Peat plugs or buttons for starting seeds

[mickey]

Last year I used two 72 plug trays to start my seeds. the plants grew about four true leaves and when i moved them to pots. the roots where hard to remove from the plugs. I went to using a bucket of water to help separate the roots from the peat. But I still lost some roots from the plants. is there a better seed starting mix or tray to use?

[ceara]

I always use Pro Mix for seed starting. It's never failed me yet.

It comes pretty dry in the bag for the most part so it's important to give it a watering before sowing seeds, or by the time you add water the seeds will fly everywhere in the tray.

So I fill up the trays, water it, then sow seeds, and barely cover.

[mnjrutherford]

I dump my potting soil into a bucket, dump in water, and give it an hour or so to hydrolize. I use the same "Wet and Wait" principle when making bread. It gives maximum flavor to the end product and the yeast performs better as well.
After the potting soil is moist, then I load the trays, pots, or whatever.

[plantsnobin]

I'm not really clear on what you used-do you mean you used jiffy pellets? If so, they are meant to be planted directly, you plant the whole thing.

[canadamike]

I totally agree with mjn on both soil mix treatment and breadmaking ;D And my experience with peat pellets is not as good as with cells. Either, if the pellets touch each other or are very close and moist, roots will travel from one to another. If there is space and it is a bit dry, plants will tend to self prune the roots and build up within the pellet. Timing is of the essence with them moreso than with cells, although we tend to sow too early almost all the time, in our desire to see something green at last.

mjn, ''hydrolysis'' is the break up of a water molecule in ''H'' and ''OH'', one being a cation and the other an anion. That is what happens, as an exemple, when a complex sugar, like a starch molecule, is reduced in 2 smaller ones. One part leaves with an ''H'' ( Hydrogen) , and the other with ''OH''( hydroxyde).

You probably mean ''hydrate'' or moisten

[mickey]

Jan 30, 2010 14:10:57 GMT -5 @plantsnobin said:

I'm not really clear on what you used-do you mean you used jiffy pellets? If so, they are meant to be planted directly, you plant the whole thing.

The seeds are so small that I put more than one on each plug, so when I potted them I had to separate the plants that grew two or three to a plug. no problem with the plugs where only one seed grew on the plug.

[mnjrutherford]

Nope, I actually meant "autolyse". This is the word used by Maggie Glezer in "Artisan Baking". We was both wrong Mike! Well, you were not wrong. I led you astray. Did you have any fun as I did it?

[ceara]

www.premierhort.com/

That's what I mean by Pro Mix. Not sure if there are different brand/bags in the USA or not.

I do not always buy the "seeding" type and will buy whatever is on the shelves. So sometimes I start seeds with the "potting" bag or "potting and seeding."

If you use the little jiffy pellets and have to put in multiple seeds because they are small, all you need to do is pinch out one of the plants, preferably the weaker. Yep, it's hard to kill one of your "babies" but you gotta do what you gotta do. Beats splitting the pellets apart.

Speaking of pre-wetting the mix, there's a video on YouTube of a guy trying to show a tutorial on how to start tomato seeds. He puts dry potting mix into the cell tray, pats it down gently and covers with a bit more mix. He seems really pleased with his work, until he begins to water the whole batch. Then you see him trying to rescue the tomato seeds because they all moved around. hehehe And this is one of the expert village series!

Oh! P.S. Get yourself a "dibber." This can be an actual dibber you buy (which can be expensive), a pencil or even a chopstick! Go from the side of the plant, under the root and lift up while holding the seed leaves. Seed leaves are stronger and can take some handling. I use a teeny tiny trowel that came in some silly herb window garden kit someone gave me a few years back.

Might try looking on Google video for a series called "How to be a Gardener." There's a Part A and a Part B. The guy in the video is a famous face over in the UK. Little old ladies drool all over him because he's "cute." lol Right now he has some stupid talk show, but he used to be on BBC Gardeners' World show. I heard he's supposed to start a brand new BBC gardening tv show for 2010.

Here is part A

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6320912252148666793

Now these videos are mostly about flowers, garden design and soil, but he shows how to start plants from seeds and you can see him separating Lupins in a seed tray with a camera close-up using the method I mentioned above. I don't know about you, but I learn best with a video example. You can learn more in 5 minutes of video versus reading text in a book for half an hour.

[ceara]

Oh and another tip. This is good for some plants that can handle a bit of root disturbance more than others. I would not use this method for rare or expensive seedlings though for obvious reasons.

After you dib out a clump from your seed starting tray, hold the clump a few inches above your table or workspace and drop the whole clump. This makes them easier to separate. I used this method with lettuce, tobacco and tomatoes. They didn't mind at all.

[mickey]

Thanks for the tips, I have a hand cranked grain mill, I think I'll coarse grind some mix I have to use to start seeds. and use a old table fork to dig up the plants to repot them. That way I can get away from the plugs that tend to stick together. ;D I can't bring myself to do away with my baby's ;D The weather and the hail and bugs do that for me. ;D

[maricybele]

I lost nearly half my rare seedlings using the plugs, there were many negative factors last year during the start process, but I wont be using them again. It is my feeling that it's not as fluffy as cells with soil, vermiculite, perlite and a little peat worked better for root development, I never got to see the roots growning out of the plugs .