As long as people have been gardening, theyve been trying to find easier ways to do it all.

But eventually youll find a system that works.

Even so, were all looking for ways to make it faster, more efficient and cheaper.

I cant find a good reason to choose this method over regular methods.

What are seed snails or snail seeding?

Seeds need three things to sprout: heat, moisture and a medium like soil to grow in.

For home gardeners, its pretty simple.

Cucumbers sprout in days, while snapdragons take weeks to germinate.

Still, the process is mostly the same.

Snail rolling gets rid of the seed tray (sort ofmore of that in a moment).

The challenge was whether it worked better than traditional methodsspecifically regular ol seed trays.

Small seeds like marigolds need less thickness than pumpkin seeds, which are quite large.

Heres where this process hits some snags.

As you roll, soil falls out, so you lose a lot of it.

You want to keep the thickness of soil consistent, too.

Its helpful if you do a few, so the rolls hold each other upa deep tray helps.

This part wasnt hard, but it was harder than using a regular seed tray.

This was much harder in the messy snail rolls.

It was also less efficient.

For instance, an entire tray of pink Benarys Giant Zinniaeasy.

In a snail roll, there is no way to tell whats what; its just all jumbled together.

In a snail roll you wouldnt even know something failed to sprout.

Cant regulate moisture easily

Once the roll is seeded, you have to keep the seeds moist.

As water evaporates, it condenses on the lid and then falls back down onto the seeds.

Theres very little water loss.

The snails had sprouted inconsistently, and the paper was growing some mold from the humidity.

One snail had collapsed partially.

Out of 50 cells in the trays, only two did not germinate.

Of the 50 seeds I planted in the snails, 18 seeds did not germinate.

We had a clear winner.

For the snail rolls, you have to delicately undo the roll.

This proved hard, since roots had grown through the paper.

As you unrolled, you tore roots.

The snail roll transplants experienced a lot of root shock.