Diatomaceous Earth as a seed starting medium

[Diriel]

Weed barrier cloth in the bottom area to cover the drain hole does the trick. I have moved to using the Solo Cups to start seeds. I am even tinkering with the idea of an SIP Solo Cup starter

[Tonio]

Originally Posted by RayR

Grainger is another source for Moltan products. If you have a branch nearby, you can order it and pick it up there. The local branch here is only a few miles from my house.

I have my reservations about the fine grain also. I don't want anything too dense.
The medium and coarse grain are easy to work with.

10-4 ray

[Tonio]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

The problem I am having with my ultrasorb seed starts is that each time I pick up the tray to move into the sun I lose one or two of my separate cells to the underside of the tray.

Does this make sense? I have holes where the seeds were planted because the ultrasorb is falling into the bottom tray. Also, I couldn't water from the bottom originally because when I slightly picked up the upper tray it caused the DE to fall into the bottom tray and emptied a few cells.

I watered slowly into one of the cells and I lost three cells right away as the water sucked it out of the cells. I think I need to line the cells with something other than all DE to counteract this issue. Do you think a small layer of peat based seed starter might help to keep everything where it is supposed to be?

I am thinking about 1/4 of the tray in peat based with a little water to wet it down and then add the DE to the top and plant the seeds in that. Any other ideas?

rockporter- makes sense, I'm going to put some window screen on the bottom.

[Rockporter]

Thanks guys, I think I might use something inside the cells but Tonio's idea of using cups is looking good too.

[meadowyck]

I'm starting to see a problem with my seedlings that are coming up. They have the, gosh don't know what to call this... (I'll take a picture tomorrow during the day and post) but the seed coat is stilling to the end of the newly sprouted seed.

anyone else having this issue.

My DE is food grade and very fine powder, so don't know if that is what is causing this?

[ChrisK]

Search here for "helmet head".

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=22707

Originally Posted by meadowyck

I'm starting to see a problem with my seedlings that are coming up. They have the, gosh don't know what to call this... (I'll take a picture tomorrow during the day and post) but the seed coat is stilling to the end of the newly sprouted seed.

anyone else having this issue.

My DE is food grade and very fine powder, so don't know if that is what is causing this?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

The problem I am having with my ultrasorb seed starts is that each time I pick up the tray to move into the sun I lose one or two of my separate cells to the underside of the tray.

Does this make sense? I have holes where the seeds were planted because the ultrasorb is falling into the bottom tray. Also, I couldn't water from the bottom originally because when I slightly picked up the upper tray it caused the DE to fall into the bottom tray and emptied a few cells.

I watered slowly into one of the cells and I lost three cells right away as the water sucked it out of the cells. I think I need to line the cells with something other than all DE to counteract this issue. Do you think a small layer of peat based seed starter might help to keep everything where it is supposed to be?

I am thinking about 1/4 of the tray in peat based with a little water to wet it down and then add the DE to the top and plant the seeds in that. Any other ideas?

I had the same problem with a few of my cells where the hole in the bottom was too large. I am now using a knive and just poking a few slit like holes in the bottom of my cups etc. so that the DE doesn't fall out the bottom. What I am happiest about other than the great germination is that I have had no damping off. I am sure I might have some in the winter but all indications are that it will be far less than with the usual seed starting mediums.

[meadowyck]

chrisK thanks for that link, I posted over there as I've not had to deal with this before and didn't know if it was due to living in FL or using DE to grow the seedlings in?????

[RayR]

I think what is unusual is that you've never had a helmet head before.
As far as your DE being a contributing factor, you're in uncharted territory using a food grade DE which is a micronized powder instead of the coarse granules that the rest of us are using. If you are getting a large number of helmet heads could it be that the seedlings lack vigor because the roots aren't getting enough oxygen, not enough air space between the particles? Also the PH is unknown, if it is off a point one way or another from neutral could that be a factor?
Don't know for sure, just speculating.

[meadowyck]

great points to bring up Ray. I wish I could find my pH meter to test, but I think I might have been keeping it tooooooo weeeeeeet, as now that I've let them dry out and have them in the garage for a few days (too much rain and humidity right now) they look better. I just planted another round of seeds and will water less to compare to the first planting.

[Tonio]

Originally Posted by b54red

What I am happiest about other than the great germination is that I have had no damping off. I am sure I might have some in the winter but all indications are that it will be far less than with the usual seed starting mediums.

+ red, I am seeing this also, the broccoli in regular peat type mix,has pretty much died, or is getting damped off! Either that ,or they got fried from 107F over the weekend

[Rockporter]

Yay! I have germination of romaine lettuce, salad bowl lettuce and Swiss Chard. There is no germination of the spinach yet. I think this DE thing is going to be a great thing for me. Thanks for the heads up.

[b54red]

I started some Cilantro in regular seed starting mix a few weeks before I started a batch in the DE. The plants have been getting the same watering and fertilizer solution and now the ones started in the DE are noticeably larger and healthier even though planted a good bit later.

I am having to keep a watering tray under the lettuce because I put up to a dozen seeds in some of the little one inch cells and they were sucking it dry too fast. They are growing like crazy now so I may actually have lettuce ready to go out before the temps get low enough. I guess I better start some more lettuce seed soon just in case.

[meadowyck]

Well it is either the type of DE that I have (food graden so it is very fine) or the weather we are having, or maybe both, but my seed starting is terrible.

I'm going to go back to my seed soil and heat mats in order to get the seeds to sprout and stay living.

This is the first time for me to have seeds come up with the seed cap still on them, another member here pointed me to a thread and they are called helmet heads, well that is crazy as 95% of those that have this usually end up dying off.

[Rockporter]

Don't give up, I think if you change over to the granulated stuff from Autozone or O'Reilly's then you might be doing ok. Maybe do an experiement with each, your stuff and the non food grade stuff? Good luck, sorry to hear you are having so many problems with yours.