Allotments 4 All

Hi folks

Quick one with this. Picked up 5 of these for free. Any use for a veg grower? They look a little cramped to me.

Cheers

Gord

wow free sounds good.

I think they are used to start things off in greenhouses

Oh yes! :D And enough 40 cell inserts plus trays to get me fully stocked up, some brand new. Happy days!

I've been using the 40 cell ones but the 60's look really cramped.

60's can be useful for things like starting individual plants off where germination might be a bit uncertain and they're smallish seedlings.... I've used them before for onions a a lot of seeds through a propagator too....and self-saved tomato seeds, it can be a useful way of getting, but they'll need potting on quickly

brilliant

My plug trays take 308 (14 x 22 x 25cm plugs) they are made of hard plastic and I have been using them since the mid eighties. I start all my beetroot, turnip, swede and most of my brassica's in them. never had a problem

Ah, I never thought of onions. That will save some windowsill and cold frame space next year!

I find it really hard to get the seedlings out without damaging them but maybe I'm not using the right technique - pushing a stick up the hole in the base?

I put two eating forks (cutlery) down opposite sides of a 40, pinch gently and lift. With a bit of practice I've found i can now just pluck a cell out one handed and pop it where I want it. 60's don't look like they fit even the smallest eating forks, but I think plastic picnic forks might be just the very dab.

I use the blunt end of a round pencil, keep meaning to line the base holes up on a large sheet of ply and cut round stubs to correspond, apply them to the ply. Then in theory I should be able to ease all the plugs out.

It's a two-stage process, much quicker to perform than describe.
Move 1: with three fingers and a thumb gently squeeze the corners of the module from below.
Move 2: stuff little finger up the hole in the middle.
Out she comes every time.