It all depends on the potting soil. If there is organic (compost) material in the mix, you really don't need anything further until the plants are either transplanted to a gal. pot or the garden. I make my own seedling mix, using 1/3 ground-up sphagnum (or Miracle-Gro garden soil), 1/3 Black Kow (something like 0.5-0.5-0.5), and 1/3 perlite. I mist the soil to keep it moist, then lightly water when there's a couple of leaves sprouted, but don't fertilize. I move these "plugs" into 4" pots and if something like tomato plants, there will be quite a bit of top growth in a couple of weeks, perhaps 6-8" high. I then begin to use 20-20-20, diluted 1/2 tsp/gal. When the 4" pots are full of roots, if they are tomato plants, they then go into a 1 gal pot. Other vegetables, such as asparagus, herbs, and onions, go into 6" pots. The mix I use is the same except I add a couple of handfuls of slow-release granules per 10-15 gals of mix. When the 1 gal pots of tomato plants have lots of roots, the whole root ball goes into a 20" diameter pot or into the raised garden. Since the soil already has the slow-release fertilizer granules, I don't bother to top-dress these planted vegetables. I water to keep the soil moist, perhaps allowing the top 1" of soil to dry before watering, and every-other week I will drench the soil with either a vegetable, soluable fertilizer (1 tps/gal) or just use 20-20-20. « Return to the thread "feeding my seedlings"
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