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seeds DIY Seed Starter Mixes
- Thread starter Roguejim
- Start date
I make my own potting medium now. Nothing especially tweaked to seed germination or growing young plants but in every batch I aim for a good general purpose blend.
On the other end of the spectrum I've used plain coco coir and fed the young plants from first true leaves to plant out using simple fertilizer teas.
But back to blends, what I was taught, is to make a base of about 1:1:1 of Peat
erlite:Compost.
The Compost could be just plain fully broken down humus from the floor of a forest, some really good homemade backyard compost, or maybe the best - earthworm castings. There are a lot of waste streams out there; just know where they are in their particular cycle and how varied are their raw components. Variety makes a good compost.
Since the the Peat and Perlite are basically nutrient free, the compost holds the plant food.
Think of the Perlite as the table, the Peat as a plate, and the compost as the food.
The Compost needs to be alive, not just a chemical cocktail. The more beneficial microbes and fungi the merrier. They are the movers and shakers of plant nutrients. They convert the raw components of compost into water-soluble components the roots can absorb. You could side step the microbes and use chemical fertilizers, but that's turning you into a chemist instead of a gardener, can be very tricky, generally results in toxic waste run-off when done on a large scale as in a large non-organic farm (most of the Midwest) or several hundred thousand suburban lawns groomers applying Weed N Feed. From a biological perspective it's like using a 2lb hammer to do finish carpentry.
So I want the best food(compost) you can put on a plate, not just one ingredient, say "french fries" but a variety, "beets, brocolli, whole grain foods".
And just like it is tricky to shop for good nutrients at a grocer store so it is with sourcing good compost. The cheapest stuff sold at the big box stores is bags is usually not going to cut it and could even be a set back.
But there is a fix for some of it, and even using good compost, I feed my mix a good supercharging "multi-vitamin" made of, minimally, about 60% Tomato Tone(TT)(or a near equivalent) and 40% Kelp Meal(KM) at the rate of 2 cups per cu ft (7.5 gal) of mix. The Tomato Tone is the crude NPK source and the Kelp Meal is the broad-spectrum trace element source to fill in the gaps that are likely missing in the compost. TT and KM are enough but there are other things that can be used. I balance in things like alfalfa, greensand, guano,crab meal..., but you have to beware of how it might affect short term pH, nutrient time release profile, how it jives with other components. TT and KM are tried and true and cover a lot of those bases anyways. Additionally, primitive fungi grow best with an inert(or almost) rock dust in the blend. Granite dust is cheap or free if you know a rock cutter. I buy glacial rock dust and azomite to blend and then use 4 cups per cu ft of mix. Giving the mix a cup of dolomite per cu ft is a gentle way of helping the microbes worry with the pH so you don't have to. If you re-ammend this soil mix for the next season, it would better to us oyster shell flour to prevent excessive unilateral build up of magnesium from the dolomite. It's a pre-caution
My many past failures mostly resulted from missing one cheap ingredient. Patience. Or Time.
I'd mix all my "Organic" components in a big tub, ABRACADABRA, its done. Maybe, but I was rarely lucky. Unless that compost was really, really good, the microbes have not had time to breakdown the "multi-vitamin" component and create and establish an on-going nutrient stream for the container seedling. When a baby seedling needs food, it needs food now -just like a human baby. So stir it up, a little damp, cover it with a tarp and let it sit a month giving it another occasional stir week by week. I've made about half dozen batches over the last year, every recipe a different tweak, but all built on these principles I learned from a lady psuedo-named IntheGarden(aka ganjagirl). And they have all worked just fine.
This soil is not cheap-cheap to build, but you can re-use it by giving it a half-dose of the "multi-vitamin" in say, an 8:1:1:1:1 of used soil : perlite : peat : general compost : earthworm castings. So, your soil-bank account grows about 50% each year.
On the other end of the spectrum I've used plain coco coir and fed the young plants from first true leaves to plant out using simple fertilizer teas.
But back to blends, what I was taught, is to make a base of about 1:1:1 of Peat
erlite:Compost. The Compost could be just plain fully broken down humus from the floor of a forest, some really good homemade backyard compost, or maybe the best - earthworm castings. There are a lot of waste streams out there; just know where they are in their particular cycle and how varied are their raw components. Variety makes a good compost.
Since the the Peat and Perlite are basically nutrient free, the compost holds the plant food.
Think of the Perlite as the table, the Peat as a plate, and the compost as the food.
The Compost needs to be alive, not just a chemical cocktail. The more beneficial microbes and fungi the merrier. They are the movers and shakers of plant nutrients. They convert the raw components of compost into water-soluble components the roots can absorb. You could side step the microbes and use chemical fertilizers, but that's turning you into a chemist instead of a gardener, can be very tricky, generally results in toxic waste run-off when done on a large scale as in a large non-organic farm (most of the Midwest) or several hundred thousand suburban lawns groomers applying Weed N Feed. From a biological perspective it's like using a 2lb hammer to do finish carpentry.
So I want the best food(compost) you can put on a plate, not just one ingredient, say "french fries" but a variety, "beets, brocolli, whole grain foods".
And just like it is tricky to shop for good nutrients at a grocer store so it is with sourcing good compost. The cheapest stuff sold at the big box stores is bags is usually not going to cut it and could even be a set back.
But there is a fix for some of it, and even using good compost, I feed my mix a good supercharging "multi-vitamin" made of, minimally, about 60% Tomato Tone(TT)(or a near equivalent) and 40% Kelp Meal(KM) at the rate of 2 cups per cu ft (7.5 gal) of mix. The Tomato Tone is the crude NPK source and the Kelp Meal is the broad-spectrum trace element source to fill in the gaps that are likely missing in the compost. TT and KM are enough but there are other things that can be used. I balance in things like alfalfa, greensand, guano,crab meal..., but you have to beware of how it might affect short term pH, nutrient time release profile, how it jives with other components. TT and KM are tried and true and cover a lot of those bases anyways. Additionally, primitive fungi grow best with an inert(or almost) rock dust in the blend. Granite dust is cheap or free if you know a rock cutter. I buy glacial rock dust and azomite to blend and then use 4 cups per cu ft of mix. Giving the mix a cup of dolomite per cu ft is a gentle way of helping the microbes worry with the pH so you don't have to. If you re-ammend this soil mix for the next season, it would better to us oyster shell flour to prevent excessive unilateral build up of magnesium from the dolomite. It's a pre-caution
My many past failures mostly resulted from missing one cheap ingredient. Patience. Or Time.
I'd mix all my "Organic" components in a big tub, ABRACADABRA, its done. Maybe, but I was rarely lucky. Unless that compost was really, really good, the microbes have not had time to breakdown the "multi-vitamin" component and create and establish an on-going nutrient stream for the container seedling. When a baby seedling needs food, it needs food now -just like a human baby. So stir it up, a little damp, cover it with a tarp and let it sit a month giving it another occasional stir week by week. I've made about half dozen batches over the last year, every recipe a different tweak, but all built on these principles I learned from a lady psuedo-named IntheGarden(aka ganjagirl). And they have all worked just fine.
This soil is not cheap-cheap to build, but you can re-use it by giving it a half-dose of the "multi-vitamin" in say, an 8:1:1:1:1 of used soil : perlite : peat : general compost : earthworm castings. So, your soil-bank account grows about 50% each year.
juanitos said:^ dang are you writing a book? lol
I didn't start out to do so. The basic instructions I read were only two post pages.
But I did then read a significant portion of the 493 comment and discussion pages
anyway i used 1 peat : 1 perlite : 5 pine bark.. and 1 tbsp of lime per gallon. U need to premix with the lime and let it sit for a few weeks. I'd probably do 1 peat : 1 perlite : 1 compost : 3 pinebark for a more seedling friendly mix i guess.
In the "1 peat : 1 perlite : 5 pine bark.. and 1 tbsp of lime per gallon,what provides the plant nutrient? And I'm guessing you are using the pine bark fines that landscapers use an inexpensive soil conditioner (almost compost) vs pine nuggets or mini-nuggets that are mostly used as a top mulch?