Would those cylindrical pellets of peat moss/sphagnum work in place of jiffy cubes for starting out my babies? I'm worried because i have never seen any growers use them. The ones that I got were also made by jiffy so i figured they would be ok but now i am having second thoughts.
Those little pellets that grow when water is added? I've used them. They work great becaese they hold little to no nutes which is what a seedling needs. You can transplant and move them easily with those too
Not a problem. One tip I do when using those is always have them in a humidity dome until you transplant them and keep the humidity as high as possible. The roots will come out the bottom and if the humidity is low, the roots will dry and get air pruned. Keeping the humidity near or at 100% will keep the roots that come out from drying out
The problem with peat moss is it's a little too acidic for MJ so it can though off your PH. You're better off using rockwool or rapid rooters. I prefer the locally made version or rapid rooters. They're a little fluffier and don't get hard when they dry out like some can. The roots love them. But any version of rapid rooters is my recommendation.
Jiffy cubes are peat moss... True that the moss tends to run acidic, should be OK for starting though. Or, just put them straight into a soil mix, that's what I do -- paper towel germ, then 4" pots with soil, then 5 gallon pots with soil.
I haven't had any problems using jiffy pellets in the past. I've stopped using them because I prefer rockwool or straight into soil like toasty said. The jiffy pellets are a good not as expensive seed starters especially for those who can't get rockwool or other mediums. Going straight into soil for seeds is usually my favorite tho. Its how nature intended. I am trying out rockwool for some Chernobyl seeds for the first time. So far so good but I wish I had started them in soil. Transplanting them tonight tho