Hello everyone on my channel!

During the cultivation of seedlings, almost every gardener is faced with the problem of choice: what container to choose for his seedlings and where to get so many cups, trays or boxes?

During the period of the mass appearance of garden centers, many different containers for seedlings appeared in their assortment. The choice was quite large from plastic cups, trays with and without pallets for a different number of sections to peat pots of different sizes and shapes from round to square, from single to cassette. And it should be noted that all of them found their buyer. Someone immediately preferred plastic trays for the ability to reuse such containers. For example, I have used plastic trays with and without a pallet for more than 12 years and will serve for more. Comfortable? Of course, it’s convenient, besides, you don’t have to spend money every time on acquiring something disposable, you don’t have to guess every time where to sow or pick your seedlings.

Nevertheless, each time more and more seedlings are obtained, and containers are always not enough. Some gardeners, including myself once, preferred to add a natural product to plastic containers, namely peat pots.

I will not go into details and tell you exactly what volume of peat pots are, what shape, what composition they have, especially since the composition of such pots has also undergone great changes, and if earlier they are composed of peat and cellulose, now they have become less natural and have quite a lot of different impurities in its composition. Let me tell you about my experience with them.

I used peat pots as containers for picking seedlings.

What is the advantage and convenience of using such a container?

• there is no need to look for a place to store it for the next season, since it is disposable
• it is not necessary to extract the plant from it when transplanting into the ground, thereby damaging the root system, since it self-decomposes in the ground within a month
• it contains a natural component (peat), which is an additional food for seedlings

What is the downside?

• peat cups are disposable, therefore, it is necessary to purchase new ones every year, and these are additional costs
• under them, you still have to look for a substitution container, because when watering, they let water through
• when watering seedlings, they get very wet, fall apart and mold appears on them
• a plant in a peat pot develops much slower and worse, in comparison, for example, with a plastic container.

The main and main factor in order to abandon the use of peat pots was that when watering at a certain point they fall apart, which entails the destruction of the earthen clod, the exposure of the root system and the need to find additional containers for plant transplantation. The second important factor is that a lot of mold appears on them, not only on the surface of the pot, but also inside it on the surface of the soil. Mold has a very negative effect not only on the plant itself, on the surrounding space, but also on humans. The third argument for refusal was the high cost, if there are a lot of seedlings, there is an annual need to purchase a certain number of new containers. The fourth factor was the observation that a plant in a peat pot develops much more slowly and worse,

What containers do I use for seedlings?

For sowing seeds, as a mini-greenhouse, I use disposable food containers or plastic trays from food products, which are accumulated quite a lot during the winter.

For picking seedlings, in addition to reusable plastic sectional trays with a pallet and plastic containers without a pallet, I use various plastic cups from food products (sour cream, yogurt), paper and plastic coffee cups, edged plastic bottles from water, carbonated drinks , edged packages from under juices, milk. In a word, everything that is possible and that is at hand is used.

The advantage of this use is that you do not have to spend additional money on the purchase of consumables, cups and bottles are given a “second life”, after use, some containers can be washed and left for the next season (for example, plastic glasses from sour cream), or don’t mind just throwing it away.

Friends, share your experience and opinion about peat pots in the comments. Do you use them? What containers do you use for your seedlings? share, advise.

Subscribe, put , share your experience, stay tuned for new publications on my channel.