Margaret, my blogging and Powell River friend, wrote a post recently about peat pellets on her blog, Thistle Garden. Peat pellets are compressed disks of peat moss that expand in water to create small "containers" of soil to use to start seedlings. I'd never heard of them before. Margaret found hers at Walmart. I found mine over at Canadian Tire. From the looks of them, they are exactly the same.To get started, all you have to do is place the pellets in a pan of warm water. They instantly swell into small bundles of rich soil contained in a fine mesh, so there is no mess.
There's an opening on the top to insert a seed in each rehydrated pellet. To make the insertion a bit easier, I poked each one with a pencil. Once the seed was inside, I squeezed the top and it was covered with a bit of the soil, ready for sprouting.I used egg cartons to hold my peat pellets. The cardboard helps hold moisture around them without keeping them too wet. Now all I have to do is wait (that's always the hardest part). But I will be rewarded with beans, peas, tomatoes, zucchini and corn to plant in my garden later this spring. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
Today we are heading back up the lake. While I'm there I'll finish my garden planting. Check back next week to see what's been happening. -- Margy
I was very happy with the results but the best part is when the true leaves come up and it's time to transplant to a larger pot. These pellets make it very easy without harming the plant stem.
ReplyDeleteI found germination to be slow but I can't really say if it's the peat pellets or the enviroment I have them in, I think it's the latter..
Margaret
Now I'm wishing I got these when I saw them at Ace Hardware! Oh well! I did get my seedlings started - I think it'll be another month before I can transplant them.
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