Burpee Self-Watering Seed Starter Tray, 72 Cells

This seed tray made starting our garden a breeze! My grandson loved watching the seeds grow, and the self-watering feature kept everything simple and low-maintenance. Great results—we’ll use it every year!

Good value for quantity. Great size and quality. Will use again.

It was very easy to set up, and I had near all my seeds sprout. Watering part works well, too. The only issue for me was that the plastic is black, and there's not enough coir/soil to reach the top to be level with the top of a tray. As my seeds sprouted, many of them failed to thrive because the sun/light wasn't reaching the sprouts. It took me awhile to figure out what was happening. The tray was sitting on a kitchen windowsill, surrounded by 4 windows with at least 12 hrs of light, and about 4-6hrs of direct sun. There was enough sun/light coming in. But the seeds that were lower due to given coir level didn't get enough sun thru black plastic, and failed. Once I turned an overhead light on, it helped, and I was able to save some. The ones that made it past the tray's plastic to more light, were fine. So I would either get extra coir to make sure the soil level is to the top of a tray, and the sprouts get enough light. Or verify that there is a direct overhead light/sun getting inside the tray pockets. Or use the coir that comes with it, distribute it so it's level to the top, and not use all the pockets because you won't have enough to fill them all. Or get clear plastic trays. Overall the kit was useful for me being a beginner, but it came with the learning curve, and about half of lost sprouts.

I had great success with this. I scattered a package of black eyed susan seeds on the right side, and purple coneflower seeds on the left. Then I realized that black eyed susan are supposed to be cold-stratified, so I removed all of the seeds I could see, put them in the fridge, and put yarrow seeds in the cells instead. Much to my surprise, 50+ black eyed susan seeds sprouted even without the cold stratification! The purple coneflower were slower, but I ended up with ~10 of those and ~13 yarrow. The only con I encountered was that it is quite difficult to get the seedlings out of the cells when transplanting. They don’t “pop” out as described, and the starting mix crumbles everywhere. My finger often got stuck in the little holes trying to remove seedlings which hurt.

Kit included everything described. I needed to trim the black mat that wicks the water up from the tray a little bit to make everything sit flat, but pretty easy. I flipped all the soil discs so they were flat side down and added warm water from the tap. Everything expanded ok, some needed a second round of water. Some of they flipped sideways when I added the water in, but they were easy enough to break apart with the wooden stick. I added a heat mat. I planted the seeds on a Monday night and could see the first plants appear by Thursday morning.

Worked as expected

When used properly, it works perfectly. Just make sure the media pellets are turned into a vertical position when you hydrate them, or they “grow” to the sides and have to be manually turned to work properly without distorting the watering system. Since water is virtually incompressible, the sideways-watered pellets didn’t expand correctly. Make sure the pellets are oriented like a soup can and not like a hot dog. I made the mistake of watering the pellets with some of them oriented sideways, and it took quite a bit of time and effort to correct my error. Even so, I used this with a seed-starting heat mat and a grow light, and it worked very well to give my seedlings a head start

I had bought this Burpee Self-Watering Seed Starting System online, before I bought any seeds. I was at the local store and picked out so many seed packets I decided I wanted a second seed starter kit. The store had the Jiffy Self-Watering Greenhouse, which works the same way, but was about half the price! I prepared both items with the seeds at the same time, and have watched them germinate under my plant light, so my review is based against how the Burpee compared to the Jiffy unit. The Burpee item cost about twice as much, it took a lot more time and prep work to get the soil pellets ready, and was more difficult to plant seeds. With the Jiffy, I watered each pellet generously, the wrapped pellet expanded, I then used a toothpick to loosed the soil, and plant the seeds. The Burpee item kept requiring more and more water, then I had to loosen the entire soil pellet, and water some more. I tried using the wooden stick enclosed, a fork, then finally used my hand to break apart each individual pellet, then I was able to plant the seeds. The same seeds in the Burpee container took longer to germinate the in the Jiffy greenhouse. The Jiffy self watering system really works well, moisture forms on the plastic cover and ‘rains’ on the plants. The Burpee lid does not fit well enough to have the moisture form on the lid. The Jiffy item is made a little differently, it sits lower, and the lid while loose, fits the tray, unlike the Burpee. When it is time to plant the plants, the Jiffy pellets are individually wrapped, and will be easier and quicker to plant. The Burpee pellets are loose soil, and will require me to dig each plant out of the tray, w and hope the loose soil stays around the root while I plant it. Save your money, save your time, get more and plants for your effort. BUY JIFFY SELF WATERING GREENHOUSE.