I like Craig's Seed Seeding Method, but...

[natural]

Planting numerous seeds in each of the 50 count cells is a great space saver, but... it really hurts when you drop one of the flats. I did that yesterday. That tray had about 450 seedlings (25 varieties). They dumped in a big pile. No way to discern which cell they came from. They were only 12 days old. I tried to transplant the larger ones. I hope they survive.

Oh yeah, and later that same day (11:30PM to be exact) my wife dropped a second seedling tray. Another 450 seedlings shot! We were up at 1AM trying to save some from that flat as well.

I've done this for years and never had a disaster. Then we have 2 in 1 day. The bad part is it may be too late to re-seed. It's getting late here in Georgia.

Needless to say, I had a sleepless night.
Bill

[Ruth_10]

Ouchl You have my sympathy. I guess it's a trade-off--the conveniene of seeding a lot in one tray vs. the potential loss if something goes amiss. I guess everyone has to figure out what their own risk/benefit ratios are. What were you planning for that number of seedlings?

[natural]

I love the method. It is definitely worth it.

I'll probably try to give some of them away. I had planned to sell alot of the seedlings. I cannot do that now.

We have really made progress educating folks in our area about heirlooms. We are going to have alot of disappointed people when we cannot give them a specific variety.

We also grow many plants for our own usage. We can/freeze alot of tomatoes. Plus, we sell some tomatoes at a farmers market.

[nctomatoman]

Oh man - so sorry to hear about the drops! I've been lucky - it's been at least 17 years since a misadventure (my cat knocked a flat down, and even now, sticks his paw into a cell now and then, esp. when they are on the south facing table and he wants to catch some rays!) - and find that placing the plug flat in a basket tray makes it more rigid (so it won't fold up).

Got all my eggplant, hot and sweet peppers transplanted into 4 inch pots the last two days (about 800 seedlings) - very therapeutic.

[natural]

We have 300 peppers potted and 300 more waiting.

Eggplants are hardening off now before transplanting.

I wanted to pot up some plants but left yet another seed flat out in the sun too long while fretting about the one I dropped, so I decided to bring them in for a day to recover before transplanting.( Yes, yesterday was a BAD day!).

Will be 86 degrees here tomorrow! That brings up a question. We have had NO cold weather since the seedlings have been out. That is very unusual. Will the tomatoes suffer more shock when the cold does return as opposed to when they are normally exposed when younger plants?

[dice]

"I'll probably try to give some of them away. I had
planned to sell alot of the seedlings. I cannot do
that now."

MYSTERY TOMATO SEEDLINGS
60% off

Get them while they last!

(Put them in mostly empty trays on a
table or stand, so that it looks like people
have been buying them like hotcakes. You
may be surprised by the results.)

[Lee]

It's not a mystery... it's an Heirloom mix and thus you can charge extra!
Shoot with 25 varieties, you could have the people send you a picture and let you
ID them. Then send them a voucher for a free seedling of that variety for next
year.

Make it a fun marketing game.


Lee

[natural]

Dice,

Thanks for the good ideas. I definitely planned to work in a discount.

Lee,
I have actually thought about some sort of promotion based on guessing the color tomato they will receive and offering a free seedling ( and definitely providing an ID.

I also may try something like asking them to bring me a harvested tomato and I'll I.D. it and exchange it for two other tomatoes from my other varieties. I can use the tomatoes that I receive for myself.