CORVALLIS Prepare your own seed-starting mix and make plans for the upcoming gardening days while you’re fighting the winter blues.
It’s time to get started because home gardeners can start flower and vegetable seeds indoors four to twelve weeks before the local last spring frost. According to horticultural Brooke Edmunds of Oregon State University’s Extension Service, creating your own planting medium can be less expensive than purchasing a sterile mix from the shop.
According to Edmunds, a good germination mix should be loose, well-aerated, fine, and consistent, free of weed seeds, pests, and illnesses. It should also be able to retain and transfer moisture while having a low fertility and total soluble salt content.
But watch out, she said. Simply using soil from your backyard won’t work.
Ordinary backyard soil is not pasteurized, is overly compacted, and is teeming with weed seeds, which leads to seedling illnesses and mortality. Compared to seedling mixes, native soil frequently does not drain as well. Additionally, it may form a crust that stops seedlings from penetrating.
One-third pasteurized soil or compost, one-third sand, vermiculite or perlite, and one-third coconut coir or peat moss make up Edmunds’ recipe for a suitable basic pasteurized medium for growing seedlings.
According to her, many people just use half perlite, vermiculite, or sand and coconut coir or peat moss, both of which have negative effects on the environment. This mixture also appears to be effective.
A little amount of soil or compost can be pasteurized in an oven by placing it in a heat-resistant pan or container that is slightly damp. Use foil or a lid to cover. Put in an oven set to 250 degrees; use a meat or candy thermometer to monitor the temperature on a regular basis. Cook for another 30 minutes once the mixture reaches 180 degrees. Avoid overheating it because this could destroy the soil’s structure and make it unusable as a seedling soil ingredient.
Combine compost or pasteurized soil with coconut coir or peat moss. Add perlite, vermiculite, or sand. The majority of nurseries and garden stores carry all of the ingredients.
Cleaning your trays, flats, and pots is another chore to finish before you begin seeding. To eradicate any lingering plant disease bacteria that can harm or even kill your fragile young seedlings, rinse the containers in a solution made of one part chlorine bleach to nine parts water after washing.
Regarding seed beginning, refer to Extension’s paper “Propagating Plants from Seeds.”
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Extension Service at OSU
