Here’s the thing: Garden soil has the advantage of being in the ground and living in harmony with the soil food web. You may be wondering why you need to use a soilless seed starting mix when you normally just plant your seeds in the garden, straight in the soil. Heavy-Duty Propagation Tray Is seed starting mix necessary? This blend is made specifically for seed starting, and it’s very light and fine-grained to help promote baby root growth and ensure the mix doesn’t get compacted in seed starting cells or seed starting containers (which are usually only 1 to 3 inches in size-tiny!).
The best seed starting mix (which you’ll learn to DIY below) is made of perlite, vermiculite, and sphagnum peat moss. In the beginning, seedlings just don’t have the same needs their grown-up selves do. It all comes down to starting seeds versus growing plants. I remember being confused when I first learned about soilless mixes. Soilless seed starting mixes should only contain three ingredients - and you read that right, soil is not one of them. (You can read more about seed to seedling anatomy in this post-it’s truly amazing how self-contained seeds are.)
Think of it like an egg yolk for a baby chick.Ī seed does not need fertilizer, compost, or beneficial microbes to germinate, nor does a seedling need any of that to grow healthy and strong in the first couple weeks. This is because all the nutrients that a seedling needs in its initial stage of life (before it develops its first true set of leaves) is contained in the seed. Second, some seed starting mixes contain chemical agents to hydrate the soil or supplements to supercharge your plants, which-for starting seeds-are completely unnecessary. Sure, the price tag on a typical 8-quart bag doesn’t seem too bad, but then you bring it home and realize that 8 quarts isn’t really going to cut it when you have a whole flat of seeds to sow. Go to a nursery and you’ll realize two things about seed starting mixes.įirst, they’re relatively expensive. Extra-Strength 32-Cell Seedling Tray with Insert What is seed starting mix? If you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.
So just how cheap is homemade seed starting mix?.How to make the best potting mix for transplanting seedlings.The best DIY seed starting mix needs only 3 ingredients.What’s the difference between potting soil and seed starting mix?.
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