Seedling Pots

cubes, cylinders, and prisms with the top hollowed out, made in various sizes from a variety of nutrient soil mixtures.

Seedling pots are intended for growing the seedlings of vegetable, flowering, and other plants. The nutrient soil mixtures are made of humus, sod. peat, and water-diluted cow manure in various proportions; mineral fertilizers are added to the mixtures, as well as lime or ash to neutralize the acidity. The pots may be made of peat-humus, peat, paper, cardboard, earthenware, or plastics and are filled with the nutrient soil mixture. Typical dimensions of the pot (in cm; transverse section) are 6 x 6 for cauliflower and cabbage; 8 x 8 for tomato, pepper, and eggplant; and 10 x l0 or 12 x 12 for cucumber and other cucurbits.

Growing seedlings in pots foster rapid growth and development of plants, increased yield, and earlier production; in addition, the root systems are preserved undamaged when transplanting the seedlings from the pots. Seedling pots are manufactured on manual or mechanized lathes. Pots manufactured in the winter are frozen and kept in stacks. Seedling pots may also be made directly in hotbeds or hothouses by spreading a layer of the nutrient mixture on the ground, allowing it to harden, and then cutting it into cubes with a disk blade or with special machine tools.