Diatomaceous Earth as a seed starting medium

[RayR]

Ya, I saw your grafts before the battery ran out.
Let us know how it works out.

Your transplants look excellent, short and stocky. Real sunlight helps with that.
What did you fertilize them with?

[b54red]

Ray thanks to you I have had far too many plants to pot up with this new seed starting stuff.

I find myself starting the same number of seed as in the past but because I am not losing so many to damping off and poor germination I am ending up with way too many extras. This looks like it will be a bumper year for giving plants away, especially if the grafting helps with the fusarium problem.

Bill

[Delerium]

I was using a mixture of Fish fertilizer and Compost Tea. I make a big batch for my Gardening in a 35 Gal Tote. So that's what i have been feeding them.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by b54red

Ray thanks to you I have had far too many plants to pot up with this new seed starting stuff.

I find myself starting the same number of seed as in the past but because I am not losing so many to damping off and poor germination I am ending up with way too many extras. This looks like it will be a bumper year for giving plants away, especially if the grafting helps with the fusarium problem.

Bill

Too many plants is better than not enough!
I think I'm going to have the same burden again this year. Peppers have been giving me hell this year. Started the first batch on 3/17 & 3/18, some varieties had good germination in 6-14 days, some didn't germinate at all to this day or just started to pop up, In the mean time I pre-sprouted more seed during the last few weeks to hedge my bet and many have come on strong. I think I'm going to have a lot more pepper plants than what I had intended
Tomatoes were no problem, got at least 90% germination within 10 days. Going to have too many of those too!

Originally Posted by Delerium

I was using a mixture of Fish fertilizer and Compost Tea. I make a big batch for my Gardening in a 35 Gal Tote. So that's what i have been feeding them.

Glad to see someone else is doing organics and clearly your doing it quite well.

[RayR]

I bought these little mini containers and lids at Dollar Tree (10 for $1.00) They are 2.25"x 2" and have a snap on lid. These make a perfect set up for germinating small seeds on a thin layer of UltraSorb DE. They take up a lot less room than the coffee filter or paper towel and plastic bags method and they are reusable.

These are Chinese Giant Bell Pepper Seed

[Father'sDaughter]

Just baked up a nice big batch of used DE from my pepper and eggplant seed starting, sifted out all the clumps, and it's ready for the next round.

Anyone know how many times this stuff can be reused?

[zeroma]

My first 2 trays of tomatoes are just about ready to pot up. Yesterday I gave them their first feeding of half strength MG. Most of the seedlings have the good growth of their first set of true leaves and just the start of the second set. Yeah!!!

So far I haven't looked/checked out the root system, but they largest of the seedlings are looking nice and strong. My germination wasn't as good as I'd have liked, but that's ok for my first go at using DE.

Tomorrow I'll go through the trays to see which variety need to be reseeded and go from there. I'm happy with the results so far.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by RayR

I bought these little mini containers and lids at Dollar Tree (10 for $1.00) They are 2.25"x 2" and have a snap on lid. These make a perfect set up for germinating small seeds on a thin layer of UltraSorb DE. They take up a lot less room than the coffee filter or paper towel and plastic bags method and they are reusable....

That's interesting! So you don't punch any holes in the container? The DE stays in place? They work ok on a heat mat? You pot up in potting soil as soon as you see roots?

[RayR]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

That's interesting! So you don't punch any holes in the container? The DE stays in place? They work ok on a heat mat? You pot up in potting soil as soon as you see roots?

No need to punch holes, there's enough air in there. Just pop the lid to check on them every day or two. The DE stays in place as long as you don't drop the container on the floor.
Works OK on a heat mat. I just stacked them on the heat mat and germination was fine. Plant the germinated seed in a cell in my tray on the heat mat when the radicle emerges.

[Levent]

Anyone know how many times this stuff can be reused?

Father's Daugther, billions of times! Diatomite is an inert rock so the chemical composition doesn't change while using as a growing medium.In long term uses you have to get rid of minerals absorbed on diatomite.Washing diatomite simply under running tap water isn't effective enough.You have to soak it thoroughly (I do it at least half an hour) and rinse under tap water then repeat the process several times.This way it's possible to decrease absorbed minerals to a reasonable level.In your case I think it's not necessary to do it by reason of short term/low fert use.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by RayR

No need to punch holes, there's enough air in there. Just pop the lid to check on them every day or two. The DE stays in place as long as you don't drop the container on the floor....

No holes in the bottom?

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Levent

Father's Daugther, billions of times! Diatomite is an inert rock so the chemical composition doesn't change while using as a growing medium.In long term uses you have to get rid of minerals absorbed on diatomite.Washing diatomite simply under running tap water isn't effective enough.You have to soak it thoroughly (I do it at least half an hour) and rinse under tap water then repeat the process several times.This way it's possible to decrease absorbed minerals to a reasonable level.In your case I think it's not necessary to do it by reason of short term/low fert use.

Thanks! I guess I won't be needing to buy seed starting mix any more. I started with two bags of Ultrasorb, and 1/2 of a bag is still unused. I'd say I have more than enough for my annual seed-starting needs.

I spent yesterday planting out onions, lettuce, and a few cold-hardy herbs. Except for the regular onions, everything had been started and was still growing in DE in 2.5 x 2.5 x 3.5 inch pots, and had been receiving a dose of seaweed/fish fertilizer with every watering. I've never seen such huge root systems on my seedlings before. I wish I had taken the time to read this thread before I started the onions!

In the past, most of my lettuce has struggled to get established after transplanting and I would end up loosing quite a few, probably due to root damage when I separated them. I had about a dozen seedlings packed into each pot, and separating the roots was easy and resulted in no damage, even though the DE was still a bit on the soggy side due to recent showers. I was able to plant seedlings that I think stand a good chance of surviving this year. Even after just a few hours in the dirt, they looked quite happy!

Last night I up-potted the 35 tomato plants that will eventually make it out to the garden. They were all started in mid-March in DE, all in the same pots as above, also getting the seaweed/fish fertilizer with each watering. I think the most impressive were the dwarfs. The top growth was only about two inches high, but the roots were easily six inches long and very well developed. With the 3.5" deep pots none of them were root bound yet, and my back-up plants will stay in the starter pots with DE for a bit longer.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

No holes in the bottom?

No holes in the bottom. I idea of pre-sprouting seeds is to keep the surface that the seeds lay on moist and not dry out. Have you done the coffee filter/paper towel method before? I know some folks leave the bag open a bit, but I never found that necessary.

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Thanks! I guess I won't be needing to buy seed starting mix any more. I started with two bags of Ultrasorb, and 1/2 of a bag is still unused. I'd say I have more than enough for my annual seed-starting needs.

I spent yesterday planting out onions, lettuce, and a few cold-hardy herbs. Except for the regular onions, everything had been started and was still growing in DE in 2.5 x 2.5 x 3.5 inch pots, and had been receiving a dose of seaweed/fish fertilizer with every watering. I've never seen such huge root systems on my seedlings before. I wish I had taken the time to read this thread before I started the onions!

In the past, most of my lettuce has struggled to get established after transplanting and I would end up loosing quite a few, probably due to root damage when I separated them. I had about a dozen seedlings packed into each pot, and separating the roots was easy and resulted in no damage, even though the DE was still a bit on the soggy side due to recent showers. I was able to plant seedlings that I think stand a good chance of surviving this year. Even after just a few hours in the dirt, they looked quite happy!

Last night I up-potted the 35 tomato plants that will eventually make it out to the garden. They were all started in mid-March in DE, all in the same pots as above, also getting the seaweed/fish fertilizer with each watering. I think the most impressive were the dwarfs. The top growth was only about two inches high, but the roots were easily six inches long and very well developed. With the 3.5" deep pots none of them were root bound yet, and my back-up plants will stay in the starter pots with DE for a bit longer.

Good results!
Since you aren't using synthetic fertilizers there would be no need to be concerned about a buildup of salts in the medium. Just oven heat to kill the algae.
The only reason to rinse the UltraSorb would be to remove the finer dust particles.

[Airangel56]

My experience with seed starting in DE was not what I would call a success. What did germinate heaved out of the DE before establishing any viable roots. I rescued some and potted them up in a mixture of organic potting soil and DE. The portions were 1 part DE to 2 parts potting mix. This did produce some very healthy seedlings. I am wondering if I didn't plant the seeds deep
enough initially.

[beeman]

Same here, disappointed, but I believe my problems was from a different direction.
I tried using a different DE, Qualisorb bought in Canada, supposed to be the same as used in the US.
The difference, I used a 3 inch pot, and don't believe the water wicked up fully, as the Tomato seed all suffered with 'Helmet head'. Very few germinated and were weak, repotted into soil, now doing fine.
So I Tried again, this time using a pot only 2 inches tall, covered with 'cling film'. Little to no germination, even though on a heat pad, other seed in addition to tomato, included peppers, lettuce, beets.
It seems to me that bottom watering in the initial stages leaves a lot to be desired, it was only after 'spritzing' daily that i got any results.
I will try again, when I get my garden on the go.