Re: Planting medium

L Schmiege wrote:
Hello,
I am ready to plant my seeds in my greenhouse and have a bag of the following
Light Peat 90%
Pearlite 10%
Calcium 2 KG
N.P.K. 12 - 16 - 12 + o,2
Microelements Fe, Mg, Cu, B Mo, MN Zn
PH (5 - 6,5)
Should I use this to start seeds? I put the seeds into stryofoam cups and cover lightly with clear plastic wrap. Depending on the seeds I set them on the floor of the green house or high up where they get lots of sun. I also use a sheet of white paper to give the pots some shade from the hot sum. I plant lots of flower seeds and garden vegetables. I am always trying out new stuff I know nothing about but the the pictures look great. Sometimes I have difficulty getting my plants to grow once they come up and some times I have trouble getting them to come up at all. Usually I have a fairly good success rate, but there is room for improvement. . Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Lorraine
I have never actually used such a formula myself as I prefer always to use an organic product, but this sounds a fairly standard seed -starting mix.

However, the principal of using them is much the same for either, a seed raising mix such as you have is just that - it is designed to start the seeds off, but not to grow them on for very long, as it only has a limited amount of food in it and once the seed has exhausted its own inbuilt supply will not sustain it for many days more.

The other problem is that a mix based on light peat has very little water-holding capacity and also, if it should largely dry out, can only be properly moistened again by several hours soaking in water. Such a possible fluctuation in water supply is very hard on most plants but especially on the delicate tissues of the very young seedling. Protection from this problem is I should say the most important function performed by the plastic cover you put on, but this is not a good idea to keep in place for more than a few days as it results in a very close moist atmosphere around the young leaves, making them very vulnerable to fungus diseases if any are about in your air.

the way to prevent most of these problems is to pot on the plants quite soon after they emerge, and certainly by the time they have produced their first true leaves, using somewhat larger containers and a standard potting soil. This will do several things for your seedlings. First it will give them a stronger food supply and secondly it should hold water better. The third advantage is that the rapidly-expanding roots will find enough room to grow. Early "childhood" is for plants as for many animals a time of phenomenal growth and any setback at this critical time can result in unthrifty adults later. Not surprisingly the size to which any plant eventually grows is a function of the size of root system it is able to develop. (in passing, the majority of shrubs grown in containers are in fact perpetually dwarfed by the restriction of their root systems, which in this case makes it easier to handle them.)

By the time the plant roots have expanded to fill their new space, provided the weather is warm enough, you should aim to transfer your vegetables or flowers to their final homes. It is actually better to plant out seedlings quite early, as soon as they become easy to handle rather then waiting for them to reach a large size. The reason is plain, the sooner the plants get into a situation wehre they have unlimited space to expand their roots the happier and more vigorous they are likely to become.

Do make sure though that plants you set out are for the first few days given some shade from hot sun (row covers or maybe leafy branches will do)and not allowed to run short of moisture.

Even with all these precautions you will sometimes find seeds which simply don't come up. In some cases at least you should blame the seed company rather than your technique. Not all the seed on sale, especially of ornamentals, is as fresh and viable as it should be.

Moira

Lorraine Schmiege just above Athens, Greece where it is sunny at the moment and the doors of the house are wide open and it does not feel like winter at all.

Lucky you, after a really good start our summer has degenerated into a run of gloomy overcast skies and a lot of drizzly rain (I am writing this with a lamp on at my shoulder in the middle of the morning!). this si not at all what we usually expect. It is actually quite warm, but sooo depressing.


--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004

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