Diatomaceous Earth as a seed starting medium

[RootLoops]

^^^what he said^^^

definitely no more jiffy mix in my future!

[Delerium]

I use DE to wintersow and works great for all the veggies i don't want to grow indoors. Just in case anyone is in to wintersowing.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by RootLoops

^^^what he said^^^

Ditto!

I used to sow four seeds in the hopes that at least one would germinate, now I sow two knowing they both will.

[rockyonekc]

How deep is the DE for winter sowing? I did this for the 1st time this year using 4" of potting mix and noticed it is harder to separate the seedlings vs the DE indoors under lights.

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by b54red

Ray I bet when you started this thread you had no idea how it would take off did you?

For me it has been the most helpful thing I have learned on this forum and I have learned a lot of very useful things from the many helpful members of Tomatoville. I now plant seed with little doubt that I will get great germination and will have little or no problem with damping off anymore. After two years and thousands of seed started in UltraSorb I no longer even worry when I start seed about whether I will have enough. Now I always have too many seedlings of everything I start in DE.

Thanks again for posting this great idea.

Bill

I will second that emotion! Barely a learning curve and delivers results, no muss no fuss. It is also the peanut butter to the jelly that is Delerium's no roots grafting method.

[MR BILL]

READ RAYS ARTICLES AND GAVE IT A TRY..STARTED SWEET POTATOES AND NOW HAVE OVER TWENTY FIRST CLASS PLANTS. DOLLAR GENERAL SELLS A BAG OF SEVEN LBS FOR A $1.25. FAMILY DOLLAR ALSO SELLS FOR A $1.25. BOTH ARE GREAT TEXTURE A SSHOE BOX FOR A DOLLAR WITH A LOT OF HOLES PUNCHED IN THE BOTTOM FOR DRAINAGE .. NEXT A PAPER TOWEL TO COVER HOLES .. ABOUT TWO INCHES OF KITTY LITTER FROM DOLLAR GEN,($1.25) UNSCENTED, NATURAL. NEXT A MIX OF JIFFY MIX AND KITTY LITTER TO A BOUT ONE INCH FROM THE TOP. AT THIS POINT I ADD WARM WATER FROM BOTTOM TILL MIXTURE SHOWS MOISTURE I NEXT COVER THE MIX WITH A QUARTER INCH OF JIFFY SEED STARTER. PLANTED FIVE ROWS OF SEEDS (TOMATO ), COVERED WITH A THIN LAYER OF JIFFY MIX SPRINKLE ON TO COVER SEEDS.. I TAMP DOWN THE TOP WITH THE END OF A BLOCK OF WOOD FROM FROM A 2"X4". SPRIZ WITH A DOLLAR SPRAY BOTTLE FROM DOLLAR GENERAL GENTLY DOES IT. WRAP A SHEET OF SARAN WRAP ON TOP AND PUT ON AN OLD HEAT PAD ON LOW SETTING. YOU CAN USE AN OLD SERVING TRAY TO SET SHOE BOX IN.. PLANTED ON APRIL SEVEN TOMATOES ARE NOW ALMOST READY FOR TRANSPLANT IN A DAY OR SO. ALWAYS WATER FROM THE BOTTOM.. IT WICKS UP TO THE ROOTS...GERMINATION OVER 80%.. SEEDS I SAVED FROM A CHERRY TOMATO FROM TWO YEARS WAS ( 25 count ) HAD ALMOST 90 PERCENT.I ALWAYS USE WARM WATER WHEN WATERING, DON"T KNOW IF IT HELPS BUT HEY WHOLE LIKES COLD WATER ON THERE BACK..MY PEPPERS ARE SHOWING SOME LIFE AND WILL SEE HOW THESE WILL WORK WITH MY KITTY LITTER MIX.REMEMBER TO BUY NATURAL UNSCENTED KITTY LITTER FOR USE... HOPE THIS HELPS .MR BILL MILFORD CT..

[MR BILL]

Used this stuff for sweet potatoes.have more slips than i will need.have a lot of tomato plants to give away.. My hybrid tomatoes will be transplanted this week to larger pots.. Hope to try grafting a few plants again. Thanks everyone for the wealth of good advice on this forum. Mr bill milford ct...

[RayR]

Originally Posted by MR BILL

Used this stuff for sweet potatoes.have more slips than i will need.have a lot of tomato plants to give away.. My hybrid tomatoes will be transplanted this week to larger pots.. Hope to try grafting a few plants again. Thanks everyone for the wealth of good advice on this forum. Mr bill milford ct...

Mr. Bill, I'm glad you got lucky with the Dollar General Kitty Litter, but that product is clay, it's not Diatomaceous Earth. No one here has given any advise about clay. Having a few cats I know something about clay kitty litters, I've never even attempted seed starting in the stuff mainly because every one I seen is structurally unstable and turns to mush after awhile besides being extremely heavy.

[Randall]

DE has been amazing for me. I've sat and lurked on this thread until a few days ago when I started some tomatoes. Due to all of the results in this thread, I already knew what to expect. I feel a little guilty for sitting back and watching the whole thing unfold before jumping in. Thanks to RayR and everyone else for putting in the time and IMHO improving upon seed germination in general. This is no small thing! Kudos to everyone involved!

[creister]

When starting seed, do u wet the de and then put the seed in, or do u wet part of th de and put the seed on that, then cover with unwetted de and water from the bottom until everything is wet? I hope this question makes sense.

[Chucker]

What I do, and ymmv, is I get the DE wet, soak the seed for like an hour in water, then lay the seed on top of the wet DE, and seal it in a ziplock bag till it germinates.

[Father'sDaughter]

My method is to fill the cells, put them in a tray, and bottom water to wet the DE. Then I add the seeds and sprinkle more DE over them.

[Jaysan]

I picked up some ultrasorb at an autozone today. It is noticeably finer than the napa de. I hope I can still use the napa de for something. Did someone say they used it?

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Jaysan

I picked up some ultrasorb at an autozone today. It is noticeably finer than the napa de. I hope I can still use the napa de for something. Did someone say they used it?

I believe a lot of us are using the Autozone Ultrasorb.

[Randall]

Brandywine(Sudduth's) and Brandywine(Cowlick's) in DE. They seem to be doing fine. I've started to feed them Texas Tomato Food and they are moving along nicely: