Review of Burpee's Ultimate Seed Starting System

Your probably starting to think about buying things for your garden, so I thought I would let you know my experiences with the Burpee Ultimate Seed Starting system.  It's a system that is supposed to make it easy for you to start your seedlings indoors.

The system consists of the following components:

• A plastic tray that acts as a reservoir for water.
• A stand that sits inside the tray and holds the seed pots above the waterline.
• An absorbent mat that wicks water from the reservoir to the top of the stand.
• Plastic seed pots that accommodate 72 seedlings
• Peat moss pellets that will be the growing medium for your seeds.
• A clear plastic cover that will act like a greenhouse.

How the System Works

You place the stand in the reservoir and cover it with the absorbent mat.  One edge of the mat hangs over the edge of the stand and sits in the bottom of the reservoir.  The seed trays are placed on the mat, and a peat moss pellets is put in each pot.

When you pour water into the reservoir, it is wicked upward by the fibers in the mat and the mat ends up completely soaked.  The water wicks into the seed pots through holes in the bottom, causing the peat pellets to expand and they fill the entire pot with peat mixture.

You then plant your seeds in the peat moss and place the plastic cover over the top.  The mat continues to wick water to the seedlings and the only thing you need to do is to make sure the reservoir is filled with water. 

Technically, you can reuse the pots each year by just buying new peat pellets, but this turns out to be impractical for reasons I will explain below.

System Performance

The Burpee Ultimate Seed Growing syste did a great job germinating my seeds and it was easy to maintain.  If the story ended here, it would get 10 stars.

Unfortunately, you need to transplant your seedlings and here is where the trouble begins.

Getting the seedlings out of the little plastic pots is murderously difficult.  You need to push upward on the bottom of the pot.  This tends to damage the plastic, making reuse of the pots for a second season improbable. (see photo)

Additionally, the peat moss literally crumbles in your hands as you remove the seedlings, leaving the roots completely exposed in some cases.  These unfortunate seedlings are lost.

Conclusions

I'm going to give the Burpee system 7 of 10 stars; the system does a great job germinating your seedlings and it is convenient.  But you pay a price for this in lost seedlings and you will need to purchase a new system each year.

If you can live with that, you should give the system a try.

I hope Burpee can find a way to address the fragility of the pots and make it easier to remove the seedlings.  If they do, it's a grand slam home run product.

Comments

[Anat B]

Hey,

I am new to gardening and just started following your blog and I love it. I was looking at this item in my local home depot last week. I live in an apt. and all of my plants will be in pots this year.

Do you think it is too late in the year to start germinating seeds? Should I start this year with small plants, given that its already Mid-April?

Thanks.

[H. Mark Delman]

Hi Anat:

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate the feedback. If you like my blog and Podcasts, please give them favorable ratings at
the iTunes store, digindirt.com, or just tell a few friends.

Im going to provide both a long answer for the future and a short answer and a recommendation for today.

Long Answer: Chances are it is not too late to start some of your veggies from seeds, but you need to evaluate a few things to know for sure. It depends on the type of veggies you want to grow, the variety and the length of your growing season. For example, leaf lettuces are generally pretty quick to mature - 40 days on the short side and 50 days on the long side. Tomatoes have a really long range of maturity times - 65 days for quick varieties and about 100 for others, including many heirlooms. You need to check the maturity times for whatever you want to grow. Heres a link to a chart that will provide some overall guidelines but you need to consider which variety you are
growing (http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/hortcrop/h912w.htm ). If you buy plants, you are going to be limited to what you can find locally or what you can order as plants through the mail. The selection will be smaller than if you buy seeds and start them yourself. If you have your heart set on a particular variety that you cant get plants for, youre not going to have a choice - youll need to start from seeds. Whether it is too late to start from seed also depends on the length of your growing season. In Northern California where I live, the growing season is really long. The growing season is defined by the time period between the last and first frost dates for your area. You can find information for you state and city at the following (http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/). I wouldnt try to cut it too close; stay well within your growing season.

Short Answer and Recommendation: If you are new to growing veggies, start with purchased plants or a mix of some purchased and some started from seed. Purchased plants are just easier and you have a better chance of success. If youre successful, you can add some veggies grown from seed next year or go entirely to veggies from seeds.

Later in the season, let me know what you decided to do and how it worked out. If you have other questions, just reach out to me. Im happy to help.

-Mark