Diatomaceous Earth as a seed starting medium

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by RayR

I had a bag of Napa Floor Dry earlier in the year. It is a product of EP Minerals. I remember testing it for PH, it was more alkaline than the Moltan products, I believe it was more around 8.0, can't remember exactly, I didn't write it down. I didn't try it for seed starting but I did use it as an amendment in the garden.

Oh, should I take it back and get some from Autozone instead, or the Dollar Tree if they have it?

I can always use the bag I bought in my garden too. Do you just add it to the soil or use it on top after planting?

[Rockporter]

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that I read on another garden site that when you use perlite or any other thing like DE and Turface that you should wear a N95 Mask, have you heard that?

I guess DE dust is like thousands of razor blades in your lungs if you breathe it in and the same for the others too.

N95 Particulate Respirator
http://www.lowes.com/pd_69110-98-8210_

[Diriel]

For seed starting I added in a bit of Choir and a small amount of sem-fine kelp. It just seemed to me, looking at it, that something a bit finer mixed i would be a little better. I used it to "test" rutgers tomato germination. My season ended hard and bad, so this was just a "dry run test" for me in prep for next year. I plan for next year to be container / raised bed, bottom watered. My hope is less opportunity for me to screw up on watering.

For the Raised bed and container production I plan on trying about 50% DE: -- 15% Southern Pine bark fines mixed with 20% actual soil, then some fairly good "organic" compost at about 15%. I am hoping the bark fines will put me over the top on the "soil looseness" but will bridge the line between Organic and the non-living DE and tip the scales into a "living" enviroment. I will have to play it with between now and when it is time to get real with my 5 gallon buckets and Raised Beds.

Have a good one,
Gary

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

Oh, should I take it back and get some from Autozone instead, or the Dollar Tree if they have it?

I can always use the bag I bought in my garden too. Do you just add it to the soil or use it on top after planting?

I mixed it in with the soil and with the potting mix in my containers.

[Rockporter]

Wow Diriel, that is a neat idea you have going. I am using self watering buckets as well as Earth Boxes and the best part about it is the water is never a problem as long as you make sure to water daily.

Good luck on your experiment, will you start a thread on that when you begin? I would like to follow that experiment.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by RayR

I mixed it in with the soil and with the potting mix in my containers.

Thanks Ray, I will do the same thing. I guess this will help keep the bugs away from my plants. Anything to get ahead of those buggers, lol.

[Diriel]

@rockporter,

Yes, when I get serious I will post a new thread with plenty of pictures. In fact when "next season" arrives for the early indoors plant I will take LOTS of pictures of my Red Solo Cups Then later, after transplant outside, a lot more pictures of progress (i hope) of the growout.

Gary

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

Thanks Ray, I will do the same thing. I guess this will help keep the bugs away from my plants. Anything to get ahead of those buggers, lol.

I don't think coarse granules of DE are going to bother the bugs at all, only the finely powdered DE works for that.

[Tonio]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that I read on another garden site that when you use perlite or any other thing like DE and Turface that you should wear a N95 Mask, have you heard that?

I guess DE dust is like thousands of razor blades in your lungs if you breathe it in and the same for the others too.

N95 Particulate Respirator
http://www.lowes.com/pd_69110-98-8210_

I'm sure a constant inhalation isn't good to you, especially if you are sensitive to it. I tend to be just work upwind .

We have flea infestations at times in summer from having cats indoors, o we broadcast food grade DE(powdered) that is really fine and gets everywhere. We have been breathing it for many years, and sure I'm not going to drop dead tomorrow
Perlite may be worse the DE / turface, definitely do not inhale vermiculite.

Just be cautious, pollution is prolly killing us faster

[meadowyck]

Well I finally got some of my veggie seeds planted in the DE, and within 3 days I have a few sprouted seeds, I think I would have had more had I not let the DE dry out.... gosh this is my first time not having seeds on heat mats and using DE so hopefully I'll do better (as I'm almost done with some family constraints that have taken me away from my garden). I'm so excited to see them, as I was starting to think I would have to start over...

Ray how many days did it take before your seeds sprouted? If this was already answered in this thread no need to post again, I'll go back and re-read this weekend when I have more time.

thanks

[Rockporter]

I seeded some lettuces, spinach, kale, and rainbow swiss chard in my DE yesterday and am waiting now to see how well they do. I did happen to go back to Auto Zone because what I had from them originally was the wrong thing but it all straightened out. Returned the original DE to NAPA Auto Parts as well.

Now I need to get some powdered DE because I found a huge 3" long by 1/2" wide Tomato Hornworm on my bell peppers today. He ate two bell peppers to nothing and I can say that is one creepy worm. I have never seen one until now. Yuck.

I will let you know how the seeding goes.

[Diriel]

Just curious Rockporter, why did you need to return the Napa Auto DE?

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by Diriel

Just curious Rockporter, why did you need to return the Napa Auto DE?

I was informed that it had too high a PH for starting seeds and I decided I wouldn't be using it in the garden since I use self watering containers and I prefer using perlite for those.

[Diriel]

http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm

If you scroll down a ways you will see the Napa Auto linkage, as well as a whole bunch of other linkage. Looks like it should be gtg. I will buy a PH tester of some sort soon so I can give self-tested answers.

Have a good one.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Diriel

http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm

If you scroll down a ways you will see the Napa Auto linkage, as well as a whole bunch of other linkage. Looks like it should be gtg. I will buy a PH tester of some sort soon so I can give self-tested answers.

Have a good one.

NAPA used to source #8822 from Moltan, but now the product is from EP Minerals, that's where the confusion comes from. I found that out when I bought a bag of the NAPA product earlier this year. Like I said before, I tested NAPA #8822 with my PH meter and the PH was too high for my seed starting experiments, so I decided to just roll with the Moltan DE Kitty Litter and the Moltan UltraSorb.