I do not know how well it will work. It seems that this is only for a small number of plants in an appartment, like for herbs in the kitchen, you would not want to do that in a house. All the plants would have horizontally flat leaves when you plant them outside.

Watering - I read watering from the top, collecting at bottom. Hosta seedlings like to stand with lower roots in water, mine now have 3/4 inch standing water. This structure you probably have to water every few hours, a pain.
Heat - he grows at room temperature. Hosta seeds like to have 76 to 80 dgrs to germinate, seedlings around 72-76. Some seedling grow on the surface, might fall off here.
Light - next to a large window without curtains would be OK. We use fluorescent lights 1 inch above leaves.
mixture - hopefully the cells can take soilless mixture with a little perlite.
cell depth - he might have constant cell depth, right now I have 4 inch tall seedlings in 9 oz drinking cups. He possibly has no flexibility in changing cell size as plants grow.
Bernd

I don't understand how you would plant and grow hosta seeds in a vertical container like that. What would hold the germination mix in place? In addition, maple rots quickly under humid conditions and is not sterile. Why not use the common, cheap plastic 1020 flats with clear plastic humidity domes which are designed for this purpose?

Sure is pretty to look at! When I first saw Williams Sonoma I automatically thought of my kettle, LOL...till I saw the pic...there are a few unique growing ideas on the link you provided. I also wondered what would keep the growing medium in check....unless the roots bound to it keep it together as the herbs grow?

The feedback isn't positive so far...but an interesting concept.

Duplicate.

This post was edited by josephines67 on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 21:22

DonR, of course I don't plant my seeds in this, but it is such a pretty presentation. Like Jo mentioned, it probably has issues keeping the media in place.....and requires a whole lot of it....and so it would be better when the little cells got ready for transplanting. But it is a nice looking unit if made out of cedar or cypress wood for longevity.

Possibly a "living privacy wall" on a temperate zone deck. Think mini hosta here.

Thank you for your observations of hosta seed growing, Bernd...I can see that you have a scientific and realistic approach to the art, and that explains why you are so successful at it. You have some beautiful plants coming out of your winter growing efforts.

I would like to add that I think seedlings roots grow by gravity vertically down, so growing seeds in that vertical place would not work. The exception would be surface sown seeds which seem to wander around on the surface, but they would fall off here.
So it seems that they planted seeds and grew seedlings initially horizontally. Bernd

This post was edited by berndnyz5 on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 8:29

One of the biggest problems I would see is,how do you get enough light to a vertical surface? For me,it's hard to get any plants to grow inside,because when you put them near a window,they all lean to the light! Then you have to rotate them 180 degrees to get them to straighten up. I have grown hostas from seeds in the basement before,and now with two cats,that is not an option! Just my two cents worth. Phil