For the indoor seed starting, we had previously assembled a stainless steel shelf. Now the next step is to get the starting trays that will rest on the shelf. I'm trying out this kit from Burpee.
When you open it, the kit contains a couple of components. The first component is a seed chart. Since all seedlings look pretty much alike, this would be useful in helping identify what we planted where.
The next is a thin plastic elevation panel.
The plastic is VERY thin and in our case, some of the legs was crushed in transit from the store. They pop back easily enough and since we're not supporting heavy weight, the flimsy feel can be forgiven.
The next piece is the tray itself. This particular tray contains 72 pods.
Each pod contains a small compressed pellet. The pellets are made of coconut material and should expand within seconds after being watered.
When we peer down into the pod, we notice that the bottoms have holes. This is for the self watering function to keep the growing medium damp.
The next component is the self watering mat. The mat is nylon on one side and soft spongy material on the other.
The final component is the water tray. This is also very flimsy. I'm a little more concerned about this one's flimsiness because we cannot afford any leaks or the self watering feature won't work.
The assembly sequence for use is simple. Start by placing the elevation tray in the watering tray.
Now evenly place the watering mat over the elevation tray, ensuring that the watering mat's sides touch the watering tray on both sides.
Now the seedling pods is placed on top of the watering mat. Water is kept in the watering tray which is wicked up by the watering mat. The seedling pods being in touch with the watering mat, absorb the needed moisture and keep the growing medium moist.
Spacing of the seedling tray on our shelf seem to fit nicely with room to spare. We can fit 4 trays on our shelf which would give us the ability to grow 288 seedlings at a time.
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