Tree root trickery, mentioned in Ken Kern.

In Owner Built Homestead, by Ken Kern, he makes a passing reference to one of his sources, 'Smith' who floated the idea of making a seed starting box with three foot pieces of plaster lathe (that would be thin wooden slices. 1/4" x 1" x 3') thus making a 1" x 1" x 3' box, where the seed starts at the top. He soaks one of the pieces of lathe in Calcium Nitrate (I hope I've got that right) which compels the roots to grow the full length of the box. The idea is that you would get a 4" seedling with 3' of root developent, and you could go around planting them with your rock bar.

Well I went out and got some plaster lathe and triple-thirteen, I thought I would try it with clover seed. Has anybody heard of this, or tried this? Who's Smith? Does anybody on permies dig Ken Kern?