This year I have been experimenting with letting my vegetables self-seed! Can you believe how lazy I am? I figured if I like mustards on this patch, I will like it again next year. So far I have had volunteer lettuces, radishes, mustards, cilantro, shiso, chard, even beans! In a few weeks there will be squash volunteers. See how much money I save not buying seed? Seriously, this has several advantages, since the flowers from some of these crops attract pollinators, other beneficials, and also look pretty cool. I pick them (lets say radishes) but let one of the specimens flower, seed, and even though I collect the seed that I can collect, most of it has gone on the ground, ready to sprout next year at this time and place! Other winter crops I seed directly: carrots, all brassicas, all beets and chard, lettuces (if I do not have enough sprouting on their own), artichokes I both seed directly or start in small pots. I also seed directly beans, peas, all legumes actually, and all squash. All cucumbers too. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are the only vegetables I start in small pots inside. I use the same plastic pots that come with nursery purchased plants, start them by a window, then transfer them to the front porch to harden. As far as what mixes, I use whatever I have at the time. But no peat! I have had good luck with either my regular garden soil, or potting soil, or a mix. I also sprout my tomato seeds that I saved without fermentation. I tried fermenting last year and it spoiled the seeds, I have gotten better results without fermenting, but don't tell anyone in the tomato forum or I might get kicked out of it. Oh yes, if there is a spacial brassica I would like to 'baby' like cauliflowers for example, I do start them in pots in the early fall, mostly just to keep the varieties from getting mixed up, and to be able to bring the seedlings inside if the sun gets too brutal. But I still think the self seeding method is the best! let the garden go feral!

If you want to know what is in your mix the only way I can suggest is to mix your own. Standard mix would be peat moss and perlite sometime with vermiculite. The ratio can vary from 5 part peat to 1 part perlite to just the opposite for 5 part perlite to 1 part peat moss. The big range is dependant on what all you are germinating. Most veggies should do fine at 70 percent peat moss 30 percent perlite. Neither product will have any additive to it. You supply any needed nutrient based on need and plant preferences. Coconut coir is gaining in popularity as a seed starting mix also but may be expensive or hard to find unless you are near Helena or Billings. Here in Texas over the last year or two I haven't found any potting mix (pre-mixed) that did not have added (nutrients) aka slow release n-p-k, aka osmocote or some variation of it. One more thought is to the sizes of containers you are starting seed and type of seed. Some use flats and prick plants out as they pop up, others use anywhere from 512 cell flats all the way to 4 inch pots. The smaller the cell size the finer the grade of peat and perlite you use. The ratio of peat to perlite would also be highest 5 to 1 peat to perlite for smallest container. The biggest pots and or slowest germinating seed would be just the opposite at 5 to 1 perlite to peat. I am trying to give you the dynamics involved and not specifics because I am not sure what all you plan to grow. I hope this helps you in your venture Good Luck and Happy Growing David

PunkinheadJones, Yes, there are many issues with peat pellets and poor germination sometimes is one of them. The pellets hold too much water and you have to be really careful not to overwater. Since they hold excess water, the development of the roots can be negatively impacted. Since they hold excess water so long, damping off is common and, of course, damping off = seedling death. Peat has no nutritive value, so the newly-sprouted seedlings aren't getting any nutrition and won't grow much until they're potted up into a mix containing compost or fertilizer or until they're fed. If you have planted seeds in peat pellets and they haven't sprouted, you might take a toothpick and dig around in the pellet and see if the seeds are still there, or if they've rotted. Assuming you planted normal vegetable, herb or annual flower seeds they should be up in a week to ten days. Certain flowers that are more difficult to raise from seed might take longer to sprout. Once peat pellets dry out they then are so dry they shed water and it is hard to wet them again without completely saturating them....and then they stay too wet and the plants suffer and often die. I use peat pellets sometimes because they are fast and easy, but I am careful how I use them. Since they hold too much water for too long, I wet them initially to get them to "pop up" from the compressed state they're in when you buy them. I wet them about a week before I'm going to use them, then I place them outside on the sunny patio for several days, preferably in bright sunlight, until they dry out enough that they are only moist and no longer wet. Then, I bring them inside, plant the seeds into them, and water lightly to insure good peat-to-seed contact before putting the seed flats on the light shelf. After that I water lightly, never heavily, and try to keep them moist but not wet and soggy and try to never let them dry out. I also pot up my seedlings out of the pellets as soon as they have two true leaves. I would never try to raise seedlings from the seed stage to the putting-into-the-ground stage in only peat pellets and always pot them up to a nice soil-less mix as soon as they sprout. The nice thing about peat pellets is that they are quick and easy. They give good results once you're experienced with them and can avoid the twin perils of overwatering or underwatering. For several years I used them with little problem after a rough year the first year I tried them. I used so many, I would order 1,000 of them a year from Harris Seeds. This year I bought one seed-starting flat that came with 72 pellets at a local store, and started 72 varieties of tomatoes and peppers in them, one variety per pellet. With quite a few seeds in each pellet, I potted them up almost as soon as they sprouted and didn't even wait for true leaves. That's the only way I use them now---as quick sprouters that only hold plants for a couple of weeks. Sarah, I think they can be used successfully because I use them with no problem most years, although I use only a few now compared to how many I previously used. However, you only get good at using them after previously experiencing a lot of failure and issues with them. Experience is a pretty tough teacher sometimes. If it is any consolation, sometimes it seems I have to learn the same garden lessons over and over again before they "stick". Ezziah, I love soil-less mix, especially the ones formulated for seed-starting. They are light and fluffy so seeds don't struggle to break through the surface as they grow, and they are sterile which reduces the incidence of disease. However, disease is still possible because untreated seeds can carry disease on them. While we're on the subject, I also am not a fan of peat pots and don't use them. Peat pots can wick moisture away from the soil and deprive your seedlings of water and of nutrition if they're being fed via a water-soluable fertilizer. Also, when you plant them in the ground, they can continue to wick moisture away from the plants and often the peat pots themselves stay so dry that the plant roots cannot push through the pots to go deeper into the ground. When I buy a plant in a peat pot, the first thing I do when I get home is remove the pot and put the plant into a plastic pot or a plastic cup assuming the plant cannot go directly into the ground at that time. Dawn

early ssabukis aliana goji faranji Awesome tomatoes! ESA is a cropping machine with loads of small yellow plums. Goji Faranji makes big wonking beefsteaks, sometimes they are a bit ruffly-but this I think is related to hotter weather and when it cools down a bit then the fruits are smoother. If you let GF mature completely on the vine it's incredibly delicious. It's fine too if you pick them a bit green and let ripen on the counter, but leave it on the vine until it feels like a baby's tushie when you squeeze it and you have tomato nirvana.