Propagator

organic_wanabe

I have just bought my first one as it was in a sale. However, it doesn't have any drainage holes in the bottom. Should I try to put some in (and risk breaking it!) or would it be OK just to line it with some gravel? I thought I might try to grow some rocket in it.

Lotus-eater

A propagator is usually just for starting seeds off in. I've never actually had one (Ohhhhh) so I'm not sure if it should have holes or not, for rocket you are probably better off getting one of those long troughs you see in pound shops, they fit lovely on a windowsill. Don't plant the seeds too close together, like at least 2 inches each way and try to give them lots of light.... oh and keep them damp, otherwise the plants will go straight to flower, not the end of the world as you can eat the flowers, but the end of the plant.

alanobrien

It doesn't need drain holes. Normally you would use a seed tray insert and that has the drainage holes. You can remove the insert, water, allow to drain and replace.
I have heated propergators and water seed trays sparingly in place with no problems at all.

katiel

The way I use mine is to cut up some of those 24-hole inserts into strips. I sow something different in each strip, and and then as soon as one lot of seeds has germinated I whip that strip out and put something else in. Also sow some stuff in small pots and put that in. That way I get a lot of stuff moving at the same time.

Davesnave

You didn't say if it was electric or not, but either way I'd put no holes in it and just line with gravel/sharp sand to retain moisture, as you propose.

olly300

I have an electric propagator and non-electric propagators.

With both I just put a seed tray or plant pot in them with a base under them. The seed tray/plant pot has drainage holes in them the base under them doesn't.

I only do that because it's quicker and easier to clean them out afterwards. And yes my seeds germinate.

Davesnave

My system is a bit odd because I bought a 24 square foot, thermostatic, heated bench from an old nursery for next to nothing, so I use that to start dahlias and seeds or protect tenderish things through winter. I can stick a plastic propagator on top of it or, more often, just put the pots on the capillary matting and cover them with sheets of cling film because there are too many.

I built my sand bed propagator, which runs on a heating cable, using old double glazing units, but that's usually stuffed with things that are rooting, so not much room for seeds and it can get too humid. I've had courgettes etc rot away in there. Outdoors in a shadyish place I also have an unheated cold frame, and that often acts as insurance when the heated bed fails to root something, because I divide the cuttings 50:50. With some plants, the low-tech, slow cold frame really does much better.

Of course there are loads of seeds that don't need or benefit from a propagator anyway, some of which may rot if the temperature is too high, or they just stay dormant until they're frosted. I've just had some white verbena hastata come up like weeds, but not one last year when I bought & sowed them. It's just dawned on me that the pink ones I usually grow are always taken from pots or in the gravel where they've sown themselves; I never sow them indoors at all!

So, whatever propagator you have will probably be fine. (My first one was a wooden box with a sheet of glass over the top!) However, there are plenty of plants that come up happily without one, or which actually resent high temperatures, like lettuce.

organic_wanabe

Goodness - I've so much to learn. I suppose it's going to be trial and error! Thanks for all the replies and info.