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  • From: "Marlin Burkholder" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Winstrip trays
  • Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 20:30:19 -0500

A few of us here in NC are organizing a bulk order of Winstrip trays.

Maybe I need to throw in a little of my accumulated wisdom here relating to
the use of Winstrip trays.

I like the way they work. They make nice transplants if everything works
right. However, I had some trouble several years running with weak plants
and some trays downright failing. I finally concluded that it is pretty
important to clean them thoroughly between uses and to preferably steam
sterilize them in order to prevent disease problems. This involves some
labor input on your part. I had a bad experience trying to sterilize them
by throwing them into 10% hypochlorite (chlorine bleach) solution and don't
intend to do it again.

Right now a number of my trays have a white film buildup on them which
concerns me. I think it is mostly hard water scale and may or may not be a
problem. I'm thinking of throwing them into a 5% phosphoric acid (the stuff
dairy farmers use to clean up milkstone deposits on their equipment) but am
a little gun shy after one bad experience using chemicals to clean them.

Another thing I am seeing is a number of very sticky white cocoon like
things in and between the cells which upon inspection reveals a little black
spider which apparently finds Winstrips a good place to hybernate. They
don't flush away by turning a water hose on them! I have yet to find a
quick and easy way to remove them and see this as a potentially big problem
in the future.

Marlin Burkholder





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