Peat Pots – How NOT to plant!
Over the past few days, as I’ve been nursing my sunburn and my poor demented psychodog, I’ve been trying to rehab the raised bed garden a bit. It settled by about 33%, and
One of the things I had to do was to transplant the Sequioia strawberry. It’s one of those plants that apparently didn’t enjoy being submerged in water, and since I was about to put about a foot of dirt over it’s current root level, I figured it should move. The Sequoia was an impulse purchase, a Bonnie plant that I got from Home Depot. It came in one of the newfangled peat pots. I stripped the top of the peat pot off, but planted it pretty much as-was.
A month and a half after planting...
Two months later, only the strongest/thickest roots have penetrated the peat pot. The peat pot itself is soft and comes apart easily — but not all THAT easily. Once you peel it away in places, you realize exactly how much of the root ball is still bound up in there.
I made a bunch of holes in it where I could without damaging the root ball further, and I hope it’s going to be happy in it’s new soil… which should be MUCH higher quality than the soil it was in, should retain water better, and will no longer regularly flood the root ball.
In the future, I’ll be sure to either fully remove the peat pots or to cut them so that the roots can escape more easily.
When I plant in peat pots I usually try to pull apart the bottom. And, usually, the bottom comes off in my hand. So I end up planting the pot, but only as a wet, torn mess. This works ok. I don’t really think the whole “the peat pot will disappear!” theory is quite right. It’s like wearing a bathing suit in the bath, I think.