Sit, Heel, Grow: Compact Plant Trainer

Let, the games and, apparently, the training begin. The Compact Plant Trainer I ordered has finally arrived. Or should I say the second one I ordered. The first one I ordered was from Jung’s. After a month and a half of waiting for my order to arrive, I ended up ordering another one from Veseys instead. Veseys arrived lickty split and I canceled my order at Jung’s.So now I have my Compact Plant Trainer and I can begin preparations for Operation Seed Starting.

But first, I thought I would share a little bit about my Compact Plant Trainer.

The description at Veseys says that this seed starter is made with “Swedish precision and quality”, which I guess is a way to say that they would sell these things at Ikea if only they looked a bit cooler.

The name of the product is accurate. It is very compact. It measures around a foot square. Considering that you can start 49 plants at a time in there, it is very efficient use of space.

The lid serves as both a greenhouse and a divot maker, but the result of that dual functionality is that the whole thing looks like it may actually be either an ineffective torture device or some kind of equally ineffective foot massager.

The box says that adequate ventilation can be attained by turning the lid by 90 degrees. I know that seedlings need ventilation, but turning the lid on this will most likely damage any seedlings in and around the corners so I think I will need to devise a way to prop the lid up when I need ventilation.

This seed starter is also just a short term housing facility for seedlings. Once they get anything more over a few inches tall, I will need to move them to more spacious accommodations.

But this little wonder has a handy little feature that makes transplantation a breeze. When you push the top down, the watering tray has little towers in the columns that push the seedling plugs up.

And speaking of the watering tray, that is the feature that I like the most. This is a self watering seed starter. I just have to pour some water into the tray every few days and the seedlings can water themselves. So easy, even the seed growing challenged like myself, can grow seeds.

I suppose I can think about this as being a little like a plant obedience school. Sit, heel, grow.