Help me choose my medium

[jayhawks]

My daughter is 8 and we are going to take a stab at growing some garden plants from seed.. (This will help keep her away from the PC and wii
I live in a smaller town and walmart is the only place I can find seed starter soil..
We do have a private nursery that said they would sell me bags of soil that should fit the bill... they have 2 kinds and I have no idea which to get..
Scotts Redi-Earth 3 cubic yards $15
Or
Lamberts Lc1 or Lc2 3 cubic yards $15..

If all goes well, we will be donating some plants to the school PTO for a little fundraiser.

[willyb]

Hi,

The $15 soil is overkill. Walmart will have something for $3 -$4 which will work just fine. Perolite or vermiculite would be a good addition mixed 1 to 1

Good luck

[sirtanon]

3 cubic yards for $15? That's actually a REALLY good price if it's actually Cubic Yards and not Cubic feet. You said bags, though, so do you really mean Cubic YARDS?

I'm not familiar with Lamberts LC1 or LC2.. never heard of them. Scotts, I've heard of, though, so I'd tend to go with that. That's me though.

Most important, what is IN the mixes?

[RebelRidin]

Hi Jayhawks,

Let me start by saying Welcome! I grew up in a small town in MO so I know what you mean about not having a lot of local choices.

For seed starting just about any bagged seed starter from Walmart would be fine. Many vegetables (other than tomatoes) can be grown from seed to transplant stage with just sprouting and growing them in littel pots/cell using nothing but that starter mix and a diluted plant food (say house plant food diluted to half label strength) feeding at two weeks and then at four. One key to growing good veggie transplants is good lighting. There are some threads here with good pictures ilustrating inexpensive shop lights.

For tomatoes a second keyy to good plants is to transplant the seedling from their starter or sprouting container to a bigger growing pot (say a 4" pot or a large sized plastic drink cup with drain holes punched in teh bottom). When you "pot them up" you replant them in that bigger pot/cup and you can use that same seed starter mix or just about any other potting/growing mix so long as it doesn't have a bunch of fertilizer added to it and it drains well. Most shoudl list vermiculite or more likely perlite on there label. That helps with drainage.

Now the nursery stuff you mentioned....

Originally Posted by jayhawks

...

Scotts Redi-Earth 3 cubic yards $15
Or
Lamberts Lc1 or Lc2 3 cubic yards $15..

I don't know either of thsoe specific products. However, 3 yards is a lot of soil! Although... $15 is a phenomenal price for 3 yrds of any growing media, even poor ones! Did they perhaps mean 3 cubic feet? Unless you are planning to fill a raised bet or lots of containers 3 yards is way more than you need...

Anyway, for starting seedlings any growing medium/soil (not dirt) that is not too too course (avoid stuff with lots of woody chunks/bark) and that darains well (some perlite or vermiculite should be in it or can be added) will do fine as long as it doesn't have too much nitrogen. It tends to make them leggy (tall, skinny and weak). This is why you don't want stuff with added fertilizer in it. This tends to rule out most potting mixes these days unless thay say they are "organic". You might use something lthat says if "feeds fo 3 months" to grow in bigger pots/containers but not for your transplants.

Anyway, there are lots of good threads here and some gread stickies in the seed starting area.

Best of fortunes. I hope you and your daughter have a great and successful first experience. Gardening is a great activity and time wiht your kids is priceless.

[jayhawks]

Thanks all...First let me say " I HATE WALMART" and do whatever I can to avoid it..When I called the guy at nursery (Tree Farm) and he did state 3 yards.. He said that they dont usually sell to the public, but he was willing to.. I have a light system in place, 6 x 4ft fixtures with 2 T8 bulbs per.. We have 12x 72 starting trays... I let her pick all the seeds and holy begeezus, we will have enough plants for the whole darn community... This is going to be a very very interesting project LOL.. I remember when I was a kid, I would help my dad get his plants growing from seed..
She is planting:
Mators and peppers
Celebrity
Roma
JetStar
Goliath
Jellybean
Mortgage Lifters
Brandywine
Marglobe
Bell Peppers
Jalops
Big Jims
Eggplant
We have a 30x40 garden and a smaller one, so she will have plenty of room to plant..

[RebelRidin]

Wow! A decent grow mix would be a bargain at $15 per yard much less 3yds. Build a few raised beds and fill them up!

[jayhawks]

Originally Posted by RebelRidin

Wow! A decent grow mix would be a bargain at $15 per yard much less 3yds. Build a few raised beds and fill them up!

The more I think about it.. I think he must have surely meant 3 cub. ft.. But time will tell. But even at 3 ft I am more than happy to pay that, just so I dont have to go to wally

[jayhawks]

Heres what the LC1 stuff is.. I dont know where I got the Lamberts name, but it is sun gro sunshine lc1 http://www.sungro.com/products_displ...d=1&brand_id=1
and yes its 3.8 cubic ft

[RebelRidin]

From its description that should work very well