A couple of times I have had to be out of town for a few days to a couple of weeks when I still had seedlings in small pots and had to depend on someone else to water them. The biggest thing to remember is, they are just plants! Always lose some, but I do even with me taking car of them every day. It's the surprises that keep you going!

Jennifer's DH works for a produce co. and got her all the crates to put her jugs in. She doesn't normally have on a shelf, that was to get them off the ground temporarily since they had so much snow and ice, they were frozen to the ground.

This year I did have a problem with damping off and stupid fungus gnats. Its definitely a learning experience that is rewarding. Its great that her husband is able to get her crates. That's amazing they froze to the ground. I'm worried about this weekend, because the lows may be in the lower 30s. I'm hoping its warmer than that. If it does get that cold, I'll have to protect all of my seedlings.

Yeah, I think you're probably going to have to do something to protect your seedlings because I saw it is supposed to be in low 30's. I will cover the snappys I planted out today. And my lettuce.

I (knock on wood) rarely have a problem with damping off now, but I had my share of years with it. I sprinkle some cinnamon on. Not sure if that actually helps or not but someone told me to try it.

I was really hoping we were done with the cold weather lol. I always forget to use cinnamon. I probably need to use better potting soil too.

I only use seed starting mix, unless it's WS. Just have better luck and why waste the time and energy on something else. And I'm pretty cheap, so you know it makes a difference if that's all I use now.

One way to stretch seed-starting mix is to add pine bark fibers or small nuggets, for example screened from a bag of clean mulch. Avoid damp, smelly or dirty mulch.

It's especially useful if you want your commercial mix to hold less water and more air. Instead of adding coarse Perlite, just use bark fibers or small nuggets the same size.

At $3.50 - $4.25 for 2 cubic feet, bark is CHEAP. Say 50-55 cents per gallon. I've used up to 75% bark. Pine, fir or hemlock are great, probably any evergreen bark.

For fine seeds that need light and surface sowing, the surface has to be fine and not have holes and crevices. I lost a whole tray of petunias, but the Lobelia came up OK. A top layer of pure mix or vermiculite should fix that.

P.S. My mojo for preventin g damping off includes fast-draining mix and coarser bark chips on top as soon as the tips emerge. The coarser bark dries right away even if you top-water, and it does not wick as much as peat.

I know you're right, but I just could not use course bark. I have a hard time with the bitty twigs in mixes as it is and especially Perlite, the way it floats to the top! I just bottom water and mist when they are tiny seeds that are surface sown. AND, I transplant very early on.

Thanks so much for the tips Arlene and Rick. It would be nice to make seed starting mix stretch.

>> AND, I transplant very early on.

You're probably smart, but I'm clumsy and I get nervous when I see a tiny white thread that's the entire root. Other than WS, you use plug trays with small cells, or "broadcast" seeds on flats?

I agree that most of the bark in some "mulch" and most "nugget" products are much too coarse for seed starting. I use the finer stuff screened from each bag for seeds, the next bigger cut for containers (like 5-gallon pots) and the biggest c hunks for mulch outdoors.

But it sounds like you have a system that works for you, and with lots of trays. I'm still learning how to kill fewer seedlings.

Rick, picture me with my magnifier headband and dental tool!

When some seeds germinate and their little roots can't find DOWN, I gently prod them downward. Or if the seeds sprayed into another plug cell, I gently lift it into it's own space.

This is the first year I used plug trays for starting except last year I did it for lettuce only. This year, because I wanted to start so many seeds and I only have two heat mats and two heating pads, I wanted them as compact as possible. It's probably not idea, BUT I have been doing seeds long enough I wasn't intimidated. At one point I had 14 plug trays planted! What a chore, every moring and/or evening putting them in the boot tray to bottom water and misting the tops! I went away for a few days and left hubby in charge and he only misted. Yikes! But he was kind enough to even volunteer to do it, and like I said, they're just plants...

Sometimes when I have a lot of seeds or larger seeds (marigolds) or I'm just plain getting lazy, I will broadcast. In that case I usually just use potting mix.

Actually I should use some bark in my potting mix though, make it stretch and keep it light. Sometimes that compost can make it pretty heavy. One thing I have found down here in GA., the potting mix is not the same as what I am used to in MD. IT's not soil at all, it's pretty much shredded bark. Maybe because of the clay? Sort of like what the nurseries are potting their plants in.

>> Rick, picture me with my magnifier headband and dental tool!

I would never have DARED to make a suggestion! It's not safe!

>> At one point I had 14 plug trays planted! What a chore, every morning and/or evening putting them in the boot tray to bottom water and misting the tops!

That is impressive. Maybe when I retire, if I'm still mobile, I might get half that ambitious. Now I'm overloaded if I have 4 going at the same time, because soon I have to pot them up and put them "somewhere".

I use 72-cell inserts (6-packs) for most veggies. Otherwise I use a 50-cell plug tray (round and deep) or a 128-cell plug tray (square cells).

I have to find a boot tray and try bottom-watering that way (some day). My only other solution to mud-in-the-tub was to put a rectangle of cotton flannel into my 1020 trays. Each of my plug trays sits in a 1020 tray, and since last year it rests ON the flannel so there is a capillary connection to the soil in every cell.

The flannel "spreads the water around" so that it reaches every cell as long as there is an y water left in the tray. That way, I can add small amounts of water to the bottom, and then either leave it there, or remove visible water with a turkey baster. I never have to dunk them 1/2" deep, or leave the grooves in the tray flooded while the cells can't reach any water.

>> One thing I have found down here in GA., the potting mix is not the same as what I am used to in MD. IT's not soil at all, it's pretty much shredded bark. Maybe because of the clay? Sort of like what the nurseries are potting their plants in.

Potting MIX or potting SOIL? What you're describing is what I like for containers, but more expensive. When I used potting SOIL in pots, it compacted and drowned.

Probably my own bark-heavy "seed starting mix" is more like most peoples' idea of POTTING mix. To coarse, too fast and too dry for normal seed-starting. But those disadvantages combine with my inability to stop overwatering, and they kind of cancel out.

Is a 1020 tray the flat trays with no holes? If it is, I tried putting my plug trays in them but they seem too tall and my sides bowed out. Anyway, the capillary system is good. I used to use APS from Gardner's Supply. Love them, but just didn't use this year because of the volume.

I thought about using the inserts but again, my volume demanded the plug trays. I did get some 128 plug trays after I finished so next year I can do larger seeds and/or not have to transplant so soon. But like your watering, I just cannot resist it!

Potting mix, potting soil, it's all pretty much the same here. WOOD, not soil! I don't have a favorite brand, we try and get the broken bags since I make my own mix.

>> Is a 1020 tray the flat trays with no holes?

I think "1020" is just the size, like 11"x22". I wonder why they didn't call it an 1122 tray? You can get them with or without the slits. In fact, I just saw an ad for a 1020 web-bottom tray.

>> If it is, I tried putting my plug trays in them but they seem too tall and my sides bowed out.

For me it varied by brand which was taller, the tray or the inserts (or plug cells). It seemed that some were designed to hold the inserts (or the plugs) UP away from the floor of the tray. As if they wanted the cells to hold more water, and for roots to air-prune instead of growing into the trays. But when full of soil mix an atere4d, they sagged and touched the bottom anyway, or slipped off the 1020 wall in one corner. Or I just picked a bad combo of 10-20 tray and insert or plugs.

Anyway, now I like the 1020 trays with lower sides, and plug trays with deeper cells. I trimmed to rims off some plug trays so they would "sit". Also, I always cut my plug trays into thirds or quarters, so I turn them over and push root balls out with a dowel. (I'm clumsy.)

Do you do some plug trays smaller than the 128-cells? Wow. I guess only a few days go past between "the root is a tiny thread" and "the 200-cell is root bound already".

Have you ever tried a "20-row-tray"? That has 20 rows, each about 10.5" long, and maybe 1/2" wide at the top. The idea is to sow in the row every 1/2" or so, and then have a little less untangling to do when you pop the row and pot up.

Where do you get the shorter trays? I saw some at Harris I think but I didn't like the price.

The plug trays I did we're 288. I'm serious about volume!

I have tried the, what I refer to as finger groove trays. I do like them as we'll.

288!?! 12x24 cells? More than twice 128?

Now I'm dizzy ... and I gotta try one! Fortunately I found a Steuber's Distributing within a drivable distance, and they sell singletons. That's where I found my extra-deep 50-cell plug trays. WANT DEEP!

I like Groove Tray. reminds me of the '70s ...

>> Where do you get the shorter trays?

I don't think I've seen those. I usually shop online at Greenhouse Mega-store and Growers Supply.
http://www.greenhousemegastore...
http://www.greenhousemegastore...
http://www.growerssolution.com...
http://www.growerssolution.com...

Indoors, I make smaller trays out of cut-down cardboard boxes lined with heavy plastic bag film.

I sometimes buy pots and trays from Novosel, too. You can buy small quantities there.

http://www.novoselenterprises....

Karen

I got my 1020 trays from Jung and they have the shorter ones too. Not sure if they are listed online but I had a catalog. HAD, I threw it away...sorry or I'd look up the item number.

Rick, I do something similar with my pine bark.

I get bags of pine bark fines, not nuggets.

The biggest pieces get screened out and become mulch for the outdoor beds. The medium pieces become potting mixes, with a bit of compost and perlite added to them. The super fine pieces I'm using to sow seeds.

The screening process is more work, but it's so much cheaper than buying potting mixes. Last year I used commercial seed starting mixes for wintersowing, but they were so compacted and almost slimy after a couple of months.

I actually like the fact that they dry out faster in the pine bark mix.

Silver, (or ssgardener),

That's exactly what I do, but I do use some grit-sized bark pieces and longer thin chips to start seeds, along with 20-30% commercial mix. A 1905 gardening book said that soil needs to be "well ventilated".

What is your finest mesh screen? I'm struggling along with 1/4" galvanized hardware cloth, but I wish I had something a little finer, or even 1/8", to remove the powder and fines..

I have some industrial steel wire shelving that I rest my screens on.
I tied the 1/2" mesh down to some shelving so it stays put.
Then I tied ONE EDGE of my 1/4" screen to that, so I can flip it out of the way when not i n ujse, or to flip off the bigg pieces that did n ot pass through.

I take one pass through 1" chicken wire to catch the BIG chunks, then 1/2" mesh to remove more big chunks.

Then I play around with 1/3" and 1/4" mesh to try to separate "potting" from "seeding" sizes.
If I tilt the screen at a 20-30 degree angle and then pour the bark down the slope and nudge it along with rake or hands, only the smaller bits have time to fin d the holes. It makes a 1/4" screen act a little like a 1/6" screen.

To keep it cleanish, I usually screen into a wheelbarrow and flip the bit bits onto a tarp. Then I save the screened fractions back into the bags I bought the mulch in.

I've been thinking about using a mower, or crushing, or rubbing the coarser stuff to get more fines, but at this price, it's easier to buy another bag and use half or more of the bag as coarse mulch.

Where I live, Lowes has MUCH cleaner mulch than Home Depot. Once I found long bark shreds and chips instead of chunks & powder & some fiber. But that was at a foo-foo nursery, and cost $8 per 2 cubic feet.

Also ... might it be possible to get bark nuggets wet all through, perhaps with steam, and then POP them in a microwave? Like vermiculite is expanded mica and Turface is expanded shale and clay.

These photos don 't show b ark, they show some juniper trimmings that I'm trying to shred with a lawnmower. Since then, I've sharpened the blade!

Arlene,

>> I got my 1020 trays from Jung and they have the shorter ones too.

They might be out - I couldn't find them.


http://www.jungseed.com/dc.asp...
http://www.jungseed.com/dc.asp...
http://www.jungseed.com/dc.asp...