As they say you learn on your mistakes… I had a look today (Fri 2 March 2012) on my bean and pea seeds sowed in paper pots. They came up very nicely – shoots just emerged from the soil. They also grew nice long healthy roots – this I know as the roots broke through the paper pot and were sticking happily outside. My mistake was to sow pea and bean seeds into quite shallow pots. This did not provide enough space for the roots. I took a quick rescue action and stuck the seedling together with the paper pots into the soil. This created an additional third row of beans and peas on my plot. These plants I will treat as a replacement in case any of my outdoor sowed bean and pea plants would die.

Pea seedling with radical extending outside the paper pot

Pea seedling planted with their pots

I also sow two rows of beetroot ‘Boltardy’ seeds today. This is a very hardy variety resistant to bolting.