This grill insert has large holes & is designed to grow Large Seeds eg Snow Pea & Field Pea, without the need for coco fibre. It can be used to grow smaller seeds eg Wheat, Radish etc but needs a small layer of coco fibre to support the seeds.

I use the grill method now because it makes watering easier, you use less coco. Note you need the coco fibre quite moist so it sticks together to bridge the gaps which the roots will pass through to the water & nutrient below.

This is a specially designed tray or grill that sits inside the 475mm rectangular trays to allow you to grow the larger seeds such as FieldPea and Snowpea without the use of a potting mix such as the coconut fibre, but still have the advantages of using the natural nutrients such as the liquid Seaweed, Dolomite and Azomite and Magnesium Chloride.

There are a few advantages of using these over using a growing medium by itself some of these are

·           Not having to use as much growing medium, saving you money and space for storage.

·           There is less material to throw away or recycle at the end of the growing process.

·           It is much easier to add water and top up with extra nutrients if required.

·           It is especially good for the Snowpea, as once the roots have found their way to the liquid below and you have removed any that were starting to decay see Pic.3, then the upper part remains quite dry, and you get a really clean result.

There are a couple of disadvantages

·           The clean-up process requires you to clean 2 trays instead of one, an extra minute or 2.

·           In the clean-up process the roots have to be cut away from the grill whereas in the tray they all just fall out with the growing medium.

Some things to remember when using this system(no coco fibre),

·       Do not put too many seeds as the roots need to spread out as they search for the nearest hole to go through to the liquid below.

·      Make sure the Sprout cover is in place so the seeds do not dry out.

·      After a couple of days remove the cover & pick out any seeds that are starting to go off, with the snowpeas this is the ones that have not germinated they generally are still very green looking & are sticky to the touch & on close inspection have little drops of moisture on the outside.

I use the grill with a small amount of coco fibre to grow all my seeds eg Snowpea, Radish, Wheatgrass, Mustard, Cress.

I get better germination with the Snowpea with a small amount of coco fibre.