Sorry I cannot answer your question but am anxiously awaiting a response from the pros here as I was thinking of using 3 inch jiffy peat pots in a large plastic container to WS sunflowers and others that do not like transplanting.

Dorothy

What kind of plastic is the bin?? Is the bin clear or at least almost clear, with the exception of the lid??

Anything that lets light in will be fine. I would be more concerned with the jiffy pellets. They are pretty small and will dry out really quickly. When I used them indoors in the past they needed near constant attention.

Peat pots also dry out really quickly. For something like sunflowers which germinate really quickly and grow fast I just direct sow after the last frost. But, because they do grow so fast... I would think peat pots would be okay for them. You'll be transplanting them so quickly that keeping them watered won't be a big deal.

I can't speak from experience but I've read an awful lot of negative posts about peat pots on the GW forums. If you do a search you can probably read them and decide for yourself. The main objection to seed starter pellets and flats has been the fact they dry out too fast but secondly they provide an insufficient amount of growing medium for what are truly amazing roots. I CAN vouch for the roots of WS seedlings being incredible after seeing what I removed from my own containers last year. Holy cow! Some seedlings with no more than an inch of top growth had roots that were six inches long. I used 3" of growing mix in my containers last year; this year I bumped it up to 4" just because of the roots.

Using plastic or styrofoam drink cups has been reviewed and gets favorable marks from folks on this forum.

I used the peat pots last year for my sunflowers,they were a pain to mess with,dryed out really fast.
I had them in a clear plastic underbed container, covered with palstic.
cAROL

Thank you - You are the most supportive group on the WWW. I was planning to do exactly what cAROL did -

Don't you love it when you can learn from others.

Last year, I used a strategy that Lynda [ lgslgs] suggested. I planted thousands of seeds in 3" square pots, 28 pots to a tray. I used other containers too - plastic containers and styrofoam cups. I put each tray in a clear 2 mil plastic bag, and closed the bags with banker clips. Then I put the trays outside in a partly sunny location.

As you'll see in the photos below, I tried several strategies - 2 and 3 liter bottles, and even built a hoop house.

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I put a flag in each tray so it made a little plastic tent over each tray. It was easy to regulate the heat by moving the trays into shade or unclipping. The 3" pots were most stable and were great for HOS too.

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The trays inside clear bags worked great so I'll do the same thing this year. You can be creative with WS!

Thanks for the info! I guess I will go and get me some solo cups and go that route.

I was also wondering, can you grow carrots like this? In hunk-o-seed fashion? I was worried because I thought that carrots don't like to be transplanted......

Carrots and beets are among the few things that I direct sow. Never tried WSing them. Seems since the whole point of growing the plant is for the root, they'd be best left undisturbed to keep the root shooting straight down. I think they'd survive transplant but produce weird gnarly veggies. And they do very well when direct sown.

Karen

I ws'd carrots last year. They did ok. I ws'd because it's too hot here in the fall to sow a fall crop to hold over winter, and I wanted them early in the spring. I transplanted when very small.

I'm not sure they really did any better than direct sowing, though. When I direct sow carrots, I seed, water gently, and then place a board over the seeds till they sprout to keep the moisture in. This provides some of the same protection (not all) you get from ws, but without having to transplant.

Pam, you were really paying attention on this forum last year! I'm proud of you for building that hoop house.I hope Token sees the hoop house you made and your pictures. I have a question..what type of plastic bag do you have your trays of pots in and won't a good strong wind toss those bags about? Do they have drainage holes and air circulation holes?
I have 4 inch pots here and I'm running low on milk jugs and I was wondering if I planted in my 4 in. pots and put them inside a clear, Sterlite container that has drainage and air holes in it from last year, would they be okay and not dry out.

Maybe somebody will pop in and give me their opinion. I placed syrofoam coffee cups and cold drink cups in those same sterlite containers last year and after the 55 in. of snow melted, it made the back yard so muddy that I couldn't get out there to check on the cups and they dried up.

Re: wind blowing stuff around.

Last year in April wind blew away all my containers, most of which were already sprouted. Most were 6 to 8 one gallon jugs in sterilite bins. Most all were lost.
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This was about a dozen tomatoes in 16 oz cups, and there was a brick in the bin for weight, too.
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Just about everything was lost and I had to start over in April. My results weren't very good.

Karen

OMGosh,black pots, of course,I am out of containrers,and have 1,000s, of pots, where is my mind today.
I love you guys,:0)
cAROL

All my seeds are sown in black plastic pots - either deep cell (4") trays, or 4 wide x5" deep commercial square pots :) Drying out is never ever an issue here, other climates may vary.