Great Product - DON'T BUY FROM HERE THOUGHOther reviewers have rated the product poorly based on the ridiculously high price. While it is true that this kit can be had for under $6 elsewhere (I bought mine at Home Depot for about $5), the product is excellent and some comments should be made about that.
This product is *identical* to other greenhouse kits sold on Amazon under the names "Carefree Jiffy Greenhouse", "Ferry-Morse Seed #5272 Pro Greenhouse Kit", and perhaps there are others floating about with different names and prices. Indeed unusual but nevertheless they are all the same.
You get (72) peat disks, each clad in a fine biodegradable netting, in an 11" x 22" plastic tray. A clear plastic lid is included. Add (2) quarts of warm water, the disks expand, pencil-push your seeds in, blanket the seeds with peat harvested from the pellets, lid the tray and place in indirect sunlight until the seedlings grow about 2", move outside and prop open the lid in partial sun, then transplant in about a...
Don't waste your time on the Burpee kit! This is the best!I decided to grow my own garden plants this year, so I purchased this kit at Walmart. (It's funny, I thought it was named "Jiffy" because that's on top of the package.) Anyway, I am eminently pleased with this set, and here's why:
1. It's easy to use. Just add the warm water and wait until the little peat bags have expanded. Two words of advice about this:
a. Make sure the peat bags are in the cells properly, laying flat. If not, it gets a bit messy, but it's not the end of the world. Just try to straighten it out later.
b. Don't use hot tap water. When you use warm or hot water from the tap it leaches the lead out of the seals in your plumbing. So use water that has been heated by another source. Why grow organic cucumbers if you add lead to the starting mixture?
2. You can reuse it. The peat bags lift easily out of the cells (well, you might have to untangle some roots, but that's gardening). Jiffy, or whoever they are, sell the peat bags...
It works exactly as you would expect.I bought this exact product for $6 at Wal*Mart for my first foray into Gardening this year, and it is the perfect thing to get a jump start on the planting season, or to at least give you a bit of time between planting and getting your garden bed ready. So far I've started Tomatoes and Jalapeños and about 90% of them have sprouted. I picked up a second one to start Marigolds and Basil.
If you want to put up a lot of annual flowers, this is just the thing. However, don't let the fact that there are 72 pellets pressure you into making 72 plants (I've planted WAY too many Tomatoes). The pellets are easy to pop out and set aside if you do it before you add the water. After you add water, they swell up into huge blobs of soil, contained in some delicate netting.
The tray is very clever, with a series of drainage channels to make sure the water is distributed evenly. About the only nit I have is I wish the dome were a little taller.
It's cheap...
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