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Butzmark · 10-07-2007, 12:49 PM posted to rec.gardens

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:35:56 -0000, wrote:

On Jul 10, 3:27 am, Jim Kingdon wrote:
The Plant nursery agent advised me to use the coco peat mixture which
was like a big 4 inch thick bed, mixed with coco peat, Loamy soil and
sand. he told me to sunk and soak it for 45 Minutes in water and then
it will swell and then sow seeds directly. Was he right? i wasnt
pretty convinced, i thought he was making a quick sale.

That sounds like good stuff, but I've had success with plenty of soils
which "shouldn't" work, so you can always give a try. I've started
seeds in something like 50% vermicompost, but 100% could be a
challenge (although you never know; the melons from the kitchen waste
always seem to produce seedlings in the compost pile).

I don't know what climate you are in (or even which hemisphere), but
if it is summer where you are, and you have a frost coming up in the
fall, you'll want to look for varieties which don't need a lot of days
between planting and harvest. July is a bit of a late start for most
things (not everything, though). Consider looking for some plants at
the farmer's market or nursery if you don't seem to have enough time
to start from seed.

Well i Live in Bangalore, India. The Temperature Never Goes beyound 29
C, and most of the time its 25 C, and during night it falls below 20
C. Its been pretty overcast throughout the last month and this.

Will a mixture of Vermicompost, Builders sand and Red Soil be a good
seed starter?

To start the most difficult seeds, like a perennial with a long
germination time and a small seed, I use something like Pro-mix, which
is a peat based mix available in the States. I would cover the seeds
with milled sphagum moss which is very fine and light and gives little
resistance to very small plants coming up through it. A tough to start
seed might also take a long time to germinate so sterile mix would be
important to help prevent fungal problems. Most annual vegetabel seeds
are much easier to start but the same sort of principals apply. Large,
quick sprouting seeds can push through a much denser mix than a small
seed. In the garden, where I have a heavy clay soil, carrot seeds
which are small and slow to germinate have a hard time. However, if I
cover the seeds with seed mix right in the garden rather than putting
the garden clay over them they do fine. I start seeds indoors because
it's too cold here in the spring and they get a head start that way.
You won't have that problem, so direct seeding might be fine. The only
reason I would start seeds in pots in a tropical climate would be so
they could start weed free.