What’s inside: A look at the best seed starting trays ever from Bootstrap Farmer. They’re my favorite for gardening with kids and I’ll show you why!
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What is a Seed Starting tray?
You’ve probably seen them at the big box stores like Lowes or Home Depot – they’re the trays with little inserts that you fill with soil and plant your seeds in. Jiffy and Burpee sell them and they come with tiny peat pellets instead of soil. They usually have a clear cover.
Sample Seed Starting Tray: Good for beginners, but not that sturdy!
Getting Started
When I first started growing seedlings, one of these trays worked well. They get the seeds off to a good enough start. For a beginner, it was what I needed.
But I am notoriously thrifty and I found that by the 3rd year of using them, the trays were broken, cracked, leaking, and just not holding up anymore. They were much too flimsy for my style.
I did like the little peat pellets where you just added water and put in a seed. And my boys loved watching the little peat pots grow and expand when you added warm water. Magic!
Yet, I started a search for a more sustainable and sturdy option.
What is a 1020 tray?
Let’s look at that “greenhouse” tray to explain. The 72 little peat discs are placed in a plastic tray of 72 plastic cells. It’s got drain holes in the bottom and is usually pretty flimsy. It sits inside a slightly sturdier tray, called a “1020 tray” with NO drain holes. So you can water the stuff you grow without water going all over your house. It measures 10” x 20” and is the standard used in the horticulture industry. You’ll see trays of plants at garden centers during the spring and summer – they are all in these 1020 trays.
Incidentally, garden centers and stores often recycle those trays and will give you some trays for the asking, especially if you tell them you’re “teaching kids to garden”.
Sometimes, however, garden centers sell trays of plants in 1020 trays WITH holes so they can drain when they are watering outside. So make sure you ask for what you want.
The takeaway here is that a 1020 tray is industry standard and measures 10” x 20”.
Why does industry standard matter?
1020 trays are not the only part of the standard. Also commonly available are the things that go in the trays. So the little pots that go in them are also standardized. This matters when you try to fit your 2.5” pots into the 1020 trays, because they line up nicely. Or when you put in your 72-cell insert, which is a lovely 6 x 12 arrangement of starter cells.
In my experience, the best 1020 seed starting trays ever, hands-down, come from Bootstrap Farmer.
These things are sturdy! I have put six to eight quart and ½ gallon pots of peppers in them, fully wet and the trays don’t bend or break or fold or crack. If you are gardening with kids, sturdy is super important. Supposedly they can hold up to 20 pounds and not bend.
Try that with a Jiffy tray!
I adore the colors! Yes, they come in colors! I got blue to start with and then I got an assorted batch of microgreen (half-height) trays. You’re supposed to be able to color code your seeds and trays, but I don’t have a big enough set-up to do that, so I am more than content with the pretty colors. They make me smile.
They are guaranteed for 2 years! I have been using mine for more than 5 years and the only problem I had with 2 trays from my VERY FIRST ORDER was that they arrived with a puncture in them. I called customer service and they were super accessible, spoke English, and sent me 2 replacement trays with my next order. And I ended up STILL using the broken trays now for 5 years and it has only made a minor difference.
At the time, Bootstrap Farmer was switching over its production supplier to a US-based operation, and I had got a batch of the old supplier. You couldn’t tell there was a hole in the corner of the tray because it was in a stack of trays. When I brought the problem to their attention, the customer service was outstanding.
I can’t speak highly enough of the quality of their products. Sturdy, colorful, and guaranteed.
At first, I started reusing those Jiffy starter kits, then moved up to whatever I could get to recycle. The problem was lack of standardized sizes. I mean, I was using things like recycled plastic containers with clear covers from large spinach plastic containers. But the soil blocks didn’t fit evenly into the containers.
Now, each year of gardening, I try to add something new to my collection.
Soil Blocking
This is a soil blocker. You squish soil into it and then push out the little soil blocks that you can put seeds into. No container to hold it together!
I’ve tried using the 1020 trays with no holes along with a mesh insert and soil blockers. I do like soil blockers for their “buy it once and use it forever” with no plastic pots going into landfills. My little soil block makes four 2×2” blocks and so fits in a 5 x 6 pattern in the 1020 tray. I also like the fact that soil blocks use “air pruning” on the roots and so promotes a healthy root system. The mesh tray lets me bottom water.
On the negative side, while the soil blocks are so much fun to use with kid power, when it’s just me doing the blocking now that the kids are grown, my hands get tired!
Air Prune inserts
So I next purchased the 72-cell air prune inserts from Bootstrap Farmer. Also a huge thumbs-up on these! They too come in colors and are the perfect size for seed-starting tomatoes IF you use the “up potting” method.
Up-Potting
I was familiar with the up-potting method because I’ve studied John Jeavon’s biointensive gardening method and I’ve used it for a number of years. Outside, my soil is getting better each year. Inside, I “prick out” tiny seedlings into bigger pots to give them a boost of new energy and growth.
So the 72-cells work great, but I was using whatever recycled yogurt container I could find to do the up-potting. I drill holes in the bottom for drainage.
I was getting tired of the random sizes of up-pots I had, so I succumbed and bought 100 round 2.5” pots a few years ago. They were inexpensive at least. But they feel like tissue paper when you try to clean them for re-use. I don’t think they were intended for re-use!
For my birthday last year (and I can’t wait to try them) I received the 2.5” extra strength seed starter pots from Bootstrap Farmer.
You can tell I’m a total nut about their products. I also own grow bags, the 200-cell insert, 5 x 5” insert trays (which I love for my microgreens system), and dome covers from them.
I’m hoping to get some 5” cells for up-potting next year for my birthday! Hint, hint, if any of my family is reading this!
This isn’t a sponsored post, but I am an affiliate of Bootstrap Farmer. I seek out affiliate programs for products that I love and use regularly.
