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Some hardy seeds can grow directly in the the ground they will eventually be planted (ie: your vege patch or flower garden) however other seeds are extremely small and delicate and have tremendously better survival rates if they are nurtured through the first few weeks, protected.
You can tell. This is serious stuff.
Plastic trays can be purchased from your local plant shop, or you could try recycling some polystyrene or plastic packaging. Either way, remember drainage is really important (so if there are no holes, be sure to make a number of them at the bottom, approximately the size of a holepunch hole).
Some trays have individual compartments which suit larger seeds and others are open trays. Often seeds are so fine you cannot simply &#;put a seed in each compartment&#; rather, scatter them on the soil and hope that they make it (some packs have 300-500 seeds enclosed)! A selection of both types of trays are handy.
You can recycle the seedling trays and use them over again, however if you buy them cheap you will get what you pay for. Cheap trays are prone to splitting and cracking after the second or third usage (from own experience). The more robust the tray, the more life you will get out of it.
Some trays will come with a plastic lid (this is to help germination). If you don&#;t have this don&#;t panic. The idea is the plastic helps retain heat and there are plenty of other ways you can do this without stressing over a lid. Plastic cling film works, or bubble wrap should too, or a perspex sheet of plastic that simply lays over the container. Or nothing (as we did).
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Leak-Proof Seedling Trays.
No cover for us, but given our grow-your-own-vege challenge we thought we&#;d give ourselves a good start and build a greenhouse (which we will blog about shortly).
Commonly seen on store shelves lately are paper seedling pots. The jury&#;s still out on these. Some look like deep egg cartons. Supposedly once the seedling is ready for planting outdoors, you bury the lot and the paper composts away etc . I am yet to be convinced. If the seedling outgrows the pot it becomes root bound regardless whether the pot is paper or plastic. And, you can only use them once.
We did a bit of research into planting in regular old egg cartons. While lots of fun for the kids and a cheap option, I think it would be too restricting for roots as the cartons are deceptively shallow. After seeds have germinated they can stay in their container for 3-6 weeks (or more). Some seedlings grow at a rapid pace and their root systems can hinder growth if the trays make them root-bound.
We did have a go at using the recycled paper variety. Unfortunately the seedlings needed to be repotted into bigger pots (as the garden bed it was to be planted in wasn&#;t ready) so we had to cut away the sides to get the roots out. We found some of the roots had already had started to grow into the paper walls so involved some ripping (not so good for the delicate roots). To be fair, they are designed to be planted &#;as is&#; and we haven&#;t had a chance to test that theory yet.
It is really important that whatever container you use has sufficient drainage. This involves holes in the bottom so water isn&#;t trapped for long. While we don&#;t want seeds/soil too dry, they can get easily waterlogged and rot. If you are using a plastic seed tray with holes in the bottom, be sure to &#;punch&#; them out fully before adding the soil otherwise they can clog up (yep, from experience).
Just like a regular pot plant, while the container has drainage, it&#;s good to have a saucer underneath. It keeps things nice and tidy and avoids dirty water dripping where it shouldn&#;t. In the heat of the summer months it is also handy to retain a little bit of moisture in the tray (which by default gets sucked back up the drainage hole and keeps the soil moist).
Saucers can be really expensive! We had thought a car drip-tray could work nicely but they were so expensive we flagged that idea. We ended up using some plastic lids from a storage box and foil oven trays (curled up at the edges to make slightly deeper). Worked a treat.
Rediscover the joys getting back to basics and growing.
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