HELP!?How many times have you been looking around the garden center looking at labels and wonder what numbers like 1208, 1803 and 606 are? Even worse, if you start your own seeds and order from any of the supply companies it gets even more difficult to understand. I myself suffered from terminology shock when I first started gardening and found scarce help on terminology. So, I'm going to pass along what I have learned.
SIZE DOES MATTER
The foundation of understanding anything I am about to explain starts with one basic term: the standard size of a greenhouse tray. The image you see at the start of this article is the front and back of what is called a standard 1020 tray. These numbers indicate nothing other the width and length, in inches, of the tray: 10" by 20". In reality they're like 10.5" x 20.5" but you get the idea. Any time you hear someone refer to a "standard tray" or a "1020 tray", that's what they mean. These come in several flavors: with holes, without holes or a web tray (pictured to the right). These are ALL 1020 trays, just different types.
TO DO THEIR DUTY
To confuse you even more manufactures produce different weight trays as well. All this means is that the heavier the weight, the heavier duty the tray is. For example, Dillen offers three different weights of trays: light, middle and heavy. Overall I prefer the mid-weight as they offer a good balance of price and durability.
YOU SAID 1020 WAS STANDARD
Unfortunately, the 1020 standard defines the OUTSIDE dimensions of the tray, NOT the inside. The result is that trays from different manufactures won't always fit inside each other. Yes, I did say it was standard but but it's a loose one. Basically, you're stuck buying trays from the same manufacture if you ever want to stack them. As an example, most of the time I use web trays for effective drainage but because they are flimsy I put them inside a solid tray for transport. If I purchased the web trays from Landmark and solid trays from Dillen I wouldn't be able to do this. I've tried, it doesn't work.
INSERT NEW TERM HEREThe next term describes those little plastic things that go inside the tray, these are referred to as inserts. They come in all sorts of sizes depending on the application, crop and time of year in which they are used. The numbering system for these isn't really a standard per se but commonly used. Open up a hard goods catalog or go to the website of one of the manufactures and you'll see numbers like 3201, 1204, 1201, 606 and so on. These numbers describe the number of individual inserts that go in the tray and the number of "cells" per insert. For example a sheet of 1204's would have 12 individual inserts with 4 cells per insert. This is the most common size for spring bedding plants and vegetables, you have probably bought many of these. A 1201 (pictured above) would be 12 individual inserts with a single cell, these are commonly referred to as a "sheet of pots". Of course, like the trays, inserts from one manufacture most likely will not fit in a tray from another one.
SQUARE PEG, ROUND HOLE
Within the inserts themselves growers have different ideas on what the best way to grow small plants is. Some argue that a round cell in the insert is best for root development while others argue for a square. In some cases, manufactures have solved that by making the cell square with rounded edges. And even outside the square or round you have the 1803 which has 3 triangular cells per insert. Personally, I have taken to a round shape as that makes transplant into larger pots easier as my dibble creates a round hole.
HOW DEEP DO YOU GO?
Hopefully you've been keeping up with how exceptionally well these standards are maintained (hah). Similar to how the trays come in various flavors the inserts have options as well. Many of them can be purchased in different depths to handle crops that need additional root area. Most manufactures give them names such as "deep", "extra deep" or "jumbo". I have even seen manufactures use the cell depth in the product number instead of giving them names. Your mileage may vary between manufactures.
SLIM IT DOWN
At some point, I'm not exactly sure when, growers realized that 10"x20" consumed space in the greenhouse that many crops didn't need. Manufactures responded to this with trays that were still 20" long but slimmed down to a width of 8" to 9". Unfortunately, they didn't develop a standard term for this so each manufacture has their own names. Some call them "slim jim" others call them "skinnie minnie" and yet others call them "slimline" They're all the same idea, reduce the width of the tray so the growers can fit more trays per square foot in the greenhouse. A word of caution on these: standard 1020 inserts DO NOT fit in these trays. Not only that, many of them are considered seasonal or special order so you'll need to order PALLETS of them at a time.
IDENTIFY ME
Some manufactures will advertise something called a "tag locator" on their trays. Often times the part number is a "T" or "TL" in it. This is simply a small slot somewhere in the tray, usually on one of the sides, to insert a tag. Most often these are used to tag the tray with an order number, fertilizer rate or greenhouse location information. These are quite useful if you have an entire tray of a single variety but they're getting harder and harder to find since most trays grown for retail have a tag in each insert. These are more common with growers that supply to landscapers since they don't often tag the plants they plant. At anywhere from .03 to .25 per tag this can save a ton of cost in the long run.
PAY THE PIPER
Greenhouse trays are plastic and therefore require petroleum to produce. Over the past several years I have seen the cost of trays, inserts and pots at least double. There are a few manufactures out there developing alternative products, such as trays made out of rice hulls, straw or even manure. They haven't become all that popular and are still cost prohibitive. Until growers purchase them in large amounts the price will continue to be out of reach for most of us.
RECOMMENDATIONS
I hope on your next trip to the garden center you'll be able to understand the products you are looking at a little better.
A few things I have learned over the years when buying trays.
- Purchase all of your material from the same manufacture. I can't stress this enough, this alone will save you a TON of aggravation.
- Buy the heavier duty trays, they'll hold up for several years. That is unless you're growing and selling whole trays for a profit, for those buy as cheap as possible.
- If you opt for the lower cost trays avoid moving them around. I try to limit moves in the greenhouse to 1 or 2 otherwise they crack and fall apart.
- Use trays with holes or web flats for proper drainage. I've had better luck with the web flats holding up over time and because of the lower amount of plastic they cost about the same as cheap solid trays.
- Find a good distributor and purchase all material from them to get maximum discounts.
- 606 - Good general purpose insert for flowers and vegetables. Use these when you want the plants to get a little fuller and taller than those grown in 1204's.
- 606 Deep - Good for pansies, petunias and violas. I use the plants from 1 of these inserts to plant up 10" hanging baskets. 6 deep rooted starts are perfect for a 10" basket.
- 1204 - Almost the defacto for spring bedding plants and early vegetable transplants. In order to get around the normally huge minimum orders go to East Jordan Plastics, they have a 1 case minimum.
- 1201 - Great for seed starting. Start 12 varieties in the space of a single flat. They don't tear easily so they can be reused 2-3 times.
- 3201 - Our standard size herb and vegetable pot. A sheet of these has (32) 2.5" pots, 8 per row in 4 rows. They're extremely economical and allow for fairly large size plants early in the season. W
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