Tuesday 31 May 2011

The Big Experiment - Soil Mixes

After having very  limited success germinating seeds I've turned my attention to the soil type.
Where I live in the UK the weather is very erratic to say the least, my seedlings suffer terribly from damping off.
That coupled with the fact I'm always overwatering my plants, something has to give!

I've tried 3 different types of propagator.
self watering, Sainsury's basic and also a giant thing with built in ventilation.
all have met with limited success.
The self watering seem to be the best for actual growth but then they fall over very rapidly from rot.
The giant one with vents got too hot and baked the seeds on a freak hot sunny day, but what grew did really well.

On to my experiment the soil type!
I've planted 3 different types of seed in 5 different types of soil
The seeds
Rocket - Sweet corn - Alyssum
The Soil
1) the good stuff - John Innes seed compost - not cheap
2) 50/50 mix soil and vermiculite
3) 50/50 vermiculite and perlite mix.
4) 33/33/33 vermiculite soil and perlite
5) 50/50 perlite and soil


One thing i did notice was the vermiculte/perlite mix was a nightmare to use due to its form it stuck to everything except for in the pot once wet.


More photos of the same.
Another thing to note - the seeds are going to be watered with a camomile tea mix ( reported to be anti-fungal)
Currently Tues 31st of May - I will update this in seven days and see how things go there should be some rocket by then :)

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