Hi folks,

Just returned from the Home Depot. I have a bad habit of striking up conversations with total strangers. Today that habit yielded some great information. The lady I was talking to today does not WS but she early sows many things inside. She was told that many things will bolt if transplanted and she swears she never has had one plant bolt using this method.

She uses 1.5 - 2 inch PVC pipe OR plastic lined 9 inch paint rollers. She scavenges or buys a length of PVC (white not grey & not black) and cuts it into 5 inch lengths. If she is using a 9 inch paint roller she cuts it in half. She fills these tubes with sterile seeding mix the kind that come in the smaller bags and specifically marked for starting seeds. She fills the tubes with mix and stands them up in a dish pan. She sows the seed on top & covers the dish pan with another same size dish pan and uses clothes pins to keep them together. She told me that she keeps the set-up in a warm room with no special lighting. Bottom watering when necessary. She then keeps watch over the set-up until she has sprouts and when she has sprouts she puts the entire set-up (top removed) under her inside grow lights. I asked her what veggies she does this for and she said Florence fennel, parsnips and some others which I do not remember now. When the plants have 1 set of true leaves she sets them out in her garden under water bottle cloches. Must be careful not to disturb the long root ball as this is supposedly what causes bolting. She uses a spare piece of tubing to make a perfect hole in the ground for planting. She said she uses the 16 or 20 oz water bottles depending on what she can get from the trash where she works. She leaves the plants under the cloches until it gets 2-3 true leaves or until outside temp gets too warm for cloche. She also said this procedure prevents/reduces some insect and disease damage.

She told me she gets the paint rollers from the dollar store 3 to a pack = 6 planting tubes. (Make sure the paint rollers are lined with plastic inside NOT hard paper) She said she gets the PVC pipe from HD or construction sites. Just walks right up and asks if they have any pipe they are throwing out. I love a fellow dumpster diver!!

I know there are some chemical issues with PVC and if you are concerned with that you could always line the inside of your pipe/roller with a quart size ziplock bag and fill the bag with soil - using the pipe/roller for support for that long tap root.

Just thought I would pass this along as I have read several postings here about folks using toilet paper rolls to WS. Now I am off to Dollar Store to get paint rollers for my Florence fennel. DH and I are going dumpster diving this weekend there are a few new neighborhoods being built not too far from here. He does not know it yet ;-)

Happy planting!!

DL