soil

Ok I am planning to start my jmgs as its finally warming up again and should stay this way.

I plan to start them in the baggy method and once germinated go from there. what type of soil to use?
What does sterile soil do? if already germinated does soil still need to be sterile if so how do i get it sterile? buying a bag at store i would think isn't sterile. it will have moisture and stuff from being outside. I know for a fact that bag soil isn't sterile.

So how do you get sterile soil?

Marie, I know you can bake it in the oven to get it sterile, I'm not sure if it leaves an odor or not, you can use a microwave too.

the other thing is this, I use a soiless mix for seed starting from jiffy mix, it can get very expensive if you have 100's of seeds, but if you have just a couple dozen, it would pay to get that, they are about 3.67 a bag and I usually mix in some perlite and vermiculite to make it go a little bit longer, and then it supplies just enough to get them through the transplanting stage. With this method, you have to supply diluted amounts of fertilizer's if you don't transplant as soon as you get totue leaf 4 or 5.

I hope this helps some.. it will be interesting to see what others do.

Your seedlings are most vulnerable at the cotyledon stage. Fungus spores are in the air every where, and we have to assume that. It would be a good thing for us if they were not microscopic, and we could see them.

Gourd mentioned Jiffy seedling mix. Ditto! It is the very best, and there is no close second.

If you need to economize, heat will kill those organisms. I would wrap the soil intended, in tinfoil, put it in a pressure cooker, with a half inch of water, and once it reaches pressure, give it 30 minutes. The temp and pressure will kill almost everything.

The enemy here are the "damping off" fungi. You can google that and find out what a serious problem they are. There are at least 5 genera of "sprout eating fungi", and they start becoming active between 50 and 55 degrees F. This temperature range must be avoided during germination, like the Black Plague. Once your seedlings develop several true leaves, they are less vulnerable.

Things to avoid when germinate seedlings, that are safe to use later on are , compost, and river sand. They are over exposed to pathogenic fungi. They are the main reason for pressure cooking nursery potting soil. Frank

Marie - The trick for finding potting mix that is sterile is buying the bags that they have stored inside. I have a local nursery that keeps their Fafard professional potting mix inside and it is the best mix I've ever used. It's a little more expensive, but well worth it! I've never had a problem with fungus. Another trick is to add some H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) to your water which helps keep fungus at bay when you water the plants. :-)

I've heard folks say that "cooking" their potting mix stinks up their house. So ... I don't know if that is something you really want to do, but that's just what I've heard. Never cooked any myself. :-)

Marie, what did you decide to use? I'm going to have to start a few seeds here also, but, I will probably stick to my mix for now, I cannot find the promix I used to buy in these large cubes, so I'll be looking for some good potting up mixes soon.

i haven't started any yet as it got cold again here. i am thinking of trying to start them in sphagnum moss which comes in a sealed bag.