Well diluted Miracle Grow and similar are probably the most commonly ones used by far. Do you only want organic ones? Most organics are going to have some odor, it is the nature of organic fertilizers - they smell. So organic gardening outside is great, inside not so much because of their slow effects, need for active soil bacteria to even work, and odor. Other than worm tea if one has a vermicomposting setup, IMO the best organics for using indoors are one of the many fish/kelp blends available. Not only are they better balanced, offer a wider range of nutrients, but the kelp reduces the odor of the fish somewhat. It isn't odor free but better and unfortunately the smell is the most notable price we pay if we insist on only using organic fertilizers for seedlings. Dave

Minnamouse - I posted this at the end of a different thread you posted but perhaps you didn't see it. Here's a cut & paste section, followed by a few new thoughts: "Minnamouse, if you had all that trouble with damping off you might really want to consider a good commercial blend. The reason I say that is because they are mixed to provide an appropriate level of moisture retention and trying to get that with your own mix could be a real challenge. I like Promix and Sunshine mix best and personally dislike Miracle Gro. Part of that is probably due to regional growing condition bias. Miracle Gro dries out way too fast for me here while the other two stay at just the most perfect moisture level for much longer times. I do think that Miracle Gro may have an advantage for people growing in wetter conditions. The same features that hurt germination rates for me and made planting out challenging would probably have been advantages in growing regions that got a lot of rain this year. If you are still working at getting good results with WSing, I'd make ProMix a first choice in areas where you usually don't have muddy gardens and Miracle Gro potting mix a first choice in areas where mud in the garden is common. (Sunshine mix is less readily available and more pricey.) I'd hold off on using home mixed mixes for anything but seeds you have in huge abundance where won't be upset if they don't grow. That's actually what we do - I use our home grown container mix for things like zinnias where I have many giant bags of seed available. When you have a load of surplus seed you can live with a potting mix that wicks water in a less than perfect way or that might crumble or break apart when you try to transplant hunks of seedlings." To specifically address your question today, in my opinion the biggest deal about using a purchased mix is that the moisture wicking and retention balance is better than anything you can put together on your own - and that can be VERY important in seed starting. My family likes to be very cost conscious. We grow most of our own food. We have to container grow our veg in five gallon buckets here because the local soil is pretty much just rocks, coal and a bit of clay. (Nice if you want to run a quarry, lousy for gardening!) Our growing & food producing containers are all filled with a home blend of compost with a little perlite. That's great for mature plants and not having picture perfect wetting and moisture retention is not a problem at that stage. Good enough is perfectly fine. But for seed starting and seedlings we only use Sunshine mix or Promix. Yes, it's more costly - especially when I WSed over 3600 containers of flowers and hubby indoor sowed over 200 tomatoes plants and about 50 each of peppers, eggplants, gourds, melons, beans and the rest of the stuff. Maybe I should also mention that hubby Pat's family has been commercial growers in England for at least 6 generations. They made all of their container mix (like you describe above) but bought in their seed sowing mix by the pallet load. In his professional growing experience, and our personal home growing experience it is worth the cost to buy a good seed starting mix - and save home mixes for once the plants are past the seedling stage. That's how we do it because we consider the cost of seed and we want strong seedlings and high germination rates. That's also why I won't use miracle gro here - although if I was in waterlogged Pennsylvania this year I'd probably appreciate it's moisture wicking profile better. I hope this helps. I don't know if you've seen any of my other posts but if you have you probably know that I've got very similar views to you about getting really good value for your money when you are gardening. To me there is such incredible value in planting a seed and getting a healthy strong seedling - ready to grow big and strong, provide flower or food, and then provide seed for future years. I just can't afford the cost of seed, time lost, and food lost by seed starting in a homemade mix - and that's even with having my own English gardener (with decades of growing experience) right here and his elderly mother(with even more experience) just a phone call away. I hope I don't sound like I'm just a member of some kind of Pro Mix fan club. I'm not. I like anything that gets me top notch results. That just happens to be that pricey Pro Mix and Sunshine mix. Lynda Here is a link that might be useful: This is why I seed start in Promix or Sunshine mix

I tried a Fafard product and I went back to ProMix PGX. The Fafard contained a lot of chunks of sphagnum peat, along with a lot of dust and twigs. Looked like it had been screened at about 3/8"-- way too coarse for my needs. The ProMix contains a wetting agent that helps keep the surface from crusting. Even the ProMix forms a crust if the pots are allowed to dry out, but re-wetting is easier than with other brands. I find that re-wetting is easier if you spray the surface with a fine mist. Spraying is generally preferable to pouring water, since a stream of water can dislodge fine seeds and send them over the edge-- between the peat block and the pot wall. My experience with storing it-- if the compressed bale is stored, or frozen, for any length of time, it will lose its "loft". It won't fluff up nicely when water is added, like it is supposed to. So my advice is to either use it up before winter, or "decant" it into smaller bags so it can be stored de-compressed and de-lumped, if that makes sense. Doing this by hand it tedious-- sometimes I hire the kid next door to crumble it into smaller bags. swontgirl-- bug eggs? I wouldn't worry. This stuff is completely sterile. Greenhouse growers wouldn't touch it otherwise.

speaking of expensive but interesting looking potting soils, this is also available near me. http://urbanrootstampa.com/store/roots-organics-potting-soil-15-cf/dp/441 I'm not one for shelling out that kind of cash for 2 buckets worth of soil, but deep down I kinda wanna get a bag, and either incorporate it into the mix for all the wonderful stuff it claims to contain, or maybe do a side by side. all I know is I have 40 seedlings that I might wanna get out of plastic cups and into bigger pots soon. so I need to come up with a plan quick. I kinda like the idea of mixing pro mix with pine fines. but if I'm gonna do that, I might as well save even more money and do the 511. the issue is I'm taking 15 credits of engineering classes, and working 30 hrs per week, and trying to fit judo back in there when my most recent injury clears up. time to mix 200 gallons worth of soil is hard to come by.