This is why I hate peat pots. You gotta keep 'em moist, so eventually they rot sooner than you want them to. I used them for rooting some calibrachoa last year, and after a few weeks, I slipped each pot into a regular small plant pot with soil.

I stopped using Peat pots for that reason, they either dried out or if I used to much water, they got mold on them so now I use the plastic cell pack which I like way more. Stan

My limited experience with peat pots showed that the same seedlings, planted at the same time, germinating at the same time, watered the same amount after they were transplanted at the same time some to styrofoam cups the others to peat pots, the peat pot plants did not grow as well as the others. the cup planted plants left the peat plants in the dirt!!

I think they should be taken off the store shelves. People who use them who dont know any better, will undoubtedly have a very negative experience with growing in them and if these people never try anything else, they are likely to give up on gardening all together.

I think they could use the peat material to make hanging basket liners (some competition for the coconut liner people).

Originally bought a bunch for poppy and other seeds of hard-to-transplant varieties. But learned that even poppies can take transplanting when very young and tender.

Would never use 'em now. In fact, hate the darned things, have lost many a seedling over the years. One day I just fed them into my shredder.

GaryStPaul

has anyone ever tried the fiber pots? I saw them for the first day today and they seem like if you want to transplant something with sensitive roots and really hate the peat pots they'd probably work better. I think they're made from coco choir and the ones I saw in the store cost the same as peat pots.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:220995}}

Ooh! they look like something I would like to try.Where did you see them for sale? I am getting to the point where I would gladly transplant ALL my seedlings into something different,just to save on all the work the peat pots are causing.

Water from the bottom. I usually let them soak
about half-up the pots. They can be hard to handle
sometimes when they are too wet..I have never lost
any seedlings. You need to keep an eye on them, they
can dry out quickly.

I saw them at the local ACE hardware.

I saw them at the local ACE hardware.

Same problem here... I water them from the bottom every day and they still get dried out. Now I just found mold on the soil of most of my peat pots today so keeping them moist and mold-free is impossible. I am switching to plastic from now on.

I've used clear plastic covers on all my trays and I've converted to peat pots this year for their decomposition and less plastics usage. The clear plastic kept most of the trays moist for more than a day in a window. the plastic held the moisture in even though my woodstove was 10 feet away from my seedlings. Like I said this is my first year, I usually use plastic and old dogfood cans, and wanted to try something new. I do notice how quict the trays absorb and disperse the water. Thats a trade-off you have to make for yourself

I found small plastic pots a dollar tree 10 for a dollar also 6" pots 4 for a dollar.

Let me start out by saying I'm no expert, but have been gardening, lets say 60+ years. I love peat pots because of easy plant watering and easy planting. Yes, I use all kinds of little and big solid containers but peat pots let me keep using two words, easy & reliable. This is my approach. Never buy a jiffy peat pot because they are too thick, too short and have no holes for water absorption. There are peat pots out there ½ the thickness of jiffies, aprox an inch deeper and most important they have at least 4 slits around the bottom that go up about ¾ inch. This all leads to easy watering by putting 18 pots in those black plant trays you see everywhere. Put the tray where you want it, put an inch or plus of water in the tray, come back next day to see if top is damp, if not, put more water in tray. Just keep top damp about 50% of the time. One more little item-----is the tray & water level? If not get that level out and make it so. This is nearly always necessary in my state of TN. When planting take your finger and with a little thump the wet bottom will fall off without disturbing the root system..Thats it, nothing fancy.

Direct seeded peppers in the fiber pots this year.Took the flat of peppers to field last week for transplanting.Had great trouble separating pots & damaged root systems.Tried to cut,tear,chew & *%&^#].Tell me how to separate-please-or no more of those fiber pots. my 2cs

thistle: Throw them in a pool & you'll have no place to swim in a month. ;-)

I broke a bunch of peat products into chunks of about a quarter inch, mixed them with pea gravel and a bit of soil. I planted outdoor succulents in the mixture and found it worked just fine.

I would not buy any peat products unless I found them at a yard sale for 2¢ on the dollar or less.

This is my first year using Peat pots (The Jiffy brand). I used the Jiffy strips inside the domes. Within a few days I saw a white wispy mold growing on top of the pots, as well as green and white mold on the undersides of the pots. My immediate action was removing all of the jiffy strips, spraying them down with 2 teaspoons of 3% hydrogen Peroxide mixed with 2 cups of water, put a fan on them, turned on my lights both for the tops and the bottoms of the jiffy peat strips. The mold was gone the next day. I wouldn't use jiffy pots in a dome environment, however I do like there 4'' pots, simply because you can see the water line when you are bottom watering.

When I started out gardening, I used the peat pellets. 99% of the seeds I sowed in them would die usually before their 3 week above ground. I wasted soooooo many seeds. I almost gave up gardening. At the time they were the cheapest, & I needed cheap. This year I put my foot down & bought seed starting mix & those Jiffy pots you see in the picture above my post. Parts of my house have been utterly taken over by various seeds. They need to be moved outside, but the earth apparently forgot what spring was. I'm in Louisiana: the place where we have mosquitos, shorts, & 80* on Christmas day. So this is very very odd for me to still have frost in March.

I used peat pots last year when I started from seed. Had every seed sprout & they all survived outside when I moved them. They are a pain to keep moist & I've had the white mold issue too, but it never affected any of my plants. They are cheap & biodegradable so I will continue to use them.