I am curious what you have found is the best soil for potting seeds/seedlings. I have bought quite a few seedling mixes that report to be for seeds or seedlings, and so far none of them work great for me. They all seem to retain water like crazy, and the plants don't seem to put out roots. They have all for the most part stalled out at the two leaf stage, as the roots don't seem to be growing in search of water and eventually rot or get planted direct in the soil. I would like to be able to grow them up to around 10-12 inches high with a substantial root ball before putting them in the ground, but that isn't working for me. It may be that my practices are what is fouling it up, but it seems that all of the soils I have tried really hang onto the water. Should I be mixing with some sand or other material to get the soil to be more porous?
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soil Australian growers, question on commercial soils
- Thread starter ivplay
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Chances are if they're promoted for seeds they don't have enough nutes for actual seedlings. I fell into the same trap this year. Held them in it way too long, and ended up with stunted growth due to lack of nutes after true leaves formed. Also, if it's retaining too much water adding extra perlite should help a little on that front.
Which particular seed raising mixes did you try?ivplay said:
Did the seed raising mixes you bought specify that they contain water crystals on the bag?
This season for lack of better available I ended up trying Osmocote Professional Seed And Cutting Potting Mix. My Bahamian Goat Pepper starts did develop a proper root system until I transplanted them into a better draining basic potting mix. The Capsicum chinense Limón seedlings tolerated it better than the BGP seedlings. Tomato and Cucumber seedlings had no problem in the mix. I don't plan to try and start Capsicum in the mix again.
I had success in my 2011-2012 growing a range of varieties in Debco Seed Raising mix. I had the seedlings at that time sheltered from the rain in a mini greenhouse. The fertiliser included in the mix lasted about the 2 months matching the specification on the bag.
I haven't come across the Debco SRM since that season and thus can't comment on its recent formulation. I sighted seed raising mix of another brand (Amgrow) that I tried once that has since mixed in water crystals.
I bought a bag of Osmocote 25L Professional Multi Purpose Potting Mix and a bag of Miracle Grow 25L Multi Purpose Potting Mix to try them. The bags specify that they contain 4 months and 3 months of slow release mix respectively. I prefer to add the fertiliser myself but these were two of just about the only premium grade mixes I could find that didn't list water crystals on the bag.
I used the Osmocote mix when transplanting an over wintered Biquinho plant that was in a 3 L pot into an 8 L pot on Tuesday. I'm considering having a go at sprouting some C. chinense seed in the mix. There's the odd larger piece of pine bark that may be removed with some sieving.