Seed starting soil
 

Does it matter what type of soil you start your tomato seeds in? Because usually I plant them in unfertilized potting soil.


Thanks!
Taryn

Soilless seed starting mix is like potting soil, but contains no soil at all and has been sterilized. You can get lucky for years with potting soil but then one year, boom, nothing comes up.

Might be able to sterilize the potting soil with hydrogen peroxide or something, I don't know.

I also use potting soil.

It is best to microwave the potting soil for a couple of minutes it will kill anything like fungus or bacteria or bug larva and eggs in the soil. If you use anything with a high peat content you can water with hydrogen peroxide 3 % straight from the bottle and it will help prevent damping off. It also will add oxygen to the soil. If seed starting mix is too wet bacteria, fungus can occur, also waterlogged soil can stress or kill the seedling. The use of hydrogen peroxide which breaks down into water and Oxygen will prevent those issues. It also can help the seedling to germinate quicker.

Thanks! I think I'll just microwave the soil and hope I get lucky.

I'm trying a modified version of this recipe this year:

3 parts peat moss
3 parts worm castings (thinking about doing 2)
1 part perlite

This way you get your nutrients for early plant growth, but you won't harm the seedlings with chemicals.

Unsubs from thread.

I always water mine first with a mild hydrogen peroxide solution
(1 part drugstore hydrogen peroxide, 10 parts water), no matter
what I am starting them in. It will kill bacteria, fungi, etc. I do not
add worm castings, mycorrhizae and beneficial bacteria, or
any kind of fertilizer until potting them up into 4" pots or similar,
so the hydrogen peroxide in the seed starting cells is not going
to kill anything that I actually want to stay alive in the soil, while
it will kill things like the fungi that cause damping off.

I hate to waste money on a mix, but the last couple years I got different seed starting results. The one year I had excellent results must have been due to the worm castings I was using. The other years I think it failed due to the coir and its PH buffering problems.