What are Microgreen Tray Clips? Why do you need this product on your trays.

The Microgreen Tray Clips are a Patent Pending Product in both the USA & Canada that our founder CJ Vaughn invented and created here at On The Grow® after we noticed a continuous problem of struggling to separate trays from each other every time we had to bottom-water our Microgreen crops or when we wanted to inspect our crops/roots.

Because of the separation struggle, we noticed a recurring problem with our watering time taking longer and sometimes we’d damage or fingernails when trying to separate trays from each other that didn’t want to budge.

Before introducing this product to the market, CJ spent a few months creating the design, making improvements, and testing it out (y’all know how we like to test!) until it worked and felt exactly how he imagined it too. We noticed that using our tray clips made bottom watering easier and speeds up the microgreen watering process. For example - 10 trays with a 5 second improvement in watering time per tray is nearly 1 hour of saved time per month if you water twice a day! That means that the tray clips pay for themselves in 1 month with labor savings. Of course, time saving can vary depending on the person and speed at which you normally water, but from our experience, it’s beneficial. We noticed no negative side effects on our Microgreens crops from having the Tray clips installed during the entire growth process.

Some of you may be saying, “Aren’t there already trays that have finger slots cut into them?” – that is true! There are trays that have finger slots already cut into them, we have some too that we use from time to time! But, for some of us – who have large fingers (CJ) and still struggle to get the trays separated, it’s like trying to play a song on the piano by Franz Liszt when you just don’t have the right hands lol... The tray clips snap onto most trays with finger slots in them too, so you can still get the benefit of our tray clips!

How are they made?

All tray clips have been designed & created by CJ using a CAD program, which he then inputs the design into our 3D printer, and we manufacture them ourselves by allowing the wonderful world of technology to take over!! Since the clips are currently 3D printed, they will sometimes have minor imperfections such as seeing the "layers" that occur during the manufacturing process. After every batch is printed out, we always double check them ourselves to make sure there are no major flaws. With our quality control, we make sure you receive the best version of our product!

How about a little fun?

Since we manufacture our “Microgreen Tray Clips” ourselves and we both are creatives who really like to make things fun and ‘personalize’ our environment, we decided to spruce things up a bit and create random small batches of colored clips, alongside our black carbon fiber infused clips.

All of our colored batches, such as the “Light Green – Microgreen Tray Clips” that we just announced at the time of writing this blog are limited and may only be available for a short period of time depending on how quickly people buy them out. Once we sell out of the color, it may be months before its back in stock or we may not create that same color batch again.

Every new color we introduce to the market will be either at random or based upon what you guys and gals have asked for! Then once we order the filament for that color, we only print out around 100 sets of 10 – and that’s it, then we move onto the next color! The only color we will always offer is our Black Microgreen Tray Clips since they are our standard option, and the black clips are considered our extra-strong clips as they are infused with Carbon-fiber! Keep in mind too that sometimes the photos we take of the clips, don't do the color justice due to lighting and light reflection!

What trays do they fit? How do you install them?

Our newest updated design of the Microgreen tray clips that have the finger grip will fit 10x20 Thick Trays like Bootstrap Farmer's New and Old Tray Designs, most sprouting trays and most regular "thinner" 10x20 trays & 10x10 trays. Some trays may have a "loose" fit, but the clip will work all the same with these types of trays. If they do not fit your tray at all or to your satisfaction, email us at info@onthegrow.net .

Installing our tray clips is quick and easy – and we have this GIF here showing how to do it. Just grab your clip with the slotted side facing upwards, tilt the clip so that one corner goes onto the tray first, then tilt the other corner on so that it’s fully installed – then just make sure you push it on all the way. You’ll want the tray to basically touch the bottom of the slot and sometimes you may hear a click. Bam! Just like that, you’re all installed and ready to use it! Every once and awhile you might encounter a clip that takes a little more force to install on the first try and keep in mind that installing & removing these clips onto trays may scuff or scratch your trays lip due to the tight fit and ridges that help the clip stay firmly attached to the tray, luckily, it’s only minor from what we’ve noticed.

When using the tray clips, we lifted 30lbs with no issues when the clips were installed on a thicker Microgreen tray. However, we do advise using these clips with caution and at your own risk! Just because the Microgreen Tray clip is strong enough to lift seeding trays with weight on top, does not mean all trays can handle that weight. You should stick to using them how they are intended to be used, which is bottom watering and / or checking a single tray at a time. When your clips are not in use, Store them inside, not outside in the sun. Leaving the clips in the sun / elements could cause them to become brittle which can lead to product failure.

Do you Guarantee them? Where do you ship to?

We get it, sometimes you buy things and end up not liking them and that’s okay! That’s why all our tray clips have a 1 Year Warranty. Currently we only ship to the US & Canada. This is a product that we exclusively sell on our website at the moment.

Common Questions

“My clips create a space between the trays, is this problematic for my crops?”
Nope! It’s perfectly fine and will not affect your Microgreen crops growth / development. In fact, it can be beneficial for your microgreens roots as it would create a little space for them to breathe. There’s tons of studies on this, and we’ve even thought about using 2 Tray Clips per tray, one on each opposing side to get the said benefits of giving the roots space to breathe and grow!

“How many clips come per order?”
Right now, every order has 10 clips per order since most tray packs available on the market come in packs of 10 already. Sometimes we may throw in a fun extra clip to give a sample of other colors! It is important to us to also list the clips at a fair price so that they could be affordable for most people to enjoy.

“Can you send me the source file so I can print my own?”
We cannot do this as it would violate our Patent on the product.

Keep on Be-Leafing!

We believe that we covered basically everything we could think about in regard to our “Microgreen Tray Clips”, but if there is something we missed or that you would like to learn more about, then we would love to hear it! Feedback always helps us improve. This is the first Patent Pending product we have introduced to the market, and we have many more to come.

Remember to keep an eye out for more colored batch announcements so that you don’t potentially miss out on your favorite color before it sells out! We generally announce new colors to those who signed up for our websites Email list first, along with those who may have voted on the particular color when/if we do a poll on social media. In fact, at the time of writing this – we recently did a poll on our Instagram and Facebook and because of your votes, we are working on some fun and very limited small batches of new colors that we have not announced yet.... though... maybe you caught the hidden sneak-peek at one of the new colors earlier in this blog.... we're sneaky like that, sometimes!

Keep on be-leafing y’all!
-Mandi & CJ

------------------------

Curious about other Growing supplies we use?

Check out our Amazon Affiliate Store Front by clicking (here)

-------------------------