Module tray replacements.

Hi All’

I am wanting to cut down on plastic use in the garden as they can’t be recycled. I have loads of pots which I am in the process of sorting out, and they ones I don’t want I am going to give to the mental well-being garden around the corner for them to use. Currently I only have about 10 module trays that are any good and new some new ones. I was looking at the containerwise ones that are injection moulded so are more robust and are guaranteed to last 10years +. They are pricey at around £5 each, but think that the investment over the 10 years would probably save me money rather than buying flimsy ones.

Does anyone use the containerwise ones and if so what are they like?

Rusy

 

I have some commercial plug trays - a more robust plastic than the one-time Module trays that go through the garden centres. Mine are quite big (if not careful they flex in the middle), but apart from that don't need any support (the thin type of module trays usually need to be supported in a seed tray). I bought a whole carton thinking they wouldn't last but I'm still using the half dozen, each year, that I first used half a dozen years ago ...

But I only have the small, plug, sized ones ... and I don't want a whole carton of any other size!

back in the day my mother's bedding plants used to come in a wooden seed tray, pricked out to a fixed spacing. So the plants had to be dragged apart a bit tog get the out, when planting-out. Mind you, getting some plants out of flimsy modules mucks their rootball about a fair bit!

Mine are about £1 each ... but you have to buy a carton of 90-ish :(

I've never managed to find a source for the containers they use for Cell Grown Trees, but I have had plenty of plants grown in them, perhaps only an inch or so square, but sufficiently deep that the plant happily spends its first year in them. I'd like some of those - I suspect they are individual containers within some sort of "carry tray" so that they can be spaced out more as the plant develops.




Root Trainers is perhaps the other option? I've never got on with all that faffing hinged plastic ... but they are popular and the likes of Sarah Raven swear by them.

I haven't got photo of individual cell plants I have bought, but do have some of the "bundles"


Holm Oak




Oak / Holly



Holm Oak (foreground) and Holly (behind) once potted up

 

Hi Kristen,

Thanks for the reply. Do you know the name of the company you bought yours off?

Rusty

 

LBS Horticulture. One of the most chaotic mail order companies I have ever dealt with ... but I get all my bulk supplies from them

Plug Trays - Trays & Bedding Packs - Pots & Trays

But those ones don't look as nice as the ones I have ...

Mine are 84 cells. The other thing wrong with trays that huge is when you don't have one variety to fill the lot. I fill them up with everything which needs pricking out, but being different they grow at different rates, so some get moved on to e.g. 9CM pots and then they leave gaps all over the tray ... but I still have to accommodate the whole tray on my staging until the rest have grown on enough to be moved on.

I could cut the trays up (after all I have plenty!) but a good part of the rigidity comes from the "edge lip". But having said that I haven't tried cutting them up. I could cut them to "seed tray" or "half seed tray" size. Actually, that's a god idea now I've had it!

 

The tray to the left (Nicotiana seedlings) and there is one on the top shelf, under the square LED, too

 

I don't use those small cell containers. I use soil blocks. No plastic. Then if the seedling emerges, the block is potted up. If not, it goes back into the bag to be used again. No waste. No plastic.

 

Doh!. I've got one of those, bought it last year to reduce my plastic footprint ... never got around to trying it ... its still in the box!

Thanks, I'll dig (sorry!) it out.