Jiffy Pellets come in a few different sizes. One of the most common sizes is 42mm. As an alternative, the pellets are also sold with trays that fit the pellets.
In addition to sizing, we can buy them in sizes like 200 count. For example, a 200-count could cost roughly $50, making the cost of each one around $0.25 each.
To use Jiffy pellets, we can use a nursery flat(one without drainage) and fill it 1/3-1/2 with plain water and let the cubes soak until they are saturated. At this time, we can move remove the leftover water from the tray, or move them tom another tray. These trays cost around $2 and can be purchased from garden supply stores.
Planting the seeds
Depending on the seed, we can place it on top of the Jiffy pellet, or bury it around 1/8-inch deep. It really depends if our seeds need light or darkness to germinate.
For Jiffy-7 pellets which are the most common for starting seedlings, we can fit around 55 in a single tray. A nice benefit to Jiffy pellets over standard seed cells are that light can penetrate the bottom of the tray and that will keep the roots in their cubes.
Jiffy Pellets vs Seedlings Flats
The main benefit of Jiffy Pellets are convenience. As far as cost goes, we get hardly any peat moss for $50 whereas if we bought a bale for under $10, we have mass amounts.
With nursery flats, one which comes close to volume per tray is the 72-cell flat. We can buy three of these for under $10 and the cost of peat to fill them up would be less than 25 cents.
Not only can we start more plans for less than $10 compared to $50 with Jiffy Pellets, but, we can reuse the flats after each usage which usually lasts 5 weeks or so. Although we can technically reuse the peat moss from the Jiffy Pellets, it is no more valuable than the 25 cents of peat moss it contains and we must remove the plastic coating as well.
Conclusion
If we are stuck and have money top spare, Jiffy Pellets are a fast, easy option. But, they are certainly not worth the price and really do not save much time, if any time at all.
