"Huh? We've had a considerable number of conversations about your sweeping statements/rebuttals that miss the mark; and again you apparently didn't understand what I said because you're not even addressing it obliquely. It doesn't take a lot of research to see that mixing a small fraction of perlite into pudding, sand, or media based on fine particulates, isn't going to have an appreciable impact on aeration, drainage, or the ht of the PWT" "If you mix 10-20-30% perlite into the sand or pudding, is it going to increase aeration? - NO, drainage? - NO, the ht of the perched water table (PWT)?" You just compaired peatmoss to pudding stating:" is it going to increase aeration? - NO, drainage" The fact is that promix bx has less air porosity then hp because hp has more perlite. This shows adding perlite increases air porosity in peatmoss. "We've had a considerable number of conversations about your sweeping statements/rebuttals that miss the mark; and again you apparently didn't understand what I said because you're not even addressing it obliquely" Please explaine why bx has less air porosity then hp. This is a statment you made:"is it going to increase aeration? - NO, drainage" So then hp has no more drainage then bx? It has a little? Peatmoss is not as good as bark but does that to say we now should treat it like pudding? The partical size of peatmoss is quite large. The fact is you said adding perlite will not increase air but it does, just not as dramatically as when you add it to pine fines... I understand why you compaired peat to pudding and I know you used it as a exaggeration. I know you are trying to make a point about why peat really is not the same as bark. I do understand using little or no fine particals in a mix is ideal. I understand peat just fills in around perlite, where bark creats the macro pours like you said. It just seemed like you said adding perlite to peat does nothing when it does because I worked with both HP and BX before, thats all. Does HP have Higher Porosity because it has more dry spots when wet from the perlite? That really is it I would think.

Both Pro-Mix and Fafard are readily available here (sorry morz8!!) within a few miles in any direction. I use Fafard Profesional Growers mix since it's the same formula and costs a few dollars less than Pro-Mix. I buy 2-3 compressed bales around the middle of August & store them in my garage so they're ready to use (and not frozen) when winter sowing rolls around. I do mix in some MiracleGro potting mix but only because I did it the first time I WS and go by the theory, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I also find it absorbs water more quickly with the MG mixed in. This year I also threw in a little potting soil. I mix it all together in a large bucket before I fill my WS containers. This is a shot of my pot ghetto in June:

DWD2, thank you for posting your methodology. It always good to see how others grow their seeds and compare methods. I have grown my own starts (36+ tomato varieties) for the past 5 years. Before last year, I had not had too many plant health problems, except for the first year when my light system was not close enough to my plants. In that year I had problems with leggyness. I strongly suspect that my problem last year was the seed starter mix, but it could have been a few other things. I may have introduced disease into the first batch by incorporating compost into the mix. I think this is unlikely because in other batches and other treys I did not use compost in the mix but still had the same problems. Also, once the plants were in the ground they recovered and grew well the rest of the summer. If it were a disease I would have expected that the plants would still have had problems after planting, which they did not. Tomatoes are really amazing in what they can take early on and still produce well. For example, I had a mouse eat all the leaves of two plants shortley after they were in the ground. There were only stems left and I thought they were done, but I did not pull them out. Both plants sprouted new leaves again and became bushy healthy plants. I was astounded. I have had others suggest that with an approximately 50/50 mix of vermiculite and peat, I may have had water retention problems that suffocated the roots. Thats possible, but I was pretty careful about my watering. I can't totally rule that out. It may also have been too many nutrients from a dilute solution of fertilizer at watering as the problems occured shortly after that. I have read that new seedlings don't need many nutrients becuase they get what they need from the seeds/cotyledons. Some have even suggested that you will cause more problems by fertilizing than just not fertilizing. The reason why I fertilized is because we had a number of storms in May that pushed my planting date back 3-4 weeks longer than our average frost date. So I fertilized a little. I may also have had root binding problems. There is another possiblity which DWD2 suggested. I used a seed heating matt for the first time last year and most of the tomatoes had it under them for at least a day. So I may have over-heated the soil a little and damaged the roots. However on the last seed trey that got started late, I did not use the heat matt because I suspected it may have caused the problems. Yet I still had the same problems in the last trey. My strongest suspicion is still the starter mix. I have read the ingredient list on several seed starting mixes. In most cases, they usually contain peat (as the main medium plus it has high cation exchange capacity) + vermiculite (for micro nutrient exchange and water retention) + lime (to balance the PH of the peat). They sometimes include perilite, but sometimes not (example Jiffy), they also sometimes include a few other things (mycorrhizae for example or a source of nutrients). The main ingredient that I was missing that most starter mixes have is lime for ph balance. I could not find lime in any stores in Utah at the time. They do sell it here, but it is not a common soil amendment in Utah because most Utah soils are slightly alkaline (PH 7.8-8.2). So most folks would not want to add lime. This year I am interested to try mixing my own starter again but I wanted actual recipies to get an idea of the right proportions to use. Also I had no idea that mycorrhizae was available so I am defintley going to use that in my mix. Alternatively I could just buy a pre-made starter mix, but I wanted to save money and its a learning experience as well.

122) Chiggers love the sweet perfume of OFF! Wear it well at clothing openings and about the ankle. (Deer ticks are optional here but plentiful.)