a few yrs back, I stumbled upon a thread on DG called "the recipe" it is in the Brugs forum I believe... on a whim i made some. I think it has seaweed in it too, i'd have to check the bottle, thought it could be fish emulsion. -- it does stink. But I'll add compost tea, Epsom salts, thrive and a bunch of other stuff.

One day I need to go browse at that store I found... some things look pricey ... but i guess i do have some mad money stashed away. as for those bales, I am more limited on garage space here in FL. I had a much bigger garage in IL plus a shed -- which I do not have here. Actually -- much of my gardening "stuff" is still back in IL, didn't even get a chance to go thru it all and bring down what I needed... only a few things.

DH left this morning, so I have the house to myself... So i will probably get some sowing down. I have a few containers collected and a large bag of MG plus vermiculite.

You guys will laugh at this, but we bought a bale of Pro-Mix on Amazon and had the sucker delivered.

We could have bought it at Southern States locally for less money but we would have had a terrible struggle getting it into the car and out and back into the shed.

Amazon Prime is rather amazing.

Once that big bale was on the front porch, we put it on a little dolly and trundled it back to the shed.

In the past, I have used regular potting mix for my winter sowing (organic varieties only) mixed with some additional vermiculite and sometimes coconut coir. So using Pro-Mix will be interesting.

I have thought of Amazon. I don't have Prime though. I may one day, for the addition of the TV feature. time will tell.

I dont quite live in the sticks... but i'm 15 min to the nearest stores, and make that 20-25 to a HD or Lowes.

tcs1366 said:

I dont quite live in the sticks... but i'm 15 min to the nearest stores, and make that 20-25 to a HD or Lowes.

Same here, and I can't find any medium to coarse grade vermiculite locally this year! Any that is available is like dust...yuck!

I've ordered a bag of Epsoma to try, based on its reviews.

I can't get my favorite soil-less potting mix until the end of April. That's too late for 90% of my seeds.

chelle said:

Same here, and I can't find any medium to coarse grade vermiculite locally this year! Any that is available is like dust...yuck!

I've ordered a bag of Epsoma to try, based on its reviews.

I can't get my favorite soil-less potting mix until the end of April. That's too late for 90% of my seeds.

I bought three bags of vermiculite from the farm supply in the fall. I specified medium. Well I got fine. I can use it in my soil mix for planting out in the beds. But I wanted to use it for vermiculite sowing too and my mom said it won't work well for that.

I live in the middle of nowhere, so I get what I can get. The only city near us is an hour away, and only has 32,000 people, so we don't have a lot of stores to pick from. There is a Home Depot there, but they don't carry a huge selection of anything. There is a Walmart in Washington, which is next door to the city, but they sell out of everything quick. I was only able to get some Scott's potting soil, but I really liked it. It seemed more like soil than the MG that I was buying before. Seems like depending on where I live, MG is different. Here, there is a lot of bark looking stuff in it. I've never seen Pro-Mix before.

Cross posted with you Jennifer. When using vermiculite, for seed starting, do you usually mix it with something, or just use vermiculite?

jvdubb said:

I bought three bags of vermiculite from the farm supply in the fall. I specified medium. Well I got fine. I can use it in my soil mix for planting out in the beds. But I wanted to use it for vermiculite sowing too and my mom said it won't work well for that.

Grrr...that's what I find, too. If I can't open a bag and look at it I'm afraid to buy!

I am using the stuff I bought here (with trepidation ), but I'm going as light as possible with moisture. I'm so afraid of rot!

Terese, until this thread, I wasn't aware that you'd moved to Florida. Is this your first winter there? It sounds good about now.

Karen

My experience with fine vermiculite last year (my first time sowing in vermiculite) was a disaster. Seems like the seeds just got packed under and couldn't breathe! Of course, a few of the bigger seeds did germinate, but I had a whole lot that didn't before I figured out I needed medium or course.

Natalie, you don't mix anything with the vermiculite. Straight vermiculite and a bit of water.

Karen -- yes, DH and I made the move in October... [he bought the house in May, but I could not break away from work in WI] ~~ though it's been a cool winter, we are certainly enjoying it.

chelle -- I was not able to find promix, but did find the 2 cu ft of vermiculite for about 20bucks at HD.

I bought a Burpee flat with dome and those pellet things... going to do those and my misc WS containers and direct sowing in pots. Since this is all new to me [warmer weather in Jan] I'm sort of winging it.

Sunshine and Fafard are good, profession brand-names that some store might have, even if they don;t have Pro-Mix.

http://www.sungro.com/professi...
http://sunshineadvanced.com/
http://www.pthorticulture.com/...

If you can find a store that caters to builders and insulating contractors, they may have big bags of COARSE vermiculite. It is used as insulation but is the same material as coarse horticultural vermiculite.

(Decades ago, some of that used to come from mines that had asbestos mixed with the mica they make vermiculite from, but those mines have been closed and asbestos forbidden in anything sold, for decades.)

Jonna on sowing in vermiculite:
http://www.seedsite.eu/article...

I just checked again (online), and our area Home Depot stores are still showing that they've discontinued the big bags of medium grade. Now, Lowe's is more than happy to sell me a thimble-full for around eight bucks, but I don't need it that bad!

You can order ProMix BX at Ace Hardware here in SC so I imagine you can at the stores in Florida. They also carry various grades of vermiculite as well.

I get my vermiculite at the hydroponic store, too.
http://www.wormsway.com/en/VER...

Karen

Hmmm....twenty bucks to ship two bags. I might see that.

How's the grade, Karen? Is it big enough that it resembles rough little squares?

They usually carry both the coarse and fine. In the text from the link above, it's described as coarse.

Don't you have any hydroponic stores nearby?

Karen

There's only one within a 50 mile radius, as far as I can tell, and it doesn't look like they even have a website. I guess I could call them...

Is it still winter sowing when it is 75 outside??

In my mind, if it's January, and the seeds are outside in the sunshine rather than inside under lights and on top of heat mats, it's wintersowing.

Karen