🌱 Seedling support with auto-clip (no wires needed)

So I have these lovely tomato seedlings, which started creeping along the soil and rooting themselves 😬 so, a quick way to support more than 100 seedlings was needed.

Requirements were:

• quick to print
• no supports
• less labour than toothpicks or bamboo sticks tied with wire

So, I designed this up - a quick way to provide support for seedlings with a built-in clip. I reduced its size as much as possible, while still keeping it sturdy (the 10 cm slim clip takes only 11 minutes to print when using 0.3 mm layers 😲).

The Slim files are best for small seedlings (like less than 3 months), the regular ones are better for older plants.

The very simple method to use these: open the clip slightly using two fingers and push the stem of the plant inside the clip, then let the clip close by itself. ABS and PETG are flexible enough to do this repeatedly (should the clip break, you can still use the support because I placed 3 holes at the top, for wires). PLA works, but is more breakable of course. A full tray of seedlings can be fully supported in less than 15 minutes !

Hope you find this useful - do let me know of any suggestion or comments. Attached GCode is for 4 small slim stakes, in ABS 0.3 mm.