Burpee Seed Starting Trays

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Starting seeds indoors is part of life for gardeners here in the Northeast and over the years we've tried a variety of transplant pots from plastic pots to coir pellets, to compostable pots made from cow manure. This year we're trying the reusable Burpee Seed Starting Trays.

The Burpee seed trays are sturdy, reusable, have a soft silicone bottom that allows you to pop out the transplant with minimal damage, and the trays are top-rack dishwasher safe. They're a big improvement over the flimsy plastic individual seed-starting pots, and much more environmentally friendly.

What we like about the seed starting trays:

• Environmentally friendlier: The seed starting trays are reusable over and over, year after year, which cuts down on plastic.
• Kinder, gentler silicone:The silicone bottoms allow for easier removal of the tender transplants thereby reducing plant stress and transplant shock.
• Grooved tray: The bottom tray allows you to water the seedling from the bottom, and the grooves on the bottom of the tray allow for drainage.
• Grid labeling system:The seed trays are imprinted with a letter and number system and they include a paper "Plant-O-Gram" chart so it's easy to keep track of which seedlings are in which cell.
• Easy to clean: The Burpee seed trays are easy to clean, and they're even top-rack dishwasher safe.

What we don't like about the seed starting trays:

• No humidity domes: Most seeds will grow just fine without a humidity dome - they just take a bit longer to sprout, but it would be nice if a dome were included, even at a slightly higher cost.

No Humidity Dome:

The Burpee seed trays don't come with a humidity dome, but there are a few workarounds if your seeds need some humidity. The 8-cell windowsill tray measures 11.25 x 5.25" and just fits into a one-gallon 10" x 14" twist-tie bag (not the zip-lock bags). You can also use regular 12" wide plastic wrap to cover the tray. In both cases simply seal the plastic with tape. You'll want to use food grade plastic - don't use painter's plastic or clear recycling bags.

The 16-cell tray measures 11.50 x 10.50" so it won't fit into the twist-tie bag, but the plastic wrap humidity hack will work. You'll just need more tape to seal the edges of the plastic wrap. If you already have some gardening trays on hand (or maybe you can borrow some), the 16-cell tray will fit into a standard 1020 flat if you remove the bottom tray. The 16-cell tray has green "handles" on two sides so you'll only be able to fit one 16-cell tray per 1020 flat, but it still works to generate humidity.

The image below shows the 16-cell tray in a generic 1020 flat with a Jiffy humidity dome. The handles on the 16-cell tray need to run east-west in order for the humidity dome to fit.

   

We've tried humidity domes from Jiffy seed trays, but the Jiffy trays measure 11 x 11 inches and the size difference prevents the the Jiffy humidity domes from forming a tight seal on the Burpee trays. You can't really see it in the image below because the humidity dome is clear, but trust me, they don't fit well.

   

Burpee seed tray size:

The individual cell size for both the 8-cell windowsill seed tray , as well as the 16-cell XL tray (Amazon links) are the same and measure 2 x 2" square, and 2.25" deep. All in all, the Burpee seed starting trays are a vast improvement over the flimsy plastic pots. Other than the lack of a humidity dome, there are very few downsides.

Burpee seed tray video:

It was too early to start our regular seeds, but this video should give you an idea of how easy it is to pop out the transplant from the tray.