We Tried The Viral Seed Snail Technique & This Happened

For a gardener with a shorter growing season, a big garden, and very limited indoor sprouting space, this is a brilliant method. My daughter up in the Sierra foothills loves seed snails because she doesn't have to pot up before it's warm enough outside to plant.

I tried it this year with basil using bubble wrap, and it worked *beautifully*. You do need to be a bit more careful than Kevin was in unrolling, but you end up with seedlings that are easy to separate without really disturbing the roots, and I think they actually germinated a little better than I usually see using seed trays. I'm going to use the method going forward for anything that doesn't have super finicky roots and which I want a lot of.

Hmmm! Most of the ones I’ve seen had more soil in them - as I was watching I was saying you need more soil! Also with more soil, the seedlings should not require repotting. The rolls are easier to unroll when the seedling have grown more and there are more roots which maintains the soil together.

I love these experimental/semi-scientific videos the most. Thanks Kevin and Jacques!

This might be a good technique for onions or leeks. Those would be nice to just roll out and seperate 🤷

I tried this technique for the first time this year and was very successful. I planted an entire seed pack of Botanical Interests Costoluto Genovese tomatoes and 24 germinated successfully. I used an old plastic deer corn bag to make my snail. I will definitely do this again. The snails take up almost no room in my greenhouse and the plants were sturdy and healthy.

Kevin, try to imagine having this technique in your repertoire back when you first started and had severe resource/physical space limitations. How useful would this have been at that point in your gardening career?

I love when internet rediscover old technic used for decades and believe it's new. My grandmother was using seeds snails when I was kid in the 50's.😂

I've definitely watched videos of folks that make using seed snails look effortless. Maybe it's like rolling sushi, it just takes practice and then the space, money, time saving actually come into play. Apparently another reason some folks like this method is training the roots to go deeper from the jump, instead of hardening after transplant.. and they claim it makes for more resilient growth in the long run. Maybe a side by side comparison of shallow root seedlings vs snail seedlings planting needs to be done?

Idk if you've ever seen or tried 'my method' of seed starting but what I've done for years and years with great success is cutting toilet paper tubes in half and filling with moistened seed starting mix. I place them in cheap baking pans. Paper towel tubes can also be cut into seed starters. When I transplant into the garden, I plop the seedling tube in the soil. No waste, no digging a seedling out, and no irritating roots systems. Small bonus is that the cardboard composts right there in my garden.