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Dirt VS Potting Mix

woody3says

woody3says

Ice down here has all shipping about a week behind. I finally received my heating pad today, hope for the thermostat tomorrow.

Question's about soil. I see everyone (that I've seen so far) start their germ trays with some sort of potting mix. Either a bought mix or a home recipe of sorts.

I have two germination trays, one came with the heat pad. That one is just an empty tray with a clear cover (Hydrofarm). The other is a Burpee from Home Depot that has "grow pellets" in it. The tray also has an absorbant pad that auto-bottom waters itself. (this will come together in a minute I hope!) With the COLD spell I see a golden opportunity. I am thinking of using soil straight from the garden plot in the germ tray so the plants will have consistent media from sprout to full bore fruiting.

Do you see any problem with using dirt instead of the fluffy mixes in the germ trays? My concern is not nutrition as much as will it be more prone to water logging my babies.
 
Do not use soil from your garden. It has bacteria and all sorts of bad stuff for little seedlings. Your better off using a sterile soiless mix.

Charles
 
I think you hit the nail on the head! regular soil will have compaction and get water logged,,but I have sown plenty of seed directly to the garden when it gets warm enough, and I never have a problem growing them.
Maybe the soil in the garden has enough runoff that it doesnt make them to soggy!
Kevin
 
Last year I had some bulk dirt trucked in for my raised beds. I decided to give it a try in one of my seed trays next to some trays with Jiffy seed starting mix. I didn't care for how long it took to soak the Jiffy mix and I wanted to see if it was a bunch of hoooeeeyyy.

What I noticed was it took longer for a seedling to fully emerge from the ground. It was like the soil was tooo compact and tooo heavy for the newborn sprout to push of its blanket-o-dirt. It also seemed like at time of transplant the seedlings in Jiffy had WAAAAAYYY more roots. The roots were also much thicker, hairier and more healthy looking in the JIFFY. I had SIMILAR germination rates, but the seedlings in the soil NEVER grew as fast or as strong as what was in Jiffy.

Like most seed starting mixes, Jiffy is Peat based. I think the burpee pellets may be Coconut Coir. Both are super lightweight and allow good amounts of oxygen to stay present while they are wet. You may be able to find "bricks" or "bales" of compressed coco coir that is similar to the burpee pellets. Coconut coir is cheaper than dirt.. literally!!!

Happy growing!!
 
Thanks for the insight gents, I'll stick with the Burpee pellets. It definately makes sense that the dirt will be denser and therefore the roots won't have as easy a time as with light media. Just brainstorming all the possibilities!
 
good decision woody, don't do soil with germination unless you are going a cheap annuum, then go for it, but if you are doing any super hotties, then do it correct from the start. when it comes time to transplant and move it to a larger pot size then feel free to mix in some soil.
good luck
 
I'm using a coco coir based mix this year and so far all is well.I like the fact that it is cheap,eco friendly, and really builds a strong root system.
 
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