Jiffy Pod Review
A while back, I started a bunch of seeds side by side in the great sprout off.
I had a few problems and a few “Duhs” with the jiffy pods … and really, planting in general. I should really read directions more, but the basic problems that I had revolved around what order to do things in and how deep to plant the seeds. I put the blame squarely on my Y chromosome. If I had two X chromosomes, I surely would’ve read the directions instead of tearing right into things.
Number one on my list of mistakes was adding the seeds first and expecting the pods to grow up around the seeds. It just doesn’t work that way. Water first, then seeds!
I've added about 2 cups of water to ths tray. Note the lack of seeds: Don't add seeds until later!
Number two on my list of mistakes was not pushing the seeds down into the peat far enough. What I should have done was make a hole with my pinky and push the seeds down into it. What ended up happening as a result (which I unfortunately don’t seem to have a good picture of…) was a profusion of seedlings growing out the sides of the peat pods.
Where the Jiffy pods did indeed shine was the planting process. Once I figured out the right way to start things in them, the planting process went off without a hitch. Just drop and go. Then again, with the right preparation, (letting them dry out a little, ‘massaging’ each cell before pulling up gently on the seedling), planting things that came out of the normal cells was just as easy as long as the plants were of equal maturity.
Frankly, I reuse my seed trays heavily. I don’t want to be tied to one use per pod. The increased price and lack of ability to reuse makes the peat-pods a “no sale” for me, even if I do understand their appeal.
And watching them inflate was just kinda cool, ya know?
I reuse my jiffy greenhouses until they become so brittle they are hard to work with. I will share one thing I learned a couple of years ago: sterilize your seed trays after each season by putting them in boiling water for a minute or two. I noticed after the second year of using my jiffy greenhouses that all my peat pods got covered in fungus right away; and if an unfortunate plant happened to germinate, the fuzzy mold would just gang up on the plant. Mostly though, nothing grew on the fuzz-covered peat pods.
I also read in your blog that you found that your hippie pots were too much hassle. Yes, I found that in order for them to work, I had to compress the soil at the time I put the seeds in. Later, when the roots had developed, they helped keep the dirt in a clump, sort of anyway. To get my plants out of them, I used scissors to cut the pot. This, of course, meant that I could only use the pot once. I now have the capability to recycle PET plastic easily so I may go back to using hippie pots.
Happy gardening!