Seed Snail Rolls Help You Grow Healthier Roots in Half the Space
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Seed Snail Rolls are the growing technique that gardeners everywhere are using to get longer, healthier roots and save 50%+ table space. At Plum Hollow Farms, we make ours from upcycled denim with velcro straps that make opening and closing simple and less damaging to tender seedlings than using tape or string. A pack of 6 rolls is $24.95 excluding HST and cost of delivery (optional). Once you try them you'll wonder what you were ever doing with trays.🌱
Why Seed Snails?
The idea is simple. You spread potting mix along a strip of material, space out your seeds, and roll the whole thing up like sushi. Stand it upright in a tray for bottom watering and the seedlings grow out the top.
The reason the method has caught on is mainly the vertical space for roots. In a regular tray with 3-4 cm pod depth, the roots hit the bottom and start going in circles. By the time you transplant, they're a bit of a mess.
With a Seed Snail, roots grow straight down through the roll (our rolls provide 6 inches of vertical growing room). The roots come out longer, healthier, and ready for transplanting.
Transplanting is easy, too. You just unroll the snail and tease the seedlings apart.
Seed Snails work amazingly well for tomatoes, peppers, leeks, lettuce, and anything in the cabbage family. Basically the stuff you'd normally fill trays with.
How to Use Seed Snail Rolls
Each Seed Snail holds an average of about 20-25 seeds and takes about 5 minutes to prepare.
Here's how to make a roll:
Wet your potting mix before you start. Damp mix sticks to the strip while you're rolling. Dry mix falls off.
Spread an even layer along the full length of the unrolled strip. About 1 to 2 cm deep for small seeds like lettuce or cabbage. Up to 4 cm for bigger seeds like squash.
Add seeds now, or wait until after rolling. Either way, space them 1 to 2 cm apart (see next section for more detail on spacing).
Roll it up and fasten with the velcro straps.
If you're seeding after rolling, start adding seeds from the centre of the snail and work towards the outer edge.
Pack the rolls upright in a tray and water from the bottom. Bottom watering encourages roots to grow downward.
For small seeds, a humidity dome or plastic bag over the tray helps until they germinate. Keep an eye on moisture. The good thing about our upcycled material is that is wicks and retains moisture better than plastic rolls.
Advice on Soil Depth and Spacing
Different types of seeds have their own soil depth and spacing preferences. Here's what works well in a Seed Snail Roll:
Lettuce, Kale, Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Basil
1 cm soil depth
1 cm seed spacing
Tomatoes, Peppers, Onions, Leeks
1.5 cm soil
1.5 cm seed spacing
Corn, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Pumpkin
2 cm soil depth
2 cm seed spacing
If you're not sure, start with the smaller soil depth and spacing. You can always adjust next round.
Transplanting vs. Direct Planting
Not every seedling needs the same next step. Here's a simple way to think about it.
Snail-to-Ground
Plants that are usually direct-sown can go straight from the Seed Snail into the ground. Root veggies like carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, parsnips, and rutabaga, peas and beans work well. Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, swiss chard, and mustard greens are also direct-to-ground candidates. Other veggies like squash, corn, and sunflowers, as well as herbs like dill and cilantro
Snail-to-Pot
Plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, and herbs like basil are better moved to a pot up and hardened off before transplanting outdoors.
When in doubt, check how the plant is usually started. If it's normally direct-sown, it can likely go straight from snail to ground
What Makes Our Seeds Snail Rolls Different?
Plenty of growers make seed snails from old plastic bags, bubble wrap, or cardboard strips they already have lying around. That works great and there's nothing wrong with it. If you're doing that, keep doing it. 👍
The Seed Snail Rolls from Plum Hollow Farms are for active gardeners who want something efficient, built to last more than a single season, and not made from plastic.
Denim wicks more evenly than plastic sheeting, so moisture distributes more consistently through the roll and roots spread more evenly.
The material breathes. And at the end of the season you wash them and put them away for next year.
The velcro straps are the other reason why active gardeners will love these rolls. Taping rolls shut or tying them with string is fine until you want to open one and check on something, and then it's a nuisance. Our straps take two seconds to open and close. Some growers open their snails several times over the season to thin or reposition seedlings as they grow. With velcro that's easy. With tape it's not.
Six rolls for just $24.95 and they'll outlast any tray you've ever owned.
Order Seed Snail Rolls (Package of 6)
Each pack includes 6 Seed Snail Rolls made from certified upcycled denim and are 100% washable and reusable.
Roll Length: 24 inches
Roll Width: 6 inches
Velcro strap length: 6 inches
$24.95 per pack of 6 rolls, excluding HST and shipping costs. Available for pickup or Canada-wide shipping.
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