Diatomaceous Earth as a seed starting medium

[Ricky Shaw]

I like that it has as good or better germination than the peat/coir starting mixes and it reduces or eliminates damping off. It's hard to over-water and cheap, it's free of herbicides, easy to work with and very little compaction.

I use it to test germination rates a lot. Mostly when sowing multiple seeds per cell and not so much for transplanting, because the roots are hard for my gnarled fingers to separate.