Starter Mix...Whats your`s ?

[massachusett4hills]

Recently the potting soil Mix I use has changed.
If you make your own it tends to change every spring anyway,But.
# 1....use what`s at hand ?
garden soil, compost, wood ash, sand ect.
I always look for what works best and then have it ready beforehand.
Around here starting vegetables seeds in pots is required for peppers and tomatoes
So this is what this years starting soil mix had
90% compost....5% sand....5% garden soil....
and a small amount of wood ash
At times I have seedlings Wilt
So in the winter I heat the sand and garden soil in the wood stove .
5 or 6 hour works and store until needed
That`s about It........

I liked to here about yours

[mnjrutherford]

I created my own mix for the fist time this year.

4 parts Miracle Gro potting soil (please don't scream, it was $5 for 40 qts, that's the BIG bag)
2 parts peat moss
1 1/2 parts vermiculite
1 part mushroom compost
1 can lime
1/2 can dried, whole leaf thyme

My "parts" are measured with a 2 quart drink pitcher. I sift it to remove the lumps of wood and I use the lumps in the bottoms of larger pots.

Thanks for asking! I'd love some feed back!

[Kelly]

For starting I always use straight coir, works really well for me - never any fungal problems, and it stays more evenly moist with less drying out then peat. Since I switched to coir (3 years ago) I haven't lost one plant to any sort of fungus, and I definitely spend less time thinking about watering.

When I pot up (but before they go out) I then use cactus soil (without any osmocote or fertilizers), and I mix in about 1 part vermiculite to 3 parts cactus soil. I like cactus soil because it doesn't have the peat generally, and it's really coarse and airy. The seeds love it.

[happyskunk]

The last few years I have had really bad growth using Jiffy-Mix seedling mix. This year I switched to Whitney Farms seedling mix and had some ok growth and some pathetic growth. The plants seem to recover pretty well though after I transfer them to Black Gold organic potting soil. Did one tray of peppers and goji berries with Miracle Gro Orchid Mix and all of the plants look really healthy (one of the peppers has huge leaves). I would like to find a organic alternative to this though. Maybe I should try planting directly into the Black Gold. But since the Walmart here has like a gazillion bags of Orchid Mix I'll be looking for a huge sale this summer. I'm not really sure how many people grow orchids around here.

I have also had good luck with coir blocks for squash and melons.

[grunt]

I go very basic with my starting mix = 3 parts peat, one part perlite, and a little dish soap as a wetting agent (surfactants without the chocolate). I wait until everything in the tray is up before I give them a weak feeding of MiracleGro or manure tea, or compost tea, depending on what I have on hand. Keep the nitrogen level fairly low, or you end up with green crud growing on the top of the soil.

[mnjrutherford]

I will NEVER live down the chocolate surfactants will I? ;D ;D

So, soil is very unnecessary? That's sort of what I'm getting from this. With the soap, about how much should I use per gallon of peat?

Out of 72 tomato seed, I've had only 7 that actually germinated. Poor germination on a lot of other things as well. 0 on my strawberry seed which is very distressing. I've been giving a weekly water of weak fish emulsion as well.

[grunt]

Jo: I mix about a half teaspoon to a gallon of water, then mix that through the potting soil mix at the rate of about 2 gallons to a 35 gallon garbage can (what I mix my potting soil in). It really doesn't take much.

[mnjrutherford]

Apr 28, 2010 8:40:19 GMT -5 grunt said:

Jo: I mix about a half teaspoon to a gallon of water, then mix that through the potting soil mix at the rate of about 2 gallons to a 35 gallon garbage can (what I mix my potting soil in). It really doesn't take much.

ahHA!!! Well thank you so much Dan! ;D Don't you just know that in my mind I was thinking I could just squirt on a cup or two of straight soap and mix it in then call it good?!?!? You are to awesome! You would have been able to see where we live from outer space cause we would be the Mt. Everest made of soap bubbles. ;D