Growing Guide with Seedling Tray

Why should you give seedling trays a shot?

Using seedling trays is an effective way to get help your plant growing indoors. Seedling trays help your baby plants grow, with ease and minimal effort without interfering with one another. Whether you don’t have an outdoor space to grow plants or you’re looking to grow them indoors before transplanting them outside to a garden bed – using seedling trays is an excellent first step.

Seedling trays are helpful with indoor gardening if you’re a novice who is beginning to learn the ropes of gardening or just someone who has a busy lifestyle but still wants to enjoy time with their plant pals!

Preparing the seedling tray for your seeds

• You can use a vast host of growing media for your seedlings, such as a dampened mixture of coco coir (ground up coconut husk fibers), perlite, and vermiculite.
• This particular combination promotes root growth, holds moisture well, and allows any excess water to seep through.
• The purpose of the growing media is to provide your plant with air, water, and nutrients. You can use alternatives such as peat or compost as well!
• The soil needs to be wet because it gives the cells enough moisture. When you are adding the media to the seedling tray, make sure it is piled up to the top of the seedling tray.
• You can use another plate of similar dimensions placed on top of the seedling tray to pat the soil media flat.
• Make sure you leave a little bit of space. You don’t want the water to spill everywhere, should you accidentally over-water.

Sowing your seeds

Before sowing your seeds, you want to make sure if they are viable or not. You don’t want to waste time and effort on seeds that won’t grow at all. It all depends on the shelf life for the seeds of a particular crop.

• Empty your seed package into a bowl of water and let the seeds sit there for 15 minutes. If the seeds sink, it is okay to sow them. However, if they remain float – it is unlikely that will sprout any time soon.
• Read the package for the seed mix to find out if there are any particular instructions that you need to follow before sowing your seeds in the seedling tray. There are several tools that you can use for this.
• A vacuum seeder lets you be able to speed up this process. But you can use your hands and fingers to achieve a result that is just as good.
• Poke a 0.25 inch (6.4 mm) deep hole in the seedling tray using your finger, which is roughly half the length of your fingernail.
• How deep or shallow the seeds need to be from the surface will vary from plant to plant. Read the seed package in case there are any specific instructions.
• Cover the seeds with the growing media again.
• Use your fingers to gently press down on the soil to make sure the seeds are in contact with the growing media.

Maintaining your seedling tray plants

• After sowing, it is common to water your seeds immediately. You can cover up your seedling tray with a plastic wrap.
• Plastic wrap creates a warm and wet environment, which is crucial for germination to take place. The tiny holes at the bottom of the seedling tray will ensure that there is no excess water collecting and that enough air is reaching the seed.
• Finally, Place your seedling tray in the warmest part of your house. For example, on top of a refrigerator (this is very warm) or on a window sill that gets plenty of sun exposure.