[PaulF]

It may be sacrilege, but all I have used for the past 15 years is whatever potting mix is cheap and available when it is time to start seeds whether it be Miracle-gro, Schultz or Master Gardener or Bob's Your Uncle Potting Mix. The kind with time release fertilizer seems to work just fine. Not enough to hurt anything but just enough to help plants grow when they need it.

Everything get both top watering if the cells look too dry and bottom watered as the prime method. No extra watering until the soil gets dried out a little. There must be something to the notion of damping off being more prevalent with physical damage to the plant. I do get some DO, but very minimal and usually to the smaller transplants that maybe should not have been transplanted (either no two true leaves or very young and small with leaves). But then with 450 plants a small % of deaths is not unexpected.