Honeycomb Seed Germination Starter Tray

This honeycomb-inspired seed germination set has 7 individual hexagon-shaped cups to start out seeds indoors. Since they are all individual, different seeds can come and go if they are ready sooner than another type you have growing. The cups have a drainage hole and all sit in a basin that has risers to keep them off of any drainage water. I made an optional lifter tool for ease of removing the seed/dirt when it’s ready to transplant. I used it as a template to cut some coffee filters and nest them in the bottom of the cups so all the dirt doesn’t drain through. You could also use newspaper. Then set the lifter over the filter, fill it with dirt, and add your seeds.

There is a lid to cover the basin if you’d like. There’s a solid version without holes and then a version with ventilation holes as well as a vent cover with a pin. You can open the vent to allow humidity to go out or keep it closed to keep the humidity in. I used “transparent” PLA (it’s more translucent) for my lid to let as much light through as possible. The settings I used ended up with only two perimeters to keep it thin for lighting purposes. There’s a little removal tool if you want to loosen up the dirt from the cup when it’s time to remove or the other end can be used to make holes for the seeds. There’s also a marker which you can label your seeds with.

For all pieces, I used a .4 nozzle
I used a .15 layer height
I used 6 walls for the basin to keep it as watertight as possible and kept that many for the rest of the pieces which I’m sure could be adjusted. I think having that many walls for the cups would be a good idea though.
The files should all be orientated the way they should be printed. I used supports for the lid pin and for the removal tool, but no other pieces require them.