Seed Starting Tray That Will Last a Lifetime!
Seed Starting Tray vs. Soil Blocks
Many gardeners know that the controversial topic of seed starting trays and soil blocks is all based on personal preference. The major difference in the two is all about time efficiency whether you are planting in a seed starting tray or you have all day to make soil blocks. It is no secret that making soil blocks are a time-consuming process that can take up half of your day trying to get the right consistency of potting soil and creating the blocks to plant in. While seed starting trays are quicker and easier to prepare for planting and provide great benefits for transplanting plants. The seed starting tray allows for control when planting in the greenhouse. Instead of waiting for temperatures to warm up you can get a jumpstart and prepare plants in the seed starting tray to have them ready to go in the ground when weather conditions are ideal. Overall, choose the best technique that you prefer but think about the most time consuming and money investment of both the seed starting trays and soil blocks.
Our Seed Starting Tray vs. Store Bought Seed Trays
On this week's episode, Travis talks about our popular seed starting tray that is used for vegetable transplants. Our heavy-duty seed starting trays have 162 cells that make for productive and healthier transplants in the greenhouse. They are reusable and durable are guaranteed to outstand in other cheap flimsy seed starting tray from the big box stores. Due to the durability, they will take any kind of abuse and will truly last a lifetime. We like to use these trays for transplanting several different vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, lettuce, kohlrabi, tomatoes, and peppers. To determine when the transplants are ready to go in the ground is really simple. Once the stem on that vegetable plant becomes strong enough and the roots are well developed you will be able to simply grab the stem of the plant and pull it right out of the seed starting tray. If they do not pull up out of the trays easily then you know they are not ready to go in the ground. Another tip is they pull up out of the cells a lot easier if the soil is dry this will make planting in the ground easier as well. Another advantage of our seed starting trays versus the cheaper store bought seed trays is the individual seed cells. Our seed trays have cells that are shaped like an upside down pyramid and they have a vertical root training rib. This root training rib allows the roots of the plant to grow downward ensuring better aeration and root ball drainage. Unlike the store bought seed trays that have square cells where the roots grow around the soil and become root bound. With the proper root training ribs from our seed starting tray, they allow for transplants to go in the ground with already established roots that are growing downwards in the soil. This will increase higher quality transplants that will produce quicker and suffer less transplant shock when moved from the tray to the ground. We recommend using our OMRI registered Pro-Mix Organic Seed Starting Mix with these seed starting trays. This seed starting mix works great for easy transplanting that offers better root ball formation and decreases transplant shock for more productive and healthier plants. Each bag of this mix contains 16 quarts, meaning one bag of the mix will sufficiently cover two of our 162-cell seed starting tray which is enough to grow 324 transplants in the greenhouse.