2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Previously, seedlings were grown in greenhouses in garden beds or in common boxes on the balcony, in recent years, cassette technology has become more common. What are its advantages?
The introduction of automated planting of seedlings led to their cultivation using cassettes with various cell sizes. Tested in large areas, it smoothly migrated to private gardens. The availability of the starting material, the construction of comfortable greenhouses made of cellular polycarbonate, made it possible to successfully grow seedlings using the new technology.
Advantages of cassette seedlings
The positive aspects of growing planting material using cassettes include:
1. Closed root system, not injured during transplantation.
2. Optimal growing conditions.
3. More plants per unit area.
4. Possibility to put containers in several levels on the racks.
5. Convenience of transportation and disembarkation.
6. Energy savings.
7. Good survival rate in the ground.
8. Short period of adaptation to new growing conditions.
9. Earlier terms of obtaining high-quality seedlings.
10. There is no need for a pick.
Let's go through all the points in more detail.
The main advantage of cassette seedlings is their closed root system. Each plant develops in an individual cell. Interlacing of roots with neighbors is excluded. Maximum preservation of the earthen coma during transplantation. As a result, it quickly adapts to natural outdoor conditions. Close to 100% survival rate, with full adherence to technology.
At the initial stage of development, it is possible to grow crops in a small volume on heating. Then transfer to a larger pot, transfer to the greenhouse from cellular polycarbonate without additional energy sources. This technology reduces the material costs for growing plants.
Combining individual cells into cassettes reduces the footprint. Additional lighting above the shelves allows containers to be placed in several rows if desired.
Sowing one seed in each cell saves raw material. When individual plants fall out during the growing season, empty spaces are replaced with other specimens. The area remains fully occupied at any stage of development.
In heated greenhouses, crops with a long growing season begin earlier. The exclusion of the picking stage saves time and does not additionally injure the plants.
Moving and carrying the cassette from one place to another is more convenient than individual pots. Tall plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) in a common heap cling to each other, break less during transportation.
Disadvantages of the method
Like any technology, there are certain disadvantages here:
• the root system is so compressed into a dense lump that sometimes it is difficult for new roots to break through this barrier in the ground;
• with a delay in planting, the plants fully use the provided land, sometimes suffer from a lack of space for further development, stop growing, the leaves begin to turn yellow;
• additional costs arise for the purchase of soil substrate, cassette containers;
• at the initial stage of sowing, a lot of time is spent on folding each seed into a separate cell;
• a certain period is required for hardening the seedlings, accustoming them to the natural conditions of open ground;
• excessive watering leads to decay of the root system; in greenhouses, water is distributed over the entire surface of the earthen coma without restrictions;
• the cost of transportation increases, the cassettes are reduced in the car less than a heap of dug out plants.
The negative aspects are ultimately offset by an increase in the yield of seedlings planted from cassettes, saving time and material costs. The main condition is not to use too small volumes for large plants. So that they feel comfortable for as long as possible in the initial conditions.
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