I tried this for up-potting my second batch of seedlings this year, and my-oh-my, what a difference! This latest batch of seedlings never broke stride and they're growing like crazy!

Thanks bunches, Rick!

GREAT!

I'm glad it's useful to skilled gardeners, and not just clutzes like me who can't resist overwatering.

Hopefully the roots will fill in more of the center of the pots, and not just race to the edges and circle there where the air is.

Well, they'll have to go down at any rate. I don't water till the container feels light, and then just by bottom-watering. So far, the results are excellent!

>> I don't water till the container feels light, and then just by bottom-watering

I only recently made bottom-watering work for me. Moving the trays and immersing them in a bathtub was awful - the bathtub floor sloped, and also the mud clogged the drainpipe.

Now I set a pad of cotton flannel between the water-holding tray and the sheet of inserts or propagation tray. I can water the cotton without submersing any of the cells. The pad also "shares water evenly" among all the cells, so no one gets thirsty until EVERYONE is thirsty.

(Edited to add this link:
http://garden.org/ideas/view/R... )

Now I just have to teach myself that seeds don't need water flowing all the way through the cell every day, the way a potted plant might need to be flushed every few weeks.

(Oh MAN, I'm glad I changed over to FireFox. I'm stuck with IE 7 today and it stinks on ice!)

I do this also, Rick. I mix my own potting soil and in order to get 'fines', I would have to go get a trailer load which is not what I want to do. I decided that the smallest bark mulch from Home Depot would work and provide even more drainage. I also use perlite in my mix. I want lots of drainage here with our rain.