Seedling Trays
Why using seedling trays?
Production of good quality and healthy transplants is key for the start of a successful crop.
The advantage of using seedling rays:
- No root damage as the whole plant with roots and growing medium will be transplanted.
- No drying out of plants; plants will be transported to the production field in the trays.
- No die back of transplants in the field due to root damage through which diseases can enter the plants.
- Quick adaptation and growth of the transplants as roots have not been damaged.
Traditionally sowing of the seeds is done as direct drill in the production field where the crop will be grown as often is done with melons, cucumber and watermelon.
Another way is to prepare a seedbed in the field, grow the young plants and transplant from there into the field at the production location.
The downside of the above two methods are:
- When direct sowing in the production field is practiced, most farmers use two or sometimes three seeds per seeding hole. Depending the germination of the seeds there will be one, two, three or no plant. As a final consequence the final plant density will be irregular and when the germination has been very good there will be a lot of double plants of which generally one will be removed. In this case too much seed has been used.
- When using a seedbed the plants will be lifted, transported to the production field and transplanted. When plants are lifted there is a serious risk of damaging the roots, while during transport plants may dry out. After transplant many young plants may die back due to root damage through which diseases may enter the plants or that plants are unable to take up enough water and nutrients to settle and restart their growth.
We supply re-useable trays for transplant production.
The trays have 104 holes of 4 cm ∅ and 4 cm depth. Outer measurements of the trays are 54,5 x 35,5 x 4 cm.
It is strongly advised to disinfect trays before they are re-used.
