On my 1st grow I placed the starter pellets directly into a 5 gallon pail full of soil once the seedlings were established. Next time I will be growing in 5 gallon hempy buckets full of perlite and would like to use an intermediate container full of soil to get the roots well established before planting them in the perlite. Are peat pots truly biodegradable? Will they break down rapidly enough to not impede root migration or should I risk some transplant shock and remove them completely from the intermediate container and into the perlite? Thanks.
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These plants are pretty resilient. I’d transfer to the final pot. If it isn’t 3 feet tall you should be fine.
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I tried items like peat pots twice and didn’t really like them. Switched to rapid rooters and never looked back. I’ve never moved them to straight perlite though. Sounds like they may be worth checking out.
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Thanks for the replies guys. I’ll grab some rapid rooters.
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I wouldn’t recommend the peat pots (from personal experience). They will sometimes wick moisture, and they do limit the horizontal growth of the plant’s root structure. If you use them, I would make certain to peel away the bottom before transplanting. My recently harvested plants came out healthy, but the roots were definitely stunted a bit from the 5" peat pots I used in the first transplant. The peat will degrade over time, but certainly not during your grow. The rapid rooters are a good idea. 
Good luck.
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I’m going to follow dbrn32’s advise and go straight from rapid rooter to 5 gallon pot.
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I don’t use nothing for my seeds outside the 18-24 hour soak. Then 48 hours in damp toilet paper. Which is really ironic as I am growing 4 plants in which the seeds fell into the toilet.
Then the seeds go straight into their final pot. No transplanting whatsoever. I have my growing technique running smooth sails.
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Hello. Late to the game, but wanted to comment on this… I do use peat pots (though am switching to coco-based pots). I have not had any issues using coco in the peat pots, but I do have some steps I take. A) I cut lines down the pots vertically to allow more air-flow. B) I cut holes at the bottom C) I watch moisture content carefully D) I add a ton of mycorrhizal inoculant to the pots, especially around the outside. When they are put into the final grow bag, I cut out the bottom and smear more mycorrhizal on the outside of the pots (spray them with compost tea first). As far as how fast they break down, I had a few males pop up a while back, only a few weeks into transplant, and when I pulled them out, the pots were gone… completely broken down. I chalk some of this up to all the microbes and enzymes I put into the coco along the way. As for roots, they had already grown out in every direction, and fine feeder roots were abundant. That’s just my experience and is in no way a scientific argument, but all good so far, and I’ve been using them for around 15 years, off and on.
I should add that seeds and clones are started in plugs (Root Riot or equivalent) and then transferred to peat pots with coco when roots are sufficiently developed. That is, I think, an important caveat.
Just curious - when you’re transferring the seed from the TP to the pot, is it basically just a taproot? Are you sprinkling down mycorrhizae in the soil where you place it? Wondering if that works the same as touching it to a seedlings roots.