Containers for Pricking-out

Surely pots are tapered for ease of storage? Especially important when dealing at the manufacture or wholesale stage.

I use two methods for pricking out.

1] A local nursery that specializes in annual allows me as many of these 84 cell trays as I want.




I cut them up to the size I need. They have a finger sized hole in the bottom over which a lay a wee square of newspaper.

2] I've used this method for perennial Lobelia and Salvia; I put three or four seedlings into one 3.5cm pot to grow on. To pot up from this pot I remove the rootball(s) and separate by gently teasing apart as I dunk it in a bowl of water. The only trick here is to use a mix of 60/40 or 70/30 (ish) of MPC and perlite (I actually use bean bag filling balls).

 

So they come out of the cells more easily because of the newspaper?

 

No - it's there to keep the potting medium in. The paper breaks down over a few weeks. But the finger sized hole is generally enough to push them out anyway.

 

I have done something similar to this years ago tho. I used standard white sink waste pipe cut into lengths of about four inches, main problem was getting them to stand up, I put them in a tray and tied string round them. Then get them out to plant or repot I used a short piece of broom handle to force tehm out from below all worked quite well.

 

I understand your frustration with small cells - they often seem to do more harm than good, especially if the rootball sticks to the sides. I find the larger cells more amenable.

However, last year, I put a lot of small seedlings into old-fashioned open seed trays. They are far easier to care for as are much more tolerant of inconsistent watering/ feeding etc and save as whole load of fiddly work as they can usually stay in one container from pricking out to planting. Also, there is much less chance of them becoming pot-bound which is a mistake I have frequently made with my lazy and haphazard gardening techniques. I think it's better to maintain an open rootball which might get a bit damaged than to let the roots curl up into a tight little plug from which they will never escape.

Washing the rootball in water to release tangling is a good tip, @longk, might try that.

@mowgley, a tenner for 500 pots is pretty good - they are a decent size but would be flexible as they are all separate units. They would need a lot of labelling to keep track of, though.

 

Why the need for all this effort of cutting pipe to size and worrying about root damage ..
I have always used standard seed trays (once purchase you retain them) and prick out 40, 54 or even 60 per tray ..
Then when potting up needed just tap the whole tray out in one divide and pot up ..
The root disturbance is minimal and does help the plant to establish quickly ..
You will still need some form of trays to house your tubes .and I think the multi cells come out easier when new and well watered beforehand ..Personal choice ..

Dave

 

Hadn't thought of that, but for me I think it would be more work. When I am potting on Size-A to Size-B I can tool up for that and be productive - I can fill pots with a "template" for the new plant and then just drop them in from their original container. If I take them out of seed trays they will have to be potted up, each with a different rootball size, which I think will be slower. I also wonder if the root disturbance will set them back.

I'll give it a try this year and try some side-by-side. Whereas I was dead set on using some tubing I'm anxious about just adopting that this season as I haven't tried it, so I'll do a hundred or two in tubes, similar quantity in open seed trays, and the rest in 1" modules as I did last year as I know how they behaved and thus that will be my control for the test

 

Works best if the mix is light as described though................

 

The root disturbance will be minimal and if the plants are growing well the rootballs will be similar size .. You may get varying rootballs if growing a mixed variety of a particular plant.
I feel the root disturbance would help the plant establish quicker .With a little practice I think it would be quicker to pot up this way.
You may well do this already, make sure plants have been watered a few hours before, then tap your tray on one short side first, then on one long side, the whole tray can be flipped out in one, the plants then easily fall apart for potting .
Would be interested to see how your trial goes ..

 

Decided that the Blue water pipe 1" pieces was a bit of an unknown quantity so went with the 84-cell trays.

On the upside:

They are tapered, and have a large hole in the bottom, so should push out easily.

There is a pusher-board available but it was out of stock - just as well as they seem to cost a lot of money (or the price is for a whole box of them - which I obviously wouldn't need!!)

Downside:

Not sure that the hole, although finger-sized, is enough contact with capillary matting for irrigation. Can solve that by irrigating from above (which I don't like much) and having the capillary matting there just to "redistribute" any excess that drains through.

The plastic is reasonably stiff, but is not going to last "forever".

I will, in parallel, make a trial of blue water 1" piece. They will have the benefit that I don't have to allocate a whole tray, or a cut-in-half one, to a specific variety - they are capable of infinitely expanding to fill the space required.

 

Just an idea but i wonder if a piece of foam/sponge on top of the capillary matting would work...i'm thinking if the foam is soaked the weight from the cells might give better contact....

 

Six Salvia hians seedlings in a 3.5cm pot that needed potting on!
After teasing apart.................

(Shows the airy mix well)

The dunking water..................


Job done...........................