Anyone with experience with Parks BioSponge set-up?

Intriguing description, but I am not clear at all on what the sponges are actually made of, and I'd love some feedback from people who have used them. Do you really prefer them to cells of soilless seed-starting mix, and why? I'm not crazy about the peat pellets, so if they are along those same lines, I'm not interested!

http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=96038&PrevMainPage=textsearchresults&scChannel=Text%20Search&SearchText=bio%20dome&OfferCode=W1H

Are they worth the expense? I'd love to hear the yays and nays, and your reasons why!

Angie

Angie, I did not use them. But last year I did order seedlings and I received them in cell planting blocks. As far as I could see they just used soil with a bit of perlite. I'm going to use these blocks this year and put them in a clear box and cover them with plastic. Much cheaper and the same result! If you are able to obtain cell planting blocks, I can advise them. Taking out the seedlings to transplant is very easy, you just have to press them with your finger.

i have 3 of the high biodomes and 3 of the selfwatering domes and i think they all work pretty much the same

I do not like peat pellets!! they to me just seem to get to soggy
i work with seed starting mixes in the domes with cell packs or Styrofoam molds like above pictured----and no peat pellets for me!!!

then i have these two helpers help me plant them into 4inch pots before going into the ground!
:)
dori

MMmm -- I have them, had them ....used them. They're nice in some ways - the seedlings come out in one shot without roots breaking off when you transplant them, they're cleaner than using a mix. But mainly because of the price, I won't use them again. They also take a lot of time to break down.

My mom really likes them, but they seem awfully expensive to me. I have lots of the cell packs in trays for the soilless mix, but just wondered what the big advantage was with the sponges. (Sounds like that Seinfeld episode, with "The Sponge" LOL)

Dori, your helpers are adorable! I have two garden helpers, too (well, three, if you count the dog), and then half the kids in the neighborhood like to come hang around and talk while I weed & plant, and I like to put them to work whenever possible, too. I figure if they have fun doing it, and I can sneak a few basic lessons in here and there, why not? And if they uproot my carrots too soon or pick the tomatoes green, it really isn't the end of the world, and that's how you learn, anyway. I remember pulling up and trying to re-bury carrots when I was a kid!

They usually go home with a handful of zinnias and whatever is ready to pick.
I actually convinced several kids to try tomatoes last year, when they all swore they hated tomatoes, and managed to send some home with the ones who didn't spit them out. :o) Sad how few kids ever have fresh vegetables now. We have a butterfly garden at school, and I sure wish we could do some kind of vegetable garden, too. Of course, we're on summer vacation during most of the prime veggie months, so maybe that wouldn't work out anyway.

Angie

I tried the Bio Domes and Bio Sponges in the 2014 growing season. Most seeds germinated very well, but many plants seemed unable to penetrante the sponges with their roots. Some just remained spindly. Many died. I managed to save some by cutting away the sponges. There were other plants that appeared to do well, with roots growing out through the sponges. When I dug them up in the fall, though, the root systems were poor and the sponges hadn't decayed at all. The small sponges were a little better than the jumbo ones. I will not buy them again. I notice that Park publishes only glowing reviews on their website, and that makes me reluctant to order from them in the future.

Thank you Mary, I had been wondering about them too.

I used them for petunias one year and thought they were expensive, but great. Then I found out that they were only good for germinating, I had to put them in soil mix to grow them on. They are too deep to fit in cell packs, so instead of a nice compact system, I had a bunch of 4" pots.

Two more problems emerged later: One, I kept finding the hard, dried up things in the garden even a couple of years later. I removed them as I came across them and put them in the trash. Two, I tried using the leftovers the next year, and all my little sprouts got their roots burned off. Something had gone really wrong in there, so I had to throw them all out. Never again! Maybe even worse than peat and coir!

Well, I don't have any experience with Parks BioSponge, but may I suggest another method?
I plant all my seeds in vermiculite, see http://www.seedsite.eu/articles/sowing
It's not a well known method, but have a look at one of the testimonials I got about it http://www.seedsite.eu/testimonials

Another gardener wrote me this about it:

'I just have to share exciting winter sowing reports using Jonna's vermiculite and closed container system.
As I'm sorting out containers to ready for this year's sowing, I'm still finding healthy extras left over from last winter's endeavors! That's a really, really long time to hold until you're ready to plant them, so you needn't think that a busy schedule will necessarily hamper your efforts. Now that I've seen first-hand how this works out long-term I'm more excited than ever!!'


Another one wrote me this:
'Jonna, I was so impressed with it I gave a demonstration that was well received at my organic gardening club.'

Another quote (can't copy and paste the pictures, only the text)

'In this one I tried to show how the seedling just sits and waits for you. There's still plenty of headroom left in the container, and even after months of doing nothing much more than sitting there, the plant looks pretty healthy. Without extra nutrients added I guess it just gets to a certain point and stops -resting in a holding pattern. I haven't noticed much in the way of elongation or weakness either, and to me that's almost unbelievable...even when actually seeing it for myself.

About this same time (end of September) I transplanted a couple of Campanula medium that sprouted in this system around the first of April, let them grow on for a few weeks and planted them out a week ago. They're doing just fine'

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.