I just remembered why I hate peat pods

I ran out of rooting plugs, so I decided to start some germinated seeds in some compressed peat pods I had laying around the other day, and it all came back to me. These things are so difficult to keep at just the right moisture level for newly germinated seeds. I feel like I always make them too wet because they just suck water in so damn fast. I’m just glad I have a fresh new bag of plugs coming tomorrow.

Give them a good squeeze after soaking. My beef with them is i dont like the taproot growing through the mesh so i cut a hole in the bottom before it busts through if possible.

Other than that I find they work really well. I really did not like Rapid Rooters. Not sure what you are using

I usually use rapid rioters or root riot plugs. The rapid rooters seem to have some inconsistencies in the length, so I used to just slice the bottom flat, but both work great out of the bag without even adding water to them. If they dry out in the bag than you can wet them, squeeze the water out, and they are good to go. The peat pods rare difficult to squeeze the water out without making a mess and/or going a little to far and compacting the peat too much.

I had the same issues as you, Charlie. They were soaked, I'd turn around and see a bone dry pod and a dead seedling.

Now I just start in a tiny pot half filled with coco/perlite. As long as the seed is very close to the surface, there are rarely problems.