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seeds Happy Frog and Perlite for starting seeds

W

WalkingStickMan

Hi everyone,

So I've had my first couple of seedlings pop up in my 3/4 Happy Frog 1/4 perlite mixture. However, I'm seeing some of the seedlings sort of wilt over about a day after they pop up. I have sufficient light, heat etc., and so I was thinking that it might be a problem with my soil.

Have any of you tried starting seeds in Happy frog potting soil? I thought that mixing in about 1/4 of perlite would be sufficient, since this stuff seems to be pretty lightweight to begin with, however I'm starting to second guess my decision to use it at this stage at all. What signs should I look out for that would indicate that the soil is to blame for my seedlings not making it?
 
No need to add perlite to the "frog"...without seeing photos I'd have to agree with S.S.
That soil drains well as is, perlite will allow more air in. On the other extreme a fine textured compacted peat mix can cause "damping off" when too wet.
I use "frog" as part of my pot up mix. It's a little heavier than the other mix that I pair it up with. But between the two I have the best of both worlds.
I use either "jiffy or hoffman's" for seed starting. Whatevers available at the time.

Greg
 
There is no way it could be the soil for the price they charge, it better grow things 3X larger. :)

Your not fertilizing right?
 
I have had similar issues using happy frog, I got a bag for free and gave it a shot. I noticed it does not hold enough water, especially afteryou let it dry out once. I believe it is supposed to have a wetting agent added, but whatever it is, it doesn't work very well. I lost a lot of seedlings to this stuff because they dried out too quickly.
 
Any time I hear that a mix dries out quik I consider that a good thing. If anything I thought happy frog held too much water.
 
No, I'm not fertilizing, and with what you're all saying if anything it's too light and airy rather than not enough. I feel as if damping off would occur if my soil wasn't letting enough air in/water out, and so I'm kind of stumped. Maybe the organic nutrients included in the soil are too much for the seedlings at this point? Maybe I'll have to start watering more often.

What are some of the ways to tell if a seedling hasn't received enough water? I had also noticed that, on top of my seedlings drooping over and in some cases falling over completely, the stems appear to be white as well. However the drooping doesn't start right at the base of the soil, and the white isn't a mold or fungus, rather the stem itself appears to be white, so I'm not sure that it's damping off. Either way, I guess I'll try keeping up with the watering.
 
neoguy,

The soil was pretty much bone dry when I went to water yesterday. It sounds like this Happy Frog soil doesn't retain water very well, from what others are saying...
 
I'm using a standard 72-cell try, with a temperature controlled heat mat. My mat is set to 82, with the probe in a cell on the border of the tray, so that my the cells closer to the middle are up to around 87. I still have a bunch of seeds left to germinate, I'm just having these problems with the ones that first popped up. Maybe it's the heat from the mat?
 
Ya need to put more ware on them, if ya never have the mix is too airy and never settled, and would have a hard time wicking water. Plus with the heat mat, that only dries it out qiuicker...
 
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