Propagation is a step every gardener goes through to get their crop ready for the coming year. The winter preparations have held back the frost and things are just starting to look up as the days get longer. Most of us reach for our trusty seed tray and sow even spaced seeds in a light compost. The seed tray is placed in the greenhouse, watered, and watched as a small green carpet of seedlings emerges.
That even spacing you sowed the seeds with has become clusters of green jungle. The roots have spread and woven themselves together. Choosing the healthiest seedling to pot up has become a marathon ‘Seedlings Got Talent’ contest which involves spinning the seed tray around to get the best angle. Even the strongest seedlings need the steady hands of a brain surgeon to be removed with as much root system as possible. This is all before you try and get the root system into the new hole you’ve just made. Finally, you gently cover up the seedling, hoping it didn’t get damaged. You’re sure it’s fine, but the more you think about it, the more you worry. This may not be the experience everyone has, but having done this myself, and know people who go through this same thing every year, we knew there had to be a better way.
Introducing Plugs for Propagation
Here at Plant Magic our ethos may be ‘promoting healthy plant growth’. But we also like to help gardeners, making it easier for them to produce the results they want. Whether this is making products simpler, providing a growing schedule showing when to use our nutrients, or providing educational content.
Plugs are specifically designed for propagation. Each plug is uniform to provide identical growing environments across the tray, leading to consistent growth from each plant. The plugs themselves are made from a special compost that is handled gently and lightly packed to give the roots access to oxygen (needed to absorb nutrients) and allow them to grow unimpeded by compacted soil. This gives them not only a very high strike rate but reduces the time to root through by days.
How Plugs Can Help You Transplant Seedlings
One plug is used for one seed. Each plug remains firmly bonded, which minimised the risk of root damage during sorting, transplanting, or replanting.
All this leads to a much simpler and less labour-intensive process, where seeds are sown in the plugs and moistened slightly with a fine mist. As the seedlings or cuttings root through they can be removed with no root disturbance and planted into larger pots, or straight into the ground within minutes.
Recommended Plugs
I recommend the Eazy Plug media range for propagating. This unique range comes with predetermined EC and pH levels and self regulates to exactly the right air-to-water ratio. These plugs are supplied dried, making them clean and lightweight, with limitless shelf life and no risk of mould.