starter trays

Found some apple tree sprouts in the garden today, while moving some apple seedlings oddly enough.

Transplanted some seedlings out of starter trays.  Using these tiny seedling starter trays has been an educational experience.

As you can see, each flat contains 348 cells, Which are very small in order to reduce wasted space when propagating plants.  

Pictured above is a tray full of these inserts.  I cut them down to smaller 5x3 groups in order to save space and to make them more manageable.  The picture above shows 1,232 starts.

Most plants are ok in them, but repotting consumes time like nobody's business.  Using them has made me much more aware of spacetime.  That's my new word for what is used up when a plant takes up a quantum of space for some time.

From now on, I will be only using these for cuttings, or for perennials, which take longer to mature, and have a lower germination rate.

Also, this last few months has taught me about how long it takes for seeds to reach a size where they are sell-able.