Plantarium

Plantarium

The Gardening Educator in me wants to tell you why products like the Plantarium are not viable tools for growing healthy seedlings. Look for a moment at the product photo. The seedlings inside the vial are very leggy, thin, and weak. They have elongated, delicate stems that will make the transition from the vial to a pot of soil next-to-impossible.

The Gardening Educator wants you to know that you don’t need expensive or fancy gadgetry to grow seeds into seedlings. In fact all you need is good quality seed-starting mix*, and a used plastic container (yogurt containers are good) with a bunch of holes poked into the bottom for drainage.

When the Gardening Educator spots products like this in a store she screams silently inside, “Why?! Why must first-try gardeners be mislead by useless, colourful plastic objects that inevitably result in dead plants and sad hearts?!”

But the Science Geek Kid in me thinks they’re kinda neat.

    Seed-Starting Mix Recipe

  • 1 part peat or coir
  • 1 part perlite
  • 1 part vermiculite
  • optional dash of compost and/or worm castings

Gayla Trail
Gayla is a writer, photographer, and former graphic designer with a background in the Fine Arts, cultural criticism, and ecology. She is the author, photographer, and designer of best-selling books on gardening, cooking, and preserving.

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3 thoughts on “Plantarium

  1. I was thinking that this product may have evolved from that process of growing orchids. I like how it has gone from the lab to a process people are trying at home on their own. But yeah, what’s good for orchids aren’t good for whatever they’re trying to sell in these kits.

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