Indoor simple soil question

[fweedom]

I'm expected my seeds in the next week and I have all my soils ( Fox farms ocean forest, light warrrior, and miracle grow perlite, I want to mix the three. I have a tub I can do it in so can I do it in advance and let it sit or wait till germination?

 

[Torched]

The longer any soil can sit mixed before being used the better. It allows beneficial bacteria and fungi to start doing their work so all those nutrients will be ready for your plants

 

[Joe Dirt]

Torch is right, especially with those mixes... you just need to make sure they don't dry out... but, you don't want them wet either. I'd keep some of the Light Warrior separate for starting seeds... Ocean Forest can be too hot for babies even after being mixed with LW and perlite.

 

[fweedom]

What about filling a pot with OF, taking a few handfuls out and putting some LW to plant the seedling in?

 

[Mr Piggy]

Ditch the MG perlite, it has slow release nutes in it and autos don't like that. If I were you I'd start the seeds in the LW and transplant to the OF. I don't like using unamended OF at all. I'd amend it with worm castings, non-ferted perlite and powdered dolomite lime at the least.

 

[Joe Dirt]

I forgot MG adds nutes to their perlite... as Mr Piggy says, that's not a good thing.

What about filling a pot with OF, taking a few handfuls out and putting some LW to plant the seedling in

That is what I would do (if I were using OF). I place a layer of my seedling mix on top of my growing medium. How deep I make the seedling mix depends on the size of the pot. I make the top 1/3 seedling mix. After they have hardened off (about the time of sexing), I will replace any space in the top of the pot where settling has occurred, with the OF.

I know there have been a number of negative comments about all the mixes but I have never had a single issue with the HF or the OF, even when re-using it a second time. I didn't care for the LW... but that was just personal preference. I make my own mixes now, so I don't use those type products anymore.

 

[fweedom]

Ah I see, does layering the soil have better results than mixing? I've yet to even open my soil so I can still do either

 

[Joe Dirt]

does layering the soil have better results than mixing?

Yes, absolutely. We don't want our seedlings to get burned, so we want to start them in non-burning mix (seedling mix). The only sure way to do this is to start them in a separate cup of seedling mix and transplant them into the final mix when they have hardened off (2 wks or so). I did it this way for a long time but the trade-off is that the plants do suffer at least some degree of transplant shock.

After some experimentation, the best method I found that allows me to avoid transplanting, is to fill the bottom 2/3 of the pot with my final grow mix, and the top 1/3 with seedling mix. This allows the seedling to start in a mild mix and gradually start feeding on the nutes as the root system reaches into the bottom 2/3 of the pot.

 

[L]

That's what I do too Joe. :thumbs:

 

[fweedom]

Yea I'm doin my 3 gallon pots ill put about 60% ocean farms then 30% LW wait about 3-4 weeks then put that extra layer of OF on top sound alrite?