The Gardening Educator in me wants to tell you why products like the Plantarium are not viable tools for growing healthy seedlings. Look for a moment at the product photo. The seedlings inside the vial are very leggy, thin, and weak. They have elongated, delicate stems that will make the transition from the vial to a pot of soil next-to-impossible.
The Gardening Educator wants you to know that you don’t need expensive or fancy gadgetry to grow seeds into seedlings. In fact all you need is good quality seed-starting mix*, and a used plastic container (yogurt containers are good) with a bunch of holes poked into the bottom for drainage.
When the Gardening Educator spots products like this in a store she screams silently inside, “Why?! Why must first-try gardeners be mislead by useless, colourful plastic objects that inevitably result in dead plants and sad hearts?!”
But the Science Geek Kid in me thinks they’re kinda neat.
-
Seed-Starting Mix Recipe
- 1 part peat or coir
- 1 part perlite
- 1 part vermiculite
optional dash of compost and/or worm castings
reminds me of the highly scientific peanut plant from American Science and Surplus
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3341&highlight=peanut
I have an orchid that I brought back from Costa Rica that was in this kind of vial.
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2122
While it seemed to work fine for that kind of application – I don’t think I would use the method to grow anything else.
I was thinking that this product may have evolved from that process of growing orchids. I like how it has gone from the lab to a process people are trying at home on their own. But yeah, what’s good for orchids aren’t good for whatever they’re trying to sell in these kits.