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I think we can all agree options are good- but give us too many options to choose from and we can easily feel overwhelmed. And as a result we may find ourselves failing to make any sort of decision at all&#;
This is at least how I felt when I was just getting started growing flowers and was trying to decide on which seed starting trays to purchase.
I mean, no one wants to spend money only to find out later that they invested in the &#;wrong&#; trays&#;am I right?!
And so today, I&#;m hoping to put your mind at ease. In this blog, specifically- I thought we&#;d discuss the pro&#;s and con&#;s to some of the different seed trays out there on the market. I&#;m also going to share with you some of my favorite trays to use; and even give you some considerations to think about when you&#;re selecting your own trays.
So if you&#;re wanting to learn more- let&#;s go!
(Psst.. Want to skip the explanation and get right to the good stuff?! I got you covered, this tray is my absolute favorite for starting seeds; and truth be told, it&#;s the one tray I use most on my small flower farm)
Now in general, all seed trays serve the same sort of purpose- they hold your soil in place so that you can grow healthy transplants for your flower garden.
By planting your seeds in a single tray, it makes it easier to treat your seedlings all the same as they&#;re in the same container. You can water the entire tray at once. You can transport your seedlings at once- you know, when it&#;s time to plant you just have to handle a single tray and bring it out to the garden with you.
For the most part, all of the seed trays that you will encounter, they have the same overall length and width. And they can typically all fit inside a standard bottom watering tray.
The biggest difference among trays is really found with the number of cells they contain.
Cell counts vary widely in trays and you can commonly find trays that have 32-cells, 50, 72, all the way up to 128, 288 and beyond.
Now, the more cells in a single tray- the smaller each individual cell will be. So for example, the cells of a 50 cell tray will be larger than those in this 72 cell tray.
Choosing which cell count to use is based partly on preference and how much room you have available to seed start. And then it&#;s based partly on the needs of the seeds you&#;re growing.
You see, the size of a cell limits the growth of a seedling. Smaller cells leave less space for seedlings to grow.
Ideally we want to give the seedling as much room as it needs to expand its roots and put on top growth so that it really thrives before we put it out in our garden.
During the growing process, if your seedling runs out of room to grow, generally, what happens is that the seedling becomes root bound. When this happens, the roots of your seedling become so entangled that they have a hard time absorbing nutrients from the soil.
Now some seedlings can bounce back after becoming root bound but it&#;s better if we can prevent this altogether as root bound plants can experience stunted growth, delayed flowering, or in extreme conditions, they can just flat out not survive.
Understand that the purpose of seed starting is to produce a robust plant start. So giving our seedling the proper amount of room to grow is important.
Like I said, in an ideal situation we&#;d give our plants as much room as possible. But for a lot of us who grow seedlings on any kind of scale, the problem is that we often don&#;t have unlimited space.
I have a number of wired shelves where I grow all my plant starts. The shelves are 4 feet wide and so on one shelf I can fit 4 trays.
If I&#;m growing my seedlings in 32 cell trays that means one shelf can hold a grand total of 128 seedlings. You know, 4 trays times 32 cells.
Now compare that to if I were growing my seedlings in 72 cell trays. Suddenly that same amount of real estate on my wire shelf is enough to grow 288 seedlings- more than doubling the amount of seedlings I&#;m able to grow in the same amount of space.
Can you see how it&#;s a fine balance between maximizing the space you have available so that you can grow as many seedlings as possible with also doing what&#;s best for the health of your seedling?
For me, the 72 cell tray (with a few exceptions) is sort of the compromise between these two factors that I just mentioned. The reason that I often encourage new growers to start with the 72 cell tray is that for most flower varieties, the 72 cell is sufficient space for a seed to grow into a large and bulky enough plant start without requiring you to repot it before it&#;s time to to transplant into the garden.
And if I&#;m being really specific, my absolute favorite seed starting tray is the 72 cell seed tray that comes from Bootstrap Farmer. I believe that I&#;ve shared in past YouTube videos how I stumbled across the Bootstrap Farmer brand- but 5 seasons into growing flowers, I can honestly say that I haven&#;t found a tray that compares in strength and quality to this tray.
Even full of soil the Bootstrap Farmer trays don&#;t buckle- they&#;re a really durable tray and for me, it&#;s worth it to spend the extra dollar or two per tray because I know that I won&#;t need to replace them near as often.
So let&#;s discuss some instances when I would choose to use a different tray.
If you&#;re struggling with germination with some of your seeds- tools like heat mats and humidity domes can be useful in helping you achieve those ideal situations for your seeds to germinate.
While I look at my equipment as a necessary investment in my business- sometimes you just don&#;t have the extra money to spend so that every tray has its own heat mat and humidity dome.
And so one of the ways around this may be to use a smaller-cell tray to start with. A 128 cell tray is great because you can start a good number of seeds in a small space- and this single tray fits nicely on heat mat.
In my experience, you just have to be careful that you&#;re monitoring your 128 and smaller cell trays to make sure that they have enough space for your seedlings to grow until they&#;re ready for transplant. You may find that you&#;ll need to bump up your seedlings into a larger tray so that they can continue to grow until it&#;s time to plant them outside.
Speaking of more room, if there&#;s one flower variety I definitely recommend you give plenty of room to it&#;s sweet peas. Sweet peas are known for their large root system and for that reason I always use a 50 cell tray when starting my sweet pea seeds.
In recent years, I&#;ve actually switched to using these 50 cell extra deep trays for my sweet peas as it allows for more root development.
We actually use these deep 50 cell trays for an increasing number of our crops- we start our ranunculus and anemone corms in these and I even pot up my paperwhites bulbs in these trays
All of these varieties that I just mentioned are flowers that can benefit from a little extra space for their roots.
Now before you go crazy and grow all sorts of flowers in these extra deep trays- I will caution you, in my experience these trays are little more difficult when it comes to regulating moisture. Personally I feel like these trays don&#;t wick up moisture from their bottom drain holes as well and so I often find myself overhead watering when I&#;m using these trays verses bottom watering. And I just find it a little more difficult to actually gauge the amount of moisture at the very bottom of these deep cells.
I think it&#;s much easier to maintain a consistent amount of moisture in any of these other more standard trays that are just 2 to 3 inches deep.
This next tray that I want to share with you is a little unique- it&#;s a 20 row channel tray. This is something I&#;d recommend if you are someone that hates sowing small seeds.
We all know the struggle that comes when you&#;re trying to sow something like snapdragons or herbs like oregano- the seeds are just so tiny it can be difficult to even decipher what&#;s a seed vs just a speck of dirt. I&#;ll admit, some seasons I have the patience to sit at my seed starting station I&#;ll use a moist toothpick to pick up each individual seed and put it into its own individual cell within my cell tray.
But other seasons, I find myself in a hurry or I just don&#;t want to bother with the especially tiny seeds. And in these instances, I will pull out my channel trays.
The purpose of this tray is that you&#;ll fill each channel with soil, you&#;ll indent your soil to create a small &#;channel&#; for seeds to be poured into. Unlike a cell tray where you&#;re placing one seed into each cell. With this tray you&#;re simply pouring seeds the length of your channel. Usually a single one-hundred seed packet is enough for one channel. As you can imagine this is a huge timesaver for getting seeds started.
Now I&#;ll treat my channel tray like any other seed tray- and I can fill more channels if I&#;d like- but I&#;ll usually put this on a heat mat and place a humidity dome over time. Once the seeds have germinated and my seedlings have put on just a little growth- I&#;ll pop these out of their channel and pot them up in my favorite 72-cell trays where they&#;ll continue to grow until I&#;ll plant them out in my garden.
For a lot of people, having to handle these baby seedlings is much easier than having to deal with the eye strain that can come from trying to separate tiny seeds into individual cells.
A channel tray is a two-step process instead of just one like when you&#;re seeding directly into a cell tray- so you may have to do a little trial-and-error to see if this process works for you, but it is a great work around especially if you&#;re someone that struggles with planting small seeds.
I&#;ll also use a channel tray if I have a flower variety that doesn&#;t have great germination. By planting lots of seeds in a single channel and then only bumping up the seeds that actually germinated I can avoid those instances where I have trays that have lots of empty spaces because the seeds I planted there simply didn&#;t germinate.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit cheap seed starting trays.
Now the last tray that I want to share with you today is a new tray that I&#;m trialing this season. And I&#;m honestly pretty excited about these.
So far in this post, I&#;ve shared with you the different types of trays that I use for my own seed starting practice. Realize however, that there is another method of seed starting that eliminates the need for any sort of tray at all.
This practice is what we call soil-blocking. Instead of planting your seeds into soil held in place by a tray, you plant your seed into a cube of soil.
There&#;s some great benefits to soil blocking- the biggest one being that it prevents your seedlings from becoming root bound.
In a cell tray, when your seedling&#;s roots hit the side of the cell, they&#;re forced to grow downward in a spiral, and left in the tray too long they&#;ll often circle the bottom of the cell becoming root-bound as they tangle together.
Soil blocking, however, avoids this problem. When your seedling&#;s roots reach the outer edge of the soil block and actually come in contact with the outside air, they experience what we call &#;air-pruning&#;. What this means is that root- it dries out and stops outward growth and signals secondary root development within the soil block. Overall you get a more developed, fuller root system for your seedling.
Despite these amazing benefits, I just don&#;t have the patience myself to plant my seeds into soil blocks- it can sometimes be a finicky process and I just much prefer the convenience of seed trays.
Air prune trays are sort of a hybrid method of seed starting that allows you to experience the benefits of soil blocking because the trays are designed in such a way that your seedlings can air prune themselves- but they have the added convenience of a tray.
I&#;ll be curious to see if my seedlings that grow in this tray are in fact healthier than those grown in my more standard trays. For this season, I&#;ve only purchased a handful of these air pruned trays so that I could get a feel for how they perform for me.
My plan is to use them on flower varieties that are particularly sensitive to root disturbance. My thoughts are that if I can grow a more robust root system on those sort of plants, they&#;ll likely transplant into my garden much more smoothly and overall perform better as they&#;ll have less chance of transplant shock &#; that&#;s at least my theory.
I will say that these trays are an investment. Still, they are incredibly well-made trays so I have no doubt that I&#;ll be able to use them for many seasons and in that sense, I&#;m not worrying about getting my money&#;s worth out of them.
But I&#;ll definitely keep you updated on how these perform for me as the season progresses.
So there you have it- an inside peek into the different seed trays that I use in a season. I hope this blog post gives you some things to consider when you&#;re deciding on which trays you&#;d like to use in growing your own flower starts.
Be sure to let me know in the comments below what you decide on as I&#;m always curious as to what other growers use!
P.S. Want to see all these trays mentioned in action?! Be sure to check out this YouTube video where I show you even more about my favorite seed starting trays!
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Regardless of your age or experience level, there&#;s never a wrong time to try out home gardening. Whether you&#;re interested in gardening as a hobby, a side hustle or simply want beautiful blooms in your space, you&#;ll need to learn the basics. In addition to durable gardening shears, raised garden beds and other gardening supplies, an easy-to-use seed starting tray is a great way to jumpstart your journey.
SKIP AHEAD What is a seed starting tray? | How we picked the best seed starting trays | The best seed starting trays | How to shop for seed starting trays
To help you choose the best seed starting trays, we consulted gardening experts for shopping advice and compiled a list of their recommendations &#; bestselling brands like Gardener&#;s Supply and Burpee are included.
Seed starting trays are shallow trays with multiple small plots (called cells) organized in a grid, which help to germinate seeds for gardeners of all skill levels. Trays are typically made from plastic, biodegradable or compostable material, the latter of which can be planted directly into the ground. &#;[A seed starting tray] differs from planters or pots in that the space for the seed and eventual plant to grow is much smaller,&#; says Carmen DeVito, a professional garden designer and the founder of Garden Cult.
Some people use seed starting trays as a starting point for sprouting seedlings &#; &#;They are essentially temporary homes for your seedlings to grow until they are ready to go out into the garden or into their permanent homes in containers,&#; says DeVito. Seed starting trays also have drainage holes to prevent overwatering.
We spoke with DeVito and horticulturalist Nathan Heinrich, both of whom emphasized the following factors when recommending the best seed starting trays:
Material: Seed starting trays are available in either plastic or some sort of composted material, such as peat, wood pulp and coir (coconut fibers). Seed trays made from peat, for example, are beneficial because you can plant them directly into native soil once the seeds have germinated and sprouted. That said, trays made from composted material are sometimes not as durable as plastic options. Plastic seed trays are prized because they hold up well against root growth and different elements that may disturb the plant. If you do use plastic trays to grow edible plants, look for ones that are BPA free.
Soil type: Soil is foundational to plant growth, and different types may be better suited for certain types of plants. You can buy a seed starting mix that&#;s premade or you can make your own using a mix of soil and fertilizer.
Light exposure: Plants sown in seed starting trays should be placed wherever they can get sufficient light exposure. If using artificial light, however, make sure those plants are easy to grow under such conditions, according to DeVito. &#;I recommend using [seed starting trays] to start plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zucchini and some flowering perennials that do best when they are started indoors under lights,&#; she says. &#;This gives them a head start for the season to flower or produce fruit and other edible parts quicker.&#; You can also buy seed starting trays with grow light attachments if your access to natural light is limited.
Watering: Seedlings also need sufficient water to grow. In addition to watering cans, you can often buy watering trays, sometimes called a reservoir, bottom tray or propagation tray, which goes under the cells of the seed starting tray. Depending on what you&#;re planting, you can water seedlings in seed trays by either watering them from above or by adding water to the tray below. Since seed starting trays have small holes on the bottom, it allows the plants to absorb water from below. Ensuring you have the space, supplies and time to do this regularly is important if you plan on using a seed starting tray.
Below, we rounded up seed starting trays recommended by our experts and ones that have at least a 4-star average rating from at least 500 reviews on Amazon. All of them are either made of plastic, silicone or biodegradable material.
This plastic seed starting tray from Gardener&#;s Supply Company comes recommended by DeVito, who says it&#;s a great option for beginners. The seed-starting kit has two 24-cell seed starting trays with a propagation tray for watering, two germination dome covers which regulate temperature, a six-quart bag of seed starting soil mix, a capillary mat and wooden seedling marking sticks. While the seed starting tray is suitable for both indoor and outdoor gardening, it&#;s best if used for growing indoor or greenhouse seedlings, according to the brand. The propagation tray underneath the seed tray helps maintain water over time, so your plants receive continuous self-watering, according to the brand.
This biodegradable seed starting tray, also from Gardener&#;s Supply Company, comes recommended by DeVito, who says it&#;s good for gardeners who want an eco-friendly option. As is common with biodegradable seed starting trays, you can plant these pots directly into the ground due to the organic material. The wood fiber cells are both durable enough to help promote plant growth for seedlings but they&#;re also easy to work with when transplanting them into your garden bed.
This vibrant, modern-looking silicone seed starting tray from Burpee is a perfect option for gardeners with limited space, like a windowsill, according to DeVito. The tray has the same features of a typical plastic or biodegradable tray, such as small holes underneath for soaking up and draining water. The most unique aspect, however, is the pliable silicone bottoms that allow you to easily press the seedlings out of the cells and transplant into native soil or a large pot when ready.
This Mixc seed starting tray has everything growers want to sow multiple types of seeds. The plastic tray kit includes a cell tray and a propagation tray, both of which fit together underneath a plastic humidity dome, also included. The dome cover also has adjustable vents on the top that you can change by hand, depending on the weather or climate you want to expose your plants to. The tray is also safe to use with a heat mat, according to the brand. That means you can have even more control over the temperature around your plants, which is important if you live in a particularly cold environment. The model has a 4.4-star average rating from over 8,000 reviews on Amazon.
The Gardzen seed starting tray has all of the basics required for setting up your seedlings. The model has the usual multi-cell seed tray, draining holes on the bottoms and a plastic humidity dome for temperature regulation. Since the brand offers large capacity cell trays, with both 40-cell and 70-cell options, each of the tray kits have domes with multiple adjustable vents on the top for optimal temperature regulation. It also has a 4.6-star average rating from over 6,000 reviews on Amazon.
The Growneer seed trays are made from peat, a biodegradable material made of composted organic material, which makes them ideal for planting the seedlings directly into the ground once they sprout. The brand sells 10-cell and six-cell trays, both of which come with T-shaped plant labels that you can stick into each cell with soil. A benefit of peat seed starting trays like this one, is that you can cut and separate each cell however you want.
If you plan on using your seed starting tray indoors, consider purchasing one with a grow light. While many plants and seedlings thrive while growing indoors, a grow light can help make the germination process smoother and faster. A grow light also makes it easier to provide your plants with light, regardless of where in your home they are, especially a space with limited natural light. The light on this tray has adjustable settings that can be controlled with a remote. Plus, it has a 4.3-star average rating from over 3,000 reviews on Amazon.
If it&#;s your first time shopping for seed starting trays, it&#;s important to keep certain features in mind, such as the material of the tray, the size and number of cells, and where you plan on transplanting the seedlings. It&#;s also crucial to make sure you have the proper space to transfer them to, such as a large flower pot or garden bed.
The type of seed starting tray you choose also matters. Seed starting trays are either made from plastic or composted material such as peat or wood fibers. Both work fine for growing seedlings, but there are benefits and drawbacks to using each type, which we explain below.
Plastic trays are a popular choice for growing seedlings because they&#;re durable enough to use multiple times. &#;The plastic [seed starting trays] are theoretically reusable and usually cheaper,&#; says DeVito. &#;[And] depending on the type of plastic, possibly recyclable.&#; That said, plastic seed starting trays are less environmentally friendly compared to peat trays since you have to remove the seedlings by hand to transplant them into garden beds or native soil.
Biodegradable trays are also commonly used for starting seeds because they don&#;t require disturbing the plant roots while transplanting. Since they&#;re made from organic material, they&#;re safe to plant directly in the ground. That said, if you&#;re an experienced gardener and plant seedlings often, keep in mind that using peat trays requires buying new ones annually, which can be costly for some.
Frequently asked questions
Seed starting trays are helpful tools for beginners, but they&#;re also something that even experienced gardeners can use to grow seedlings in a safe and organized way. &#;One of the main reasons for using seed trays with individual &#;grow cells&#; is spacing,&#; says Heinrich. &#;By placing one or more seeds into a seed tray with individual &#;cells&#; or &#;plugs,&#; you allow the seeds to sprout in their own tiny space without being over-crowded and having to compete with their fellow seedings for root space, water, and sunlight.&#;
Plus, since the seedlings are divided into individual plots, they&#;re easier to transplant compared to open seedling trays because the roots of each plant are separated. &#;While some people like to sow seeds in &#;open seed trays&#; that do not have individual grow cells, this method has a much lower success rate with most varieties,&#; says Heinrich. &#;While it is a faster way to sow your seeds initially, you end up with more labor when it comes time to divide the seedlings for transplanting.&#;
Yes, seed starting trays, even ones that you make from more common biodegradable material, such as egg cartons, need drainage holes on the bottom. This is to ensure that the roots aren&#;t overwhelmed with too much watering. Also, if you have seed trays with a propagation tray, the holes on the bottom allow you to water the plants from the underneath rather than from above.
Something important to keep in mind when using a seed starting tray is that you can use them both indoors and outdoors. Since seeds starting trays are meant for growing seedlings that will be transplanted later, whether or not to start them indoors depends on your preference and the type of plant. Some varieties are fine to plant indoors or outdoors, while some are more suited for one or the other.
Depending on what you&#;re planting and when you expect it to sprout, you should start seeds around six weeks before your last expected frost date, according to The Old Farmer&#;s Almanac. A frost date is the date that the last freezing cold temperature is projected to happen where you live. This helps prevent your plants from dying in the cold. You can use resources such as an Almanac, to see what the expected frost dates are for your area.
Professional gardeners look at planting zone maps, also called plant hardiness zones, to choose the optimal time to start their seeds, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Planting zones are regions throughout the United States with their own climate profile, each of which has its own letter and number combination related to a certain type of climate. Planting zones range from 1a to 13b, with 1a being the coldest and 13b being the warmest. This helps gardeners and farmers know what is best to plant where they live and when.
At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also take steps to ensure all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and without undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.
Cory Fernandez is a commerce editor at NBC Select, where he covers food, cooking, cleaning, lifestyle and wellness. He spoke with professional gardeners and horticulturalists for their insight, recommendations and guidance.
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