Alan gets a head start with plug plants
Alan Titchmarsh explains how to care for plugs, from arrival through to planting out. Photos by Sarah Cuttle
Plug plants are good value for money and give you a head start in the growing stakes
ome people feel guilty about buying plug plants, reproaching themselves for not being proper gardeners and raising new plants from seeds. But we all need a helping hand now and again – whether it’s because we left it too late to sow or simply don’t have the facilities to raise a lot of plants in the traditional way. Plug plants have become an economical lifesaver – a halfway house between a seed and a mature plant, they are good value for money and give you a head start in the growing stakes. The key factor, as with most gardening operations, is timing. There is always a temptation to rush impatiently at seed sowing and planting out, fearful that we’ll miss the boat and that our plants will be late to flower or crop. The reverse is almost always true – seeds and plants sown when the weather has turned more favourable will nearly always catch up and overtake earlier sowings and plantings. They’re much happier to be committed to the earth when it has warmed up, rather than sitting there sulking in cold, dank weather. This is as true with plug plants as with anything else, which is why early May is the perfect time to set them off on their journey – when the weather is, in most years, much more propitious for their rapid development. You’ll find plug plants offered for sale by post in a wide range of varieties and from many different outlets, and you can opt for flower or vegetable plantlets, depending on your requirements. Which you choose is entirely up to you, but some veg seeds are so easy to germinate at this time of year that personally I would always resist buying such easy-to-grow crops as lettuces, radishes and spring onions as plugs, simply because their seeds will come up in a rash within a week or two of sowing. Most other crops offer much better value. Also worth buying are small plugs of bedding plants, such as petunias, nicotianas, French marigolds and the like, which need a fair amount of heat to germinate. There’s a great feeling of satisfaction to be had in getting a head start and making sure the next leg of their journey is successful. Plug plants also require less heat and humidity – if you’d raised them yourself from seed, you’d have needed a warm greenhouse or propagator to provide the right conditions. Still, that doesn’t mean that plug plants can be put straight into the garden. If you do this, they will, like as not, be polished off overnight by slugs, snails and other
pests, being small, tender and vulnerable. They definitely need a bit of cosseting and growing on before they have a sufficiently robust constitution and enough top growth to see them through the first few weeks after planting out. Then, once they establish their roots into the soil, they’ll grow away rapidly. Plug plants come in a range of sizes, and the smaller the plant, the longer it’ll need to be looked after before it can be planted out. Plants the size of your little finger are the most delicate of all, while those with a rootball the size of an egg cup are rather more resilient. So you need to weigh up the more reasonable cost of smaller plugs against the convenience and greater expense of larger ones. That said, all plug plants will have a welldeveloped root system that gives them a far better chance of survival than younger seedlings that only have a small, fragile root network. Just like larger container-grown plants, plugs have an in-built robustness that is lacking in smaller seedlings, which gives you a far greater chance of success, especially against fungal diseases such as damping off, which can rapidly devastate trays of seedlings during the first few weeks.
Plug plant care
You should always unwrap plug plants as soon as they arrive, and check they’re healthy and undamaged. These plants are usually packaged and sent out very efficiently, so should all be in good condition. If they’re not, then reputable suppliers will offer replacements, as long as it’s not down to you being away for an unreasonably long time after they were delivered. Do make sure you read (and follow) all the instructions that come with your plugs. Suppliers want you to succeed with their plants – as they would like repeat orders – so it’s seldom worth flying in the face of their advice. After checking the newly arrived plants, give them a really good soak. If the rootballs dry out, they’ll be very difficult to re-moisten and the plants will rapidly become desiccated. Stand them in a tray of shallow water, holding the rootball under water until bubbles cease to emerge from the compost. Only then can you be sure they’re not dry at the roots. This is worth doing even if the compost seems moist – you won’t drown the plants by giving them one good soaking on arrival. Then stand the plants on a bright windowsill, in a porch or a greenhouse, to let them sit up and fluff out their feathers for a couple of days, before potting them up. Give them another good watering before you plant them into pots or trays – the rootball should be moist or even soggy. Those growing in what look like multi-celled plastic egg boxes can be released from their confinement by pushing a pencil up through the hole in the base, so the rootball simply pops out. Some of them may have a kind of netting around the rootball. You may be tempted to remove it, but in doing so you’ll
Don’t plant out anything until its roots are really well established in the pot or tray
damage fine roots that would otherwise happily grow through it, so leave it in place. Plant plugs into trays of multi-purpose compost, about 5- 8cm apart, or into individual 8cm pots. Larger plugs can be potted into 10cm pots. Water them well after transplanting and stand them in a bright frost-free spot to grow on for a few weeks – a cool greenhouse is ideal, and a porch or a windowsill are good alternatives. How long should you grow them on for? The time will vary according to the plants’ growth rate and their size at the outset, but I wouldn’t plant out anything until its roots are really well established in the pot or tray, and the top growth is about as big as your fist. And remember to harden them off, to toughen them up and get them used to outdoor conditions. Treated kindly and sensibly, plug plants can be a real boon, allowing you to grow a wider range of plants than your limited propagating facilities might otherwise allow. Just give them some care in the early stages and they’ll reward you handsomely.