Who does not want their seeds to grow out to be healthy? Although not everyone
can get their seeds to germinate in the right way. As an amateur, I remember how frustrated I was with my dying seedlings. But little did I know about self- watering seed trays!
Self-watering seedling growing trays are your trusted partner to get your seedlings in a sound condition. The best plant starter trays come with some exceptionally helpful features. Seed sowing cell, humidity adjuster vents and self- watering systems are really useful for new gardeners. You can grow your seedlings in the most controlled way.
But after spending some money on a great seed tray, you won’t want to throw them away. Nor would you want the later batches of seedlings to be frail. Thus, you should know the proper way to clean self-watering seed trays.
In this blog I will teach you how to clean self-watering seed trays and what happens if you do not clean the self-watering seed trays properly.
Required Materials:
1. Warm Water 2. Brush 3. Paper Towel 4. 3 Buckets 5. Bleach (Hydrogen Peroxide) 6. Soap
Cleaning Process:
Cleaning the self-watering seed tray need to be done with enough caution. Even for best cleaning, you need to be detailed and thorough. In order to clean the plant starter trays properly, follow the instructions. Firstly, it would be better to ready the buckets. Take 3 buckets. Fill one bucket with clean warm water. Fill in other bucket with 1-part bleach and 9 parts of clean water. Then, fill the last bucket with water mixed with soap. Then, take your seedling tray and shake it to remove any residue soil from it. Use a brush to get rid of excess old soil.
Next step is to soak the seed trays into soap water. You can use any type of liquiddish washing soap or your laundry soap for it. Soak the trays into the soap water.Now, after 5 minutes of soaking, scrub the tray and each cell with a brush. Makesure to get rid of any dirt from the tray. Then remove the rays from the bucket. Now is the crucial part. Take your third bucket of bleach water. Now dump yourclean trays in to the bleach water solution and leave it for about 15 to 20 minutes. This is most important because it is the time for disinfection. Bleach helps get rid of any germs that grew in the old soil. Finally, take your tray out. Then, give them a rinse in the clean water. Pat them dry with a paper towel. And you are ready to use them again!
Things to Keep in Mind While Cleaning the Seedling Trays
- It is recommended to be carried out outdoors. The work is very messy and takes some time. In order to avoid such mess in your house, it should be done at your garden or yard. It is very suitable for doing during the spring or summer.
- Do not use cold water for initial wash. Cold water is not very suitable to help rinse the stuck dirt. Warm water removes the stubborn dirt easily and saves a lot of time.
- Do not DIY the bleach solution. Many people asked me if using vinegar instead of bleach is okay. But it really is not. Vinegar is less powerful anddoes not kill all bacteria. For a proper sanitization, it is crucial to use bleach as it can remove almost all germs.
What Is Damping Off of Seedlings?
However, this damping off does not happen without any reason. It is a disease ofthe newly grown seedlings caused by some fungus and melds commonly. If yourseedlings from the seed tray is dying as soon as it rises, there might be someuninvited guests there.
Why Damping Off Occurs?
Damping off is a rather common phenomenon. But many people do not think it iscaused by some disease. Rather they think it is caused due to their negligence.However, the main reason is always the fungus or mildew. So, how does thesecontaminate your seedlings? It is really a mystery to many gardeners. If you are into gardening for some time now, you should probably know why this happens. Damping Off is a soil born disease also caused due to blights along with otherfungal contamination. It occurs due to using contaminated soil or old soil forreplanting new seeds.
Especially if you are using seedling starter trays, dampingoff should be more common. Old soil seems to remain stuck at the bottom of the tray. After some time, these soil gets contaminated by different fungus and mildew. When you add more soil on top of the contaminated soil, the new soil also get affected easily. When you plant your seeds into that soil, the seed gets contaminated slowly and when the seedling comes out, it dies suddenly. As the initial seed itself was contaminated, the seedling has a little immunity and vigour to fight off the fungus. Not only a seed tray, even if you put your seeds into old soil, there is high risk of damping off. Sometimes, due to not enough warmth and sunlight, the soil becomes prone to fungus attacks and the seedling damps off. Therefore, it can be said that damping off occurs due to contaminated old soil.
How To Prevent Damping Off?
In order to prevent Damping Off of your seedlings, keep the following points in mind.
- Do not sow seeds into old soil of seedling tray
- Do not pot your plants into old soil
- Keep the seeds in a warm condition while sprouting
- Use room temperature or lukewarm water to water the seedlings
- Clean the seedling tray thoroughly
- Do not keep the seedlings in a damp room
- Plant the seeds at a distance from each other
- Give enough sunlight for at least 10 to 12 hours to the seedlings
Why Cleaning Self Watering Seed Trays Are Important?
Self-watering seed trays can be a very useful tool. It saves our time and also takes care of our seedlings. But if it is not cleaned every once in a while, it might cause a disaster. Firstly, you would need to face a lot of your seedlings dying. Without a properlydisinfected tray, the seeds in it would get contaminated and eventually the seedlings would collapse. And you surely don’t want that to happen. Then, if you do not clean the trays, you may face other severe complications. Forexample, you may carry different other soil borne diseases to the new crops. Thiswould be a total menace for your garden. Therefore, for the sake of proper re-use of your trays, they must be cleaned anddisinfected.
How To Take Proper Care of Seedlings?
Only growing out the seedlings is not the end of your tasks. Now the hard part ofmaintaining them remains. In order to let the seedlings, grow into healthy plants,you need to take a few steps.
Plant the Seedlings at a Proper Distance
One mistake many of us do is crowding our seedlings. But this has very adverse impact on the seedling’s growth. They do not get enough nutrition from there and tend to die out. So, try to plant the seedlings thinly. And you can take a look at my blog post about seedling trays here!
How To Keep You Plants Healthy
Rather than running around all these tricks and remedies isn’t it more convenient if your garden never faces any complications? That is why I am here! I would give you some expert tips about How I keep my garden healthy and vigorous! You can take a look at my blogs about gardening and gifts for avid gardeners here!
Then, after transplanting the seedling to your main garden, make sure to keep it nourished well. Use fertilizers and compost on a regular gap. Moreover, don’t forget to water it timely and be aware of any moisture stress. You can use an Irrigation controller too! Check my previous review about some of the best Irrigation System Controllers for better opinion.
Also, if you want healthy and lush plants, you should choose a sunny spot for your garden. If you are growing plants in your house, be sure to give them sunlight every day. Don’t be afraid to use artificial lighting as well. You can use dark plastic wraps during winter to keep your babies warm. Therefore, if you follow these few simple steps for your garden, you can have always had a good garden. Gardening is not a very easy task.
In order to have a healthy garden, we need to follow some rules. We also need to be regular in watering and taking care of the garden. For us gardeners, there is not a day off. We need to keep the garden nourished and make sure that no disease struck the garden. For having healthy seedlings, the germination process needs to be controlled. Thus, we use self-watering seed trays. But if they are not cleaned properly, the seedlings may catch some diseases. That is why it is crucial to clean the self-watering seedling trays properly.