How To Choose The Seed Tray

Seed tray has many advantages, it not only saves labor and effort, but also has a very high mechanized production efficiency. So what is the process from selection to planting? Today I prepared this part, let's learn together!

1. Seedling tray selection

According to different materials, seed trays can be divided into polystyrene foam seed trays and plastic seed trays. But plastic seed trays are more widely used. Plastic seeder trays are generally available in black, gray, and white. Most growers choose to use black trays, which have good light absorption and are more conducive to the development of seedling roots.

The size of the seeder tray is generally 54 cm x 28 cm, and the specifications are 50, 72, 128, 200, 288, 392 and so on. 

The large cell size contains a large number of substrates, which has a large amount of water and nutrient accumulation, strong water regulation ability, and good permeability, which is conducive to seedling root development; but at the same time, the number of seedlings may be small, and the cost will increase.

（1）Vegetable growers can choose seed nursery trays according to the seedling characteristics of different vegetables.

（2） Melon seedlings usually use 50 holes; 

（3）Tomatoes, eggplants, and cucumbers usually use 72 holes or 128 holes;

（4） Peppers use 128 holes or 200 holes;

（5）Rape, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli seedlings should use 200 holes or 288 holes; Celery seedlings mostly choose 288 holes or 392 holes.

（6）In addition, the used seed plastic tray may be infected with some pathogenic bacteria and eggs, so it must be cleaned and disinfected.

First remove the residual substrate in the seedling tray, rinse it with water, and dry it. The sterilized seeding tray should be washed thoroughly and dried before it can be used again.

2.Matrix preparation

Seed tray mainly use light substrates, such as peat, vermiculite, perlite, etc. The basic requirements for the nursery substrate are sterile, no eggs and impurities, and have good water retention and breathability.

3. Seed treatment

In order to prevent irregular emergence, the seeds are usually pretreated: selection, that is carefully selected, warm soaking seed, medicine soaking (mixing) seed, scrubbing, germination, etc. The seeds are sown after treatment.

Seed tray nursery is divided into mechanical seeding and manual seeding.

Mechanical seeding is divided into fully automatic mechanical seeding and manual mechanical seeding.

The operation procedures of fully automatic mechanical seeding include plate loading, pressing holes, sowing, covering and water spraying.

Before sowing, the machine should be adjusted and maintained to ensure the normal operation of each process. You can receive better seeding quality when the accuracy of each hole reaches 90%.

The difference between manual sowing and mechanical sowing is that when sowing, one is manual seeding, the other is mechanical sowing, and the other work is completed by manual operation.

The installed tray should be pressed into the hole to facilitate sowing seeds into the hole. You can use a specially made cavitation machine to press the cavitation, or you can put the cavitation plates with the matrix vertically together, 4 to 5 plates in a pile. With an empty plate placed on the plate and both hands flat on the plate to press evenly to the required depth.

 (4) Snowing

Place the seeds in a plate with pressed holes and put one seed in the center of each hole. The seeds should be laid flat to avoid missed sowing.

After sowing, we cover the original matrix and use the scraper to scrape from one side of the cavity plate to the other to remove the excess matrix and make the matrix surface level with the compartment.

（5）Seedbed preparation

Except for the summer seedbed requirements of shading and rain, winter and spring seedlings should be in the shelter from the wind and sun. The surface of the seedling bed in the shed should be flat, the ground should be covered with an old film or mulch film, and the tray should be placed on the mulch film.

（6）Watering And Cover Film

The tray should be watered in time after sowing and covering, and the watering must be thoroughly poured. It is appropriate to see the water droplets at the bottom of the tray during the visual inspection.

For watering, it is best to use a sprayer with a fine hole nozzle (avoid flooding, lest the seeds out of the hole plate), and then cover with a layer of plastic film, conducive to water retention, seedlings orderly.