There are probably close to a hundred recipes on line for potting soil mixes acceptable to an organic gardener but I have had good success with my compost for many years, even though there are amny that tell me it will not work and my plants will die although they have produced a bountiful harvest growing in that medium. This link may be of some help. Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Potting soil

"Thanks BR. I see it's also got chelated iron in it, looks like a good starter product, when do you start backing off on the phosphate, or do you?" I don't. They stay wicked in that solution until they get moved outside to harden off. I do not use that product at all once the plants are outside and in the ground. Once outside I don't as a rule fertilize veggies once they are outside...sometimes a shot of 8-8-8 granular but my ground is very rich due to the rabbit manure and seldom have a need. But while say peppers are on the green light they will sometimes initiate flower buds while inside.I pick them off but seems a good sign.

Damping off is complicated because it is a collection of diseases and not just one disease, but some of them have a definite soil connection because they are soil-borne. They still have to have the 'just right' (maybe I should say 'just wrong') combination of certain conditions to develop. When we use the term damping off, we are referring to a large group including Phytopthera root rot, Pythium root rot, Rhizoctonia root rot, black root rot, white mold (Sclerotinia spp.), Gray mold (Botrytis), Fusarium, cylindrocladium, and more. Some of these are soil-borne, hence the potting soil connection, while others are seed-borne. Some are found in native soil and are transferred to soilless mixes by folks using tools, flats, pots, six-packs, watering cans, trowels, etc. that were used outside and not sterilized before used in seed-starting. Each of the group of damping-off diseases develops in somewhat different conditions. Some are more common in colder conditions and some are more common in warmer conditions. Some only affect seeds, some only affect cuttings. Some are pre-emergent and kill seed before you see any plant part emerge from the soil. These kind can penetrate the seed coat as soon as moisture penetrates it and then kills the radicle almost immediately. Some are post-emergent and kill seedlings that seem perfectly healthy one day and then are dead the next day. Pythium root rot, for example, occurs in wet, cold, poorly-drained soils and is often a direct-result of overwatering. On the other hand, Rhizoctonia root rot occurs in warm to hot temperatures in soil that is only moderately moist so your plants might get it if they are in a room that gets too hot and not because you've overwatered. That is why the right air temps are important when starting seeds. Some of the damping off fungi types only start in very specific pH ranges. Black root rot isn't found on plants in growing mediums with a pH below 4.5 or above 5.5 because it only grows in a pH of 4.5-5.5, or it may be 5.4, I don't remember now. The sterile seed-starting mix/soil-less potting soil connection has a lot to do with pH but also with soil drainage as well. Sterile seed-starting mixes generally have a pH around 5.5 and this important because most damping off diseases start at a significantly higher pH than that. If you are watering with a higher pH water, then over time the pH of the seed-starting mix goes higher and that increases the chances of damping off since the pH climbs a little time every time you water. That's one reason peat moss is a key component of commercial seed-starting mixes...because is is at the lower end of the pH scale. You can take a lot of measures to lessen the likelihood of damping off, but the most important one is to have a well-drained soilless mix and to never ever use native soil unless you've sterilized it. I always sterilize all my flats, etc. and use a sterile seedless mix. I have used potting soil to start seeds and had no problem with it, but I start hundreds and hundreds of seeds a year and want it all to go smoothly and on-schedule, so I tend to stick with sterile mixes to lessen the chances of having problems. Proper air circulation is very important and the plants need good air circulation 24/7. Proper room temperature is key. Soaking seeds in a bleach soak (1 T. bleach/quart of water) for 15 minutes is commonly recommended to lessen the chances of losing your seedlings to a soil-borne fungi from the damping off 'family'. Planting seeds at the proper depth (no deeper than 4 times the seed's thickness) lessens the chance of damping off. However, you can do everything right and have damping off and do everything wrong and not have it because life and gardening just work that way. Chamomile tea and cinnamon are two common folk remedies for damping off, and there are several others. There also are some commercial fungicides than can be used as a soil drench, although I know very little about them since I don't use them, Some of the fungi that cause various forms of damping off can live indefinitely in soil while others have a more limited life span. Pythium spp. can survive several years, whicle black root rot can live only about 10 years and Pythium an Rhizoctonia rots can live indefitely. That's just about everything I know about damping off except this....the heavier and more dense the potting mixture the more likely it is to occur. And, even though we think of damping off as a disease primarily of young seedlings, in some parts of the country, it will attack some pretty good-sized plants. I've seen it attack toamto plants (but not mine and not here in OK or TX) that have been in the ground a month or two and which have gained substantial size. No matter what you do, sometimes damping off just happens. Dawn

To all of you, and especially tkozloski. Boy am I sick of political agendas. Somebody has decided Miracle Grow and Bonnie plants are the enemy, and so begins the creative discussion about how bad they are. Here's my two cents: tkozloski nailed it when he said the plants grow great in MG and Consumer Reports nail that, but they don't seem to taste as good. That's the point. You want quality or quantity? I do everything I can to recreate what I tasted as a kid growing a garden. Chemicals can help for sure, but when they make the fruit get so gigantic, whats happening is the sugar content and other things that create flavor suffer. I sometimes buy organic, not because of the health claims, which I think are 80% plus B.S., but because if the organic choice is a smaller, less perfect, uglier fruit or veggie, it just may taste a lot sweeter and rich. Bigger and more usually are not better, especially in this age of bloated momentum omentums. Cheers to all. I really enjoyed reading all of your comments.