Gardening Tips, Informative
Plug Plants: Where to Start?
Why choose plug plants?
Seeds are much cheaper, but sowing and growing them successfully involves buying lots of propagation equipment and germination can be difficult as well as pricking out tiny seedlings being a fiddly job. Planting plug plants gives you the luxury of having a professional grower to take care of the troublesome early stages and to step in once the young plants are a more established and then grow them, each in their own plug of compost, until they are ready to be potted up into their final positions.
In short they save you time and hassle when compared to growing from seeds.
Caring for plug plants?
Potting on
Plug plants should be potted on into larger pots or trays as soon as possible after you have bought them.
You should water your plants so they are just moist. The best way to do this is to place them in a container of water and allow them to soak it up from the roots.
You can fill a small pot or seed tray with good quality, free draining multipurpose compost and make a hole in the centre, roughly the same size as the plug plant· Gently pinch the bottom of the plug and push up from the bottom gently holding it by the leaves. Place the root ball in the hole ensuring the stem is at the same level in the compost as it was before and firm the compost lightly around the plug.
Gently water the freshly potted plants and allow any excess to drain away. Place them somewhere well lit, ventilated and reasonably warm such as a greenhouse or windowsill. After 2 – 3 weeks feed them with a balanced liquid feed and repeat every 10 to 14 days.
Hardening off and Planting out
Once your plants are sturdy and well grown, you can harden them off ready for planting outdoors. This just means acclimatising them to lower outdoor temperatures for a week or two by putting them outside in a sheltered spot during the day and bringing them back in at night. If temperatures drop below 5°C keep them inside until the colder weather is over.
When the plants are well rooted into the compost, and the risk of frost has passed, your plugs should be ready for planting out into their final position. Water them well 1-2 hours before planting out, and again when in position. Once in the ground, water regularly, especially in dry sunny spells.
Where can I get Plug Plants?
Our plug plants are available both in store and online from mid to late february. Click here to see range.
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