Some of our readers have noted that our seeding trays appear seemingly inconsistent and want to understand what’s going on. So, let’s discuss!
When we sow into our seeding trays, we perform what is called a surface sow, or simply placing the seed on top of the soil. We then come in after the fact with coco coir to cover the seed.
The reason we do this is it allows us to control the seed sowing depth precisely. We’ll discuss this concept more, but the gist is some seeds need a little soil, some need more and some seeds shouldn’t be covered at all for appropriate germination.
We used to cover our seeds with whatever soil we were using, which is totally fine. But, a few years ago, we switched to coco coir. This provides for a number of benefits over regular soil where we found it worthwhile to stock multiple materials.
The visual contrast against our soil helps us ensure seeds are completely covered, which also helps us achieve more accurate sowing depths. Coco coir is also “less biologically active,” helping us resist algae and moss growing on top of our seeding trays.
In these seeding trays, we’re germinating dissimilar plants right next to each other. Our goal is to utilize the whole tray, so we’ve got flowers next to onions next to tomatoes and so on. Given the different seed’s soil requirements, the coco coir (or lack thereof) is also dissimilar.
As somewhat larger scale growers, we have to be sensitive to things like more complicated methods or requirements for additional materials. In this case, stocking a different material provides significant benefits that make having coco coir around a no brainer!
