Diatomaceous Earth as a seed starting medium

[Delerium]

RayR or B54red I've noticed that the DE you two are using look much more finer than the stuff i am using. Mine look more granular. Do you prefer the finer grain than the granular stuff? I did not buy the Ultrasorb. The one i picked up was a 25 lb bag and it was 100% DE.

[b54red]

Delerium the only one I have ever tried is UltraSorb and I'm very happy with it. I don't think I would want one that was finer because of its tendency to leak out of the watering holes and the increased dust when handling it dry.

[nathan125]

my plants in DE keep dying off when i transplant them, The DE gets very crumbly and is hard to get them out of their cells with much DE attatched. Anyone else experience this?

[RayR]

Originally Posted by nathan125

my plants in DE keep dying off when i transplant them, The DE gets very crumbly and is hard to get them out of their cells with much DE attatched. Anyone else experience this?

NOPE, everything I've transplanted from DE to soil adjusted fine.
They are pretty much bare rooted when you remove them from DE except for what is attached to the root hairs.

[nathan125]

guess i need to be more gentle. i did put them in an enviroment where it's about 60 degrees as opposed to 70+. i'll give it another go in a week or so.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Delerium

RayR or B54red I've noticed that the DE you two are using look much more finer than the stuff i am using. Mine look more granular. Do you prefer the finer grain than the granular stuff? I did not buy the Ultrasorb. The one i picked up was a 25 lb bag and it was 100% DE.

I use both of them. I've not seen any differences are far as seed starting goes, they both work fine. If I was going to grow plants to maturity in a container like Levant has done with passive hydroponics, I might prefer the larger aggregate of OptiSorb.

Here's a pic of both types side by side for those who have not seen one or the other.

[Delerium]

RayR what are your thoughts of using something like OptiSorb in an earthbox? Do you think due to this wicking ability that the container will have a more uniform moisture throughout the mixture. The reason i am asking is for eg growing a tomato plant in a container usually has BER issues due to inconsistent watering. And since the Earthbox functions with bottom watering / wicking i wonder if BER issues would go away. I am thinking of trying this out with maybe 1 box and see how it does compared to your standard potting mix.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Delerium

RayR what are your thoughts of using something like OptiSorb in an earthbox? Do you think due to this wicking ability that the container will have a more uniform moisture throughout the mixture. The reason i am asking is for eg growing a tomato plant in a container usually has BER issues due to inconsistent watering. And since the Earthbox functions with bottom watering / wicking i wonder if BER issues would go away. I am thinking of trying this out with maybe 1 box and see how it does compared to your standard potting mix.

I don't have any experience with EB's, but it sounds like its worth a try.
It works good as an amendment in my regular containers.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by nathan125

my plants in DE keep dying off when i transplant them, The DE gets very crumbly and is hard to get them out of their cells with much DE attatched. Anyone else experience this?

Easy cure for that is to water the DE before transplanting and then scoop it out in one lump with all the roots. That is one of the advantages of using egg cartons for starting seed with DE. A regular spoon will just scoop the whole thing out and if the DE is wet it will stay together.

One of the things I really liked about the DE is how easy it was to separate it from the roots when transplanting onions. I just let it get fairly dry and shook the onions after dumping them out of the pot and the DE just fell away and it was so much easier to separate the individual onions.

[zeroma]

b54red,

How do you think the 'dense seeding' like the nctomatoguy does, using Metromix, only using DE instead, in the small cells?

He uses the 50 cell trays and puts about 20 to 35 seeds in each 1.5 inch cell.

I wonder how many seeds one could grow in the egg carton cell.

This is getting really interesting. My peppers in 3 ice cube trays are nearly all up and growing. Today I sowed my tomatoes- I did a flat of 28 5oz clear plastic cups- 10 varieties with 2 seeds per cup, to be cut to 1 each later. I decided to mix half & half Ultrasorb & ProMix. It wicked up the water very well.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by nathan125

guess i need to be more gentle. i did put them in an enviroment where it's about 60 degrees as opposed to 70+. i'll give it another go in a week or so.

You probably already know this, but it's important to handle new seedlings by the leaves, not the stem. It's too easy to crush the delicate stem with fingers even if you're trying to be careful. If a leaf tip gets torn off, the plant can survive. If the stem gets crushed, all circulation between roots and leaves is cut off.

Also, you can use an old fork or spoon to help get them out of the cells -- whatever small tool you have on hand that can scoop the media out of the cell. So you prepare the new pot first. Then you have one hand supporting the top leaf (if necessary -- you may not need to touch it at all) and the other hand scooping, and you gently ease the seedling into its new pot, with whatever DE sticks to the rootball.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by zeroma

b54red,

How do you think the 'dense seeding' like the nctomatoguy does, using Metromix, only using DE instead, in the small cells?

He uses the 50 cell trays and puts about 20 to 35 seeds in each 1.5 inch cell.

I wonder how many seeds one could grow in the egg carton cell.

I don't like putting that many plants in that small a container; but I do sometimes have 4 or 5 tomatoes in a single cell. When I have more than a couple in a cell it is easier to separate them if the DE is a bit drier. When I potted up my first two batches of tomato seedlings this year I didn't lose a single one when I moved them to larger cups with potting soil in them.

The more plants in the small cell the faster the moisture is used up and they need more frequent watering. With the damping off problems I have had I just use more egg cartons and give my seedlings a little breathing room. I have noticed in the past that damping off can be much worse in densely planted trays so I avoid it when I can.

Another great benefit of the egg cartons is how cheap they are. Just ask a few people to save them for you and before you know it you have more than you could possibly use.

[zeroma]

Thanks for the reply b54red. I was thinking maybe 2 seeds in the egg cups. OH, believe me, I have egg carton savers out there! As I have already said, I can put 50 egg cups in one tray, 1 being a dozen and a half eggs, 1 being a dozen eggs, and I cut 2 1 dozen down with just 10 cups each. So maybe on the older seeds I'll place 2 seeds in to be sure I get a better chance of germination.

I'm going to Good Will today to look for the perfect 2 pronged fork type of 'pricking out' fork.

Most likely I'll just use your scooping out with a spoon method though.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by zeroma

I'm going to Good Will today to look for the perfect 2 pronged fork type of 'pricking out' fork.

Most likely I'll just use your scooping out with a spoon method though.

Use a sharpened pencil. You can write with it and use it as a pricking out tool. trust me, I am willing to do multiple jobs with one tool if it will get it done, not all this stuff to dig through everytime I lay something down. We used a pencil all the time when I worked in a commercial greenhouse.