit it right on with that comment! =) The peat pots steal all the moisture from the potting mic. I will never use them again. I do like peat pellets for seed starting in a mini-greenhouse. I also agree with rjinga. I usually work some peat into my pottting mix.

I for one really like to use 3 inch peat pots. I have a full time job and I find it is easier for me to water and care for plants with these pots.

I have plastic tubs that I put 25 pots in each one. I grow tomatoes and pepper seedlings.

I can put water in the bottom of the tub and all the pots soak up the water and I don't have to spend as much time watering.

I have been doing this for 5 years now and it works for me.

Jay

I like the little pots as well but I still had to damage the roots peeling it off, and I don't think you can really plant those pots. You can use a regular small plastic pot, like some plants come in, and still be able to water from the bottom.

I have been trying to find various sized pots like you get plants in, so I can buy a bulk number of them, but I must be using the wrong search word, I only can find "good" pots that you would keep a plant in.

I just went out and checked on my sage plants that looked fine this morning. One of them was drooping and when I looked the soil was all dry and withdrawn, IT LOOKED FINE THIS MORNING! I am planting these today so it really doesn't matter, just another example of peat pots.

Has anyone tried the cowpots? Similar to peat pots, but made with cow manure. I remember seeing them made on an episode of Dirty Jobs, and then I saw them for sale in a nursery this week. Supposedly they don't restrict plants' roots like peat pots will, but I'd like to hear the opinions of anyone who has used them on that.

cowpots...cool concept...I might use something like that next year.

I don't like peat's garden properties much and mining peat bogs isn't very ecological either. We want more carbon in the ground, not less. The fact that the hairy residue from coconuts costs so much boggles me though, it should be as cheap as shredded bark.

Coconut coir just takes more processing, though it is a bit overpriced compared to it's labor/processing area.

While I like a little bit of peat (1/4-ish) in my SEEDLING mix, I cannot believe people actually put this stuff in their outdoor gardens...and I have no idea how it got into general practice that the stuff is any good at all for clay soils, but it's just adding a water-sink to a soil that's already a water-sink.

I also like peat in my potted plants, too...but I've seen a lot of "soil mixes" for outdoor gardens that involving dumping a lot of expensive and confusing substrates together.

There's a popular peat/vermiculite outdoor mix advised by some that gives a horrible cost vs. benefit tradeoff along with being 2 very counterproductive and nutrient-less things to use in heavy amounts in an outdoor soil.

I also have reservations about the peat pellets, it seem their best application is for rooting cuttings. I find a good potting soil mix(with some peat) and plastic pots give me the best results for growing seedlings. This year the people who prepare potting ect. soils locally are offering the steamed rice hulls instead of the pearlite portion of the mix. So far this mix is performing very nicely.

I must be a lunatic because I like peat pots, at least for seed starting. I've never had a root issue, but I've only been starting seeds for 3 years so it could be lucky. I do rip the tops off so that there is no chance of them creeping above the soil, but that is it.

The fact that they dry out quickly is a bonus for me, keeps me from overwatering. You can tell at a glance they are dry and just dump water into the tray and let it do it's own thing.

I guess I am in the minority!

For those who are against using Jiffy pellets due to the peat why not use Jiffy CD pellets, their coconut fiber pellet? Tom

The purpose of peat pots/cells is that you plant your plants without taking them out/. But those peat stuff are to thick for most seedlings and you have to tear them apart. This does not make sense to me. I will not use them again. Instead I will use plastic compartmented trays. I can save them for the following year too. Actually I am saving those nursery trays with 12 compartments. If you have in the starting soil enough peat moss, the roots will cling to them and you can take them out without disturbing.

I have tried the cow pots ,I love them. Seeds that didn't come up in yes, the peat pods , came up in mir-grow garden soil and the cow pot.I think next year I am just going to use those and the garden soil,skip the starter soil all together.

I thought I was so ingenious this morning. I was cleaning the ice out of my ice maker, and getting some Jiffy strips ready to plant with a peat-based seed starting medium. My Eureka! moment was putting the ice on top of the filled strips and letting it melt there all day. I thought surely that would saturate the peat and I'd be good to go. SOMEHOW, all of the ice melted, and there is 1/2" of water in each of the trays, but the peat is still dry and repelling water. I will have to dump it into a bucket and knead it to get it to take up water. Crazy.

lantana: Haven't you heard? Peat hates water! ;-)

Haha, I know it can be hard to wet down, hence my idea with the ice. I just submerged the strips almost completely in warm water and weighted them down with cans, so hopefully that will force the water in. I have soaked okra seeds with the seed root poking out, so I've got to force the water into the peat somehow. Oil and water? Maybe the expression should be peat and water! :P

I dont like those peat pellets either, They dry out quick and are lethal to any plants in them when that happens.
I took most of mine and recycled them into my potting soil bag.

I was asked by a friend to start some marigolds for her since she would be out of town for several weeks. She dropped off a flat filled with jiffy strip peat pots, the seeds and a bag of starting soil. I planted all the seeds as well as a few lettuce and Tuscan kale seeds in the peat pots, and a few extras using the same soil and seeds in leftover plastic 4 cells saved from bought starts (I have always just used the 4 or 6 cell recycled seedling containers) I found all the plants in the peat pots did poorly germinating and now, 4 weeks later, all the plants in the peat cells are smaller and the first leaves of the kale plants have turned yellow. The plants in the plastic cells are doing great. All got the same fertilizer and were kept watered.

In the past I have bought some starts (cucumber and some melons) grown in the peat pots but always peel off the peat pots before planting.

I'll never bother with those peat pots again. Life, and the gardening season, is too short.

Maybe peat pots & pellets should come with one of those sauce injector syringe looking things...lol