Using the peat pellets in seed tray -

[Tomstrees]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions ~
Its go time for me tonight ...
All seed production the "new way" (seed tray) starts today !

Wish me luck ~

Tom

[daylilydude]

Good luck !! Tom but i gotta ask who did you do the seed starting before ?

[sirtanon]

Originally Posted by Gimme3

Tom...somethin else you can easily do if some come up and you want to keep the dome down for those that aint up yet, get a bag of translucent 2-3 ounce plastic cups...take a drill press or a hand drill w/a good sharp bit (about 3/16ths dia.), and you can drill 3 or four at a time, drill em in the bottom and sides, then a sharpie marker writes on the cups well, jus pluck out the ones that come up an stick em in the cups an mark.

Gimme, I've used these exact same little cups. I think I buy an 80 pack or something like that, for about $1.94 at Walmart, and it takes less than 5 minutes to drill out all 80 of them - Small bit, cordless drill, stack 5 at a time and voila!

They're the perfect size for the Jiffy-7 peat pellets, but I found that I actually preferred just using my own soil-less mix with them.

Either way, the cups are very convenient, unless you're working a LARGE scale, in which case I would wager it could get time consuming moving around hundreds at a time.

[feldon30]

Peat pellets? I'm gonna start calling Tom "Indy" since he likes adventure.

I just do MG or Scott's Seed Starting mix ($3.50 for 10 qts) in Ferry Morse 72 cell flats with domes ($9 for 3) and get excellent results. No more experimenting for me.

[Tomstrees]

I usually start all of my plants (literally 100's) in peat pots in metal trays with saran wrap in a south facing window. I know - primative, but has worked for years ...













But this year? Yes I'm venturing out on limb to try new cleaner easier methods .... seriously venturing out ionto the unknown ~

~ Indy Tom (aka NJ Rook)

[kwselke]

Tom,

I never thought about using disposable aluminum baking trays. That's a great idea.

Ken

[Tomstrees]

Ken -

As long as the peat pots are spaced pretty far from each other and not too much "over-crowding" , watering from the bottom has never been easier ~
Also, I always use room temp. 24-48 hour distilled water ; and that rooms usually about 70 degrees F ... (South facing window ect.)

Using this method , I usually have tomato seeds up in 4-7 days; pepper seeds in 10; and herb seeds in 2 ...

Dwarf project seeds however, are on their own schedule ~

~ Tom

ps.
been using those trays for 4 seasons - washed of course with diluted bleach ...

[feldon30]

I guess peat pellets are an incremental step away from peat pots.

It goes to show that it's not just the materials, but the person using the materials who makes the difference.

[Tomstrees]

The thing I want you guys to know is:

These peat pellets DO NOT HAVE mesh on them ...
They inflate to be ... well ... peat/soil stuff -

I'll take a picture for you guys ...

~ Tom

ps.
the real reason why I've been using peat pots for years?
A neighbor wanted to through away 700 of them !!!
I told him - hey man ... where you going with those ???
~ lol ~ I'll use em !!!
I transplant to large plastic cups anyway ~

[feldon30]

Hey, can't argue with free. And the fact that your peat pellets are not meshed takes away most of the concerns with them I think.

These things are guidelines, not rules.

[kwselke]

Tom,

As I said, I used a 36 cell Burpee tray with the no mesh pellets in January. I loved it. I figure next year I'll just soak Jiffy mesh pellets, peal off the mesh and refill the cells. For my new Ferry Morse windowsill systems I'll probably use the mesh pellets and transplant to foam cups asap.

Good Luck,

Ken

[daylilydude]

I hope not i've been using peat pellets for years and my father used them also and the only "problem" is that sometimes you find that lil pellet in your garden but with me i just till them in cause they do decompose and it just adds to the compost that i put in every year anyways.

[Tomstrees]

lol ~ you're tellin me Feldon !???! ~ lol ~

Tom

[Tomstrees]

again ~ lol ~ sorry for any confusion !
These peat pellets that came with the kit,
have no "mesh" on them ~ I'll take a pic this weekend ~

This item is made by Burpee ...

~ Tom

[kwselke]

My only problem with the mesh pellets is that they dry out faster than the plants in plastic pots. I just have to pay more attention to watering, especially since I stagger seeding over a three to four week period and have plants at various stages of development. This year my furnace was actually running and I was surprised how fast things would dry out.