root riots issues

I like root riots for cloning but not for seeds. I find too many seeds that can't get properly oriented in the tight and rubbery material. They hold moisure very well so it is important to squeeze out excess water before planting.

I've been using peat based pellets since my market gardening days 30 years ago. I always direct seed into the pellet and find they get a good stress free start


Then I just fill a pot and plop them in.

nice Claude! thats a familiar site....even the stinkin plastic dish, i like your id tags, ive ended up using plastic colored food thingies so as not to give mold anything to sit on, thats mainly for cuts though. ive used the jiffys 10yr now and recently started trying the rooter style.....seeds and cuts....and im still undecided who i like best. i found the rooters way too tight at the first try with a bean, now i make an X with a narrow blade down into it then place the seeds GOLDARN carefully in there on its side, half the time i have a root poppin......i run them in h20h202 mix 12-36 hours depending on freshness, someplace warm and dark after theyve warmed up from the freezer......with jiffys sometimes ill till the innards of each one, take out a smidge, then mold it into a taller, skinnier pellet, mainly because they can get lumpy in there. this happens more when you reuse them for whatever reason.

i take small cuts, 2-3", they go into a sterilite closable container, shoebox size, and when im not dealing with every frikn asshole pest and culture prob in the book, i root in 7-12 day, 95%+ avg.

i have a modest concern that roots penetrate the jiffys easier, more an observation atm.......i still have bags on rooters so i will continue using both, manly to see what there is to see.

hope some this helps. ive popped 100+ in the last 18mo, usually taking 20-40 cuts a month, a handful or so every week. right now im popping seeds i made 09-2011, germ rate is great. 80%+.....YAR! when yer poppin beans they are gold, i wouldnt do any auto anything from first touch of water until 2-3wk old. seamless, uninterrupted, smooth growth and development in the dev. stage provides you with +++ end result.

as usual, tis all my experience this comes from. cant mess around with germ/clone practice when you do it alot, especially beans that can be mucho$$$ and hard to obtain.

good write up on this, thanks OP........
.........and for the life of me, ill never understand why anybody would play havoc with a bean in a paper towel. cup of water, time, a spoon and steady hand, your plug/rooter/soil/?.....voila.

only time i ever had rot issues was with coco