water Hoffman Virmiculite not absorbing water in potting mix??

[Maxsack331]

I will keep this relativly "short" and to the point, my problem is that the mixture of potting soil I made/mixed is not absorbing water when I bottom water.. I used generally the same mixture before in the other cups and the water was absorbed well. but this time they are not really absorbing much.

the mixture is ~1 part virmiculite, 1 part MG potting soil, 1 part perlite (ran out of perlite towards the end, so some of them don't have much), and 1 part of an organic potting soil that came pretty much as a block in a bag, really heavy and had to brake it up and crumble it so it was nice and loose.

it is strange because when I mixed another small bucket for my mom's tomatos, I used generally the same amount of virmiculite, maybe a little less, and I poured the water right into the bucket before putting them into pots with the plants and it absorbed the water right away, but even when I try to top water the plants that I have, the water sits ontop of the soil for a while, then eventually drains down, but the water from the bottom is not being "sucked up" like I need it to be...

I would really like to avoid repotting everything, since I have about 70 party cups with seedlings in them.. I even misted the top yesterday and today to water them that way, and it soaks right in.. but misting that many plants and the fact that the water didn't really soak in very much.. is a little crazy..

anyone have any problems with this?

 

[Maxsack331]

bump.. anyone with any insite that can help me with this? would like to figure it out soon so my plants don't die

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Keep watering from the top then,,,sometimes it can be hard to wet if it dries out too much from the bag. I find when i get mine it has a slight bit o moisture...

 

[biscgolf]

water from the top rather than misting- when you say misting it makes me think they aren't getting a thorough soaking which they need to develop a decent root ball. it is better to water heavily less frequently than to water lightly all the time.

 

[Maxsack331]

water from the top rather than misting- when you say misting it makes me think they aren't getting a thorough soaking which they need to develop a decent root ball. it is better to water heavily less frequently than to water lightly all the time.

all right, I try to soak them when I can, and I have a good amount of water sitting in the bottom of the trays (hoping that the soil will absorb it at some point) but it doesn't, I will keep watering from the top until they start to take up the water from the bottom.. I was misting so that it wouldn't disturb the soil a lot and that was the only method that I could see where the virmiculite was taking up water..

Keep watering from the top then,,,sometimes it can be hard to wet if it dries out too much from the bag. I find when i get mine it has a slight bit o moisture...

ok thanks, I will try to give them a good soak now to see if that works, the bags of virmiculite I had were bone dry, they have probably been sitting on the shelf since the summer at least, since I picked up the last 2 bags of them

 

[megahot]

I will keep this relativly "short" and to the point, my problem is that the mixture of potting soil I made/mixed is not absorbing water when I bottom water.. I used generally the same mixture before in the other cups and the water was absorbed well. but this time they are not really absorbing much.

the mixture is ~1 part virmiculite, 1 part MG potting soil, 1 part perlite (ran out of perlite towards the end, so some of them don't have much), and 1 part of an organic potting soil that came pretty much as a block in a bag, really heavy and had to brake it up and crumble it so it was nice and loose.

it is strange because when I mixed another small bucket for my mom's tomatos, I used generally the same amount of virmiculite, maybe a little less, and I poured the water right into the bucket before putting them into pots with the plants and it absorbed the water right away, but even when I try to top water the plants that I have, the water sits ontop of the soil for a while, then eventually drains down, but the water from the bottom is not being "sucked up" like I need it to be...

I would really like to avoid repotting everything, since I have about 70 party cups with seedlings in them.. I even misted the top yesterday and today to water them that way, and it soaks right in.. but misting that many plants and the fact that the water didn't really soak in very much.. is a little crazy..

anyone have any problems with this?

Did you pack the potting mix in your cups? If you pack it in tightly it probably wont absorb the water as well! Be sure not to pack the potting me when you plant or transplant.

 

[Maxsack331]

I think that might be part of the problem, I didn't really pack it tightly, but I guess I packed it tightly enough that the virmiculite was able to fill a lot of gaps and it was packed more than I thought.. I just went and had a big Poland Spring water bottle, poked a few holes in the top so it wouldn't create holes when I watered them, and gave them all a good soaking, I also poked a bunch of holes into the outter edges of the soil (avoiding the middle where the roots are) and mixed the dry soil around a little and creating spaces for the water to fall down..

seems like all of that combined is working, most of them have absorbed the water well, there are still a few that are a little dry but I will top water them and keep poking some holes on the outer edges if I need to until they absorb the water like it should

thanks everyone, hopefully all this works and I don't have to worry about my plants dying lol

 

[Nova]

Next time try adding some coco coir to your mix. It soaks up water pretty good and is cheap.

 

[Maxsack331]

I saw that stuff at Lowes the other day when I was getting more potting soil, I was tempted to get some, but I'm trying to spend as little as possible since I went overboard on all the other stuff this year, and I just had just ordered some Hoffman seed starting mix (going to plant another 20 seeds or so from the ones that didn't sprout the first time, and a few extra) and some sparganium moss, going to add some moss into the mix next time I pot them up, just wanted to get away with what I already did for now.

 

[Siliman]

I took a tip from AJ who uses Hoffman Seed Starter. Put it in the cells dry-- then allow to soak a long time in standing water--24 hrs. This prevents extra handling of the medium so it doesn't squash down as much, keeps a nice fluffy texture.

Once it is hydrated in that way, you should be able to bottom water with no problem, or mist from above as needed.

 

[POTAWIE]

There are several different grades of vermiculite, I'd probably try a different type or source. I'd also avoid the Miracle grow soil, its really not good stuff IMO

 

[Maxsack331]

I took a tip from AJ who uses Hoffman Seed Starter. Put it in the cells dry-- then allow to soak a long time in standing water--24 hrs. This prevents extra handling of the medium so it doesn't squash down as much, keeps a nice fluffy texture.

Once it is hydrated in that way, you should be able to bottom water with no problem, or mist from above as needed.

yea I was reading about that, I think that is what I am going to do, should be cool to see how that stuff works compared to the Jiffy Pellets (although I have heard there really isn't any comparison)

There are several different grades of vermiculite, I'd probably try a different type or source. I'd also avoid the Miracle grow soil, its really not good stuff IMO

yea I was looking for anything other than the MG soil really, but there was nothing in the stores at all, there was 1 other one not sure what the name was, but it was really expensive and for only a small amount, and I just needed a bunch just to fill and mix in the rest of the soil I had.. I plan on getting better soil once it gets a little warmer and the stores have more

and about the Virmiculite, that was the only bag left out of any of the stores I checked and I looked online about the water problem and some guy had contacted Hoffman about having the fine virmiculite and not the course kind (he wanted the course, they were going mushrooms I guess when I clicked on the link lol) but the Hoffman guy said their supplier in Africa was stopped and their new supplier is from NC and they grind it differently and more fine.. but I will keep my eyes open for other stuff, at this point I really just need some good soil in bulk once the stores come out with it, and the link that AJ posted is pretty close to me so I think I might check them out.