About this product
A tray of seedlings reaches a point, usually about three weeks after sowing, where it turns from a success into a problem. The lettuces have their second pair of leaves and they are touching. The cosmos are starting to lean. Everything in there now needs its own pot, and there are forty of them, and the roots have already knitted together into a single mat.
This is where most losses happen. Not at sowing, not at planting out, but in the ten minutes of pricking out, when a thumb and forefinger try to do a job that a thumb and forefinger were never shaped for. You get the seedling out, but you take half its root system off in the process, and it sits and sulks for a fortnight before it forgives you.
The Garland Widger and Dibber Set is two small plastic tools that between them settle the whole business. From Garland, whose propagators and seed trays sit on half the potting benches in the country. Supplied to us through our partners at AllotMate, who curate proper, well-made tools for gardeners and allotmenteers who'd rather buy once.
What makes them work
- The widger — a slim, flattened blade that slides down the side of a module or between seedlings and lifts from underneath, taking the root ball and its compost together rather than tearing the plant free
- The slim profile — narrow enough to work in a crowded tray without disturbing the four seedlings either side of the one you want
- Lifting, not pulling — the fundamental point. A seedling lifted from below keeps its fine feeding roots; one pulled from above loses most of them
- The dibber — makes a clean hole of a consistent depth in compost or seed-starting mix, so the seedling drops in rather than being pushed in
- Consistent depth and spacing — the guesswork goes out of it, which shows up as an evener tray a fortnight later
- Durable plastic — rinses clean, does not rust, does not mind being left damp for an hour, and stands up to a full season of daily use
- Light and compact — both live in an apron pocket, a tool bag or a storage tray without taking up any real space
When you'll reach for them
- Pricking out — the job they exist for. Seedlings from a communal tray into individual modules or pots
- Module to pot — potting on plugs that have outgrown their cells, without breaking the root ball
- Windowsill sowing — where space is tight and everything is done at close quarters over a tray
- Planting plugs — bought plug plants going into containers, hanging baskets or a raised bed
- Bedding out — a dibber makes short work of a tray of forty annuals going into a border
- Thinning — the widger lifts the surplus seedlings out cleanly enough that the good ones you leave behind are not disturbed
- Small bulbs and corms — crocus, scilla and snowdrops in the green all want a hole rather than a trench
- Awkward corners — teasing a seedling out of the corner of a square pot, where fingers cannot reach
How to use a widger, if you have not before
Water the tray an hour beforehand — dry compost crumbles and takes roots with it, damp compost holds together. Slide the widger down the inside wall of the cell or between the seedlings, angle it under the root ball, and lift the whole plug upwards with the widger doing the work. Handle the seedling by a leaf, never by the stem: a crushed leaf will be replaced, a crushed stem will not. Make the hole with the dibber first, drop the plug in, then firm gently around it.
Specifications
- Contents: 2 pieces — 1 widger, 1 dibber
- Material: durable plastic
- Use: pricking out, transplanting, planting plugs and small bulbs
- Suitable for: seed trays, modules, pots, containers, raised beds
- Cleaning: rinse and dry
- Brand: Garland
Looking after them
- Rinse after each session — dried compost on a widger blade makes it thicker and clumsier than it should be
- A weak disinfectant wash between batches — damping-off spreads on tools as readily as it does in water, and this is a two-minute job that saves a whole tray
- Dry before storing — nothing should go back into a tool bag wet
- Out of direct sunlight — prolonged UV makes any plastic brittle, and a brittle widger snaps at exactly the wrong moment
- Do not lever against stones — the widger is shaped for compost, not for prising things out of hard-packed soil
As a gift
- For a first-time seed sower — this is the pair of tools nobody knows they need until someone shows them, and then they never sow without them again
- A stocking filler with a use — small, inexpensive, and considerably more welcome in February than another mug
- Alongside a packet of seed — a set of seeds and the tools to prick them out makes a complete small present rather than half of one
- For an allotment newcomer — practical, unshowy, and the sort of thing an experienced grower would have chosen
About Garland
Garland Products have been manufacturing horticultural equipment in the UK since 1976, working out of Staffordshire and making the propagators, seed trays, watering equipment and growing sundries that most British gardeners have used at some point without necessarily noticing the name. They are an unglamorous, dependable sort of maker, and their propagation kit in particular has earned its place in a great many greenhouses.
About AllotMate
AllotMate curate proper, well-made tools and equipment for gardeners and allotmenteers who'd rather buy once than buy often. We work with them through a direct fulfilment arrangement, which means your order ships from their warehouse to your door — same tools, slightly faster delivery, and consistent stock levels because they handle their own inventory.
A small thought: the difference between a gardener who raises their own plants and one who buys them in is very often nothing more than a good pricking-out technique — and that is far more about the right small tool than it is about any particular talent.