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Rocky-r@stny.rr.com

What is the major difference in the two products, and can you use potting soil as a medium between starting and transplanting? I mistakingly bought a bag of potting soil by Miracle Gro and was wondering if this could be used instead of a promix seed starter. I start my seeds in paper towel and baggie method so the initial push is made outside the soil. Will the potting soil have something, or lack something, I need for the first few weeks?

4/29/2008 11:09:59 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Too often regular potting soil is TOO rich for seed starting. A friend gave me a bunch of Schultz seed starting mix this year & I'll never use it again. It WOULD make a decent potting soil with all the resin coated NPK (like Osmocote but Japanese). It's great stuff but the plants are growing too fast.

4/29/2008 11:13:31 PM

Covington, WA

Seed starting mix is usually a "sterile" mix. Potting soil is more likely to have its own little ecosystem going already. If you are willing to risk your seedlings in an evironment you didn't create yourself thats fine. Personally I'll risk mine in an environment I have more control over. I use a seed starting mix which is a blend of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite and my own blend of innoculants and additives. I can't say it's any better, but it's my own creation and I control what goes into it. If it fails, my bad, and if it works well, then that's what I planned. I just worry about damping off and other problems like that that I think you are far more likely to encounter using potting soil.

4/29/2008 11:39:43 PM