Seed Snail Roll - Hype or Hope?

I as perusing social media when I ran into the idea of a "Seed Snail".





Thoughts? Have you used a seed snail before? Worth it?

I've just bumped into this idea this year as well. I don't love the materials that it seems like most of the people are using, but we did just receive some fancy olive oil and vinegar in bottle and they were wrapped in semi-cardboard corrugated paper stuff that rolls up nicely and I've been thinking about trying the seed snail with that.

ETA: The wax paper and burlap in your videos are great materials, but I've seen a load of packing foam and bubble wrap kind of stuff that I'd rather not.

I’m not at all sure that my bare cardboard is going to hold up for six weeks of growth, but it’s an experiment!

I am going to try using some leftover landscape fabric today. Will record my results.

How did it go?

Kari Ploysa wrote:How did it go?

Yeah, how did it go?

I started onion and leek seedlings this way two years ago– it’s very convenient because you can simply unroll a section and take out as many seedlings as you need without worrying about damaging or exposing the roots of the remaining ones.. The taller the spiral, the better the roots develop. The only thing I’ve noticed is that the soil dries out faster, so you need to keep an eye on it and ensure there’s enough soil in each layer.

I'd call using bare cardboard a fail. Maybe cloth would work.

I started lots of seeds this year and didn't feel like buying the multi-cell seed tray. I tested the idea of seed rolls in order to save space, by staggering transplanting times so I don't have too many pots to deal with.

The dividing material is doubled craft paper, aka the contractor's paper. Still they fall apart after being soaked for 3-4 weeks. Some roots are attached to the paper but none make it through the layers.  Durable and tightly woven fabric would be better in a retrospect.

Here I made two for over 50 milkweeds and one for 40 tomatoes, in recycled ice cream and cookie containers. I have transplanted the milkweeds and repotted the tomatoes. All are doing well without signs of root injuries.