Karl's Garden Blog

This is the first time I’ve tried Jiffy Pods. Being the Typcial Male ™ that I am, I ripped open the packaging and threw away the top before I read it. Then I immediately tried to plant seeds in the hard packed, compressed peat pods without having soaked them first. This is what we call a failure to read directions.

So that you don’t end up like me, I’ve documented the CORRECT way to plant something with a Jiffy pod. First, wet it down. Note: I cut my tray of pods into 9 pod units because that’s how I keep track of seedling batches. I plant nine at a time, which makes a nice square tray that I only have to mark once and can remove from the humidity domes when the seeds in that tray have sprouted.

I've added about 2 cups of water to ths tray. Note the lack of seeds: Don't add seeds until later!

The formula that I found that worked was about 2 cups of water per 9 jiffy pots. Frankly, just keep adding water until they’re all inflated all the way. Here’s a picture of those same nine about a half hour later.

Pretty much inflated. There's still some dry area that could use more water, but they're soft enough to plant in now.

They’re a little shorter than your other trays. In other words, there’s less jiffy pot than you would have growing compound.

Short ... Packed. Also, note the seeds sticking out slightly. You can only push them in so far.

The biggest problem that I have with jiffy pots is that I like to bury my seeds. I think they grow better that way… especially things like peppers and tomatoes that require a nice deep burying. (And the sweetpeas that I love need to be buried an entire inch deep!) The fill is fairly dense and fibrous, though, so hopefully that counts for something.

It’ll be interesting to track when Batch 2 sprouts. Here’s a picture of the finished planting last night after 9 hours of soaking up water and rays. Note that you can see some of the seeds.

Batch 2, the sprout-off, after it's first evening watering. Note that you can see some of the seeds in the jiffy pots; they won't go deeper.