Product Review: Haxnicks Root Trainers

Last year I bought two sets of Haxnicks root trainers to avoid the frustration of collecting toilet rolls for weeks to grow my Broad Beans only to find them squashed in the recycling bin just before I needed them! So having now used them for two growing seasons I feel qualified to comment on this particular product.

The root trainers come in a range of sizes the most common is the 32 cell 12cm deep root trainers. These are in the form of a ‘book’ of 4 cells that hinge at the bottom and open for easy removal of the seedling this allows the plant to be planted with minimal disturbance. The kit comes with 8 of these books which pack into a frame and have a clear cover which sits securely on the frame.

This year at Eastertime, I planted up the root trainer with broad beans, sat it in the tray, watered it well, put on the cover, crossed my fingers and went on holiday for two weeks. As it was quite warm over Easter I expected to find shrivelled brown seedlings when I got home. Instead, I found almost 100% of the Broad Beans ready for hardening off and planting. I was quite impressed.

I was even more impressed when I planted the already oversized seedlings out and found how quickly they overcame the shock of being planted out, they recovered and were growing well within 2/3 days.

I have also used this product for growing my French Beans this year and last year and was very satisfied with the results the only exception was the last lot which I failed to harden off sufficiently before planting. So far I have only used these for beans but they would be useful for any seedlings which produce a long root e.g Corn, leeks. Another advantage is that because they are quite narrow they don’t require a lot of soil to fill.

On the minus side the root trainer books are incredibly fragile and have to be treated gently though replacements can be bought you would need to get quite a few years use to make them cost effective.

Jude