Cell growing?

Discussion in 'Greenhouse Growing' started by mazambo, Oct 13, 2018.

  1. mazambo

    mazambo Forever Learning

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    Does anyone sow seeds in cell trays? I had some lavender plug plants this year and it seems very efficient, all the plugs had great root growth and weren't competing with each other, I can imagine very small seeds would be time consuming to separate but is the time worth it? And is cell growing worth the time?
     
  2. Mike Allen

    Mike Allen Total Gardener

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    Cell sowing can be a great asset. Those who resort to it are usually delighted at the root growth. This of course is a great advantage to pricking out etc. Especially most useful when sowing larger seeds. Then of course, the finer seeds including alyssum and lobelia, where a sprinkling of seed per cell in time provided you with a nice mini-clump. All in all, cell germination and propagation, as cells are great for cuttings. Perhaps the drawback is. The area is space the cell trays take up. So. You win some and you lose some.
     
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    • Ned

      Ned Evaporated

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      Hiya @mazambo. My job at the nursery involved propagation, and I found it better to sow seeds in a seed tray and prick them out into cell trays.
      The exception would probably be annual lobelia, which can be a right pain :rolleyespink:
       
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      • pete

        pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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        I always use cells for onions, 3 or 4 seeds per cell, but other than that, most of what I grow these days is best pot sown and pricked out into larger pots.
        Having said that it works well for beetroot in a similar way to the onions.
         
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        • WeeTam

          WeeTam Total Gardener

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          Love my roottrainers. Great for garlic especially.
           
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          • strongylodon

            strongylodon Old Member

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            Previously, I used to have to grow around 2/3,000 lobelia for Weymouth parks summer bedding and I used to sow in 8x5 cells, as the seeds were separate pellets I used to have to attempt to tip out 5/8 pellets per cell, it took me a long time!!!. In the last few years of work they (at last) produced multi seed pellets which sped things up no end.:blue thumb:

            After many decades of seed sowing I have become very lazy and I tend to buy mini plugs now and grow them on on cells trays.
             
          • Scrungee

            Scrungee Well known for it

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            I use cells for virtually everything, either sowing directly into them (especially larger seeds) or pricking out seedlings into them and, rather than using pots or seed tray, I sow seeds for pricking out in individual/strips/blocks of cells from 40x, 24x & 15x trays, then I can snip off individual cells for pricking out and immediately free up valuable propagator/growlight space.

            I tend to cut 24x cell trays into 4 blocks of 6x, 40x trays into 4 blocks of 10x and 15x trays into blocks/strips of 3x, 6x or 9x, as again 'potting on', planting out, etc. keeps freeing up space for something else.
             
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