Al brings up a very important point that I'll repeat yet again. Turn OFF the heat once the seeds have germinated! Not only will you reduce the chances of disease, but your seedlings will be stockier (a good thing) and sturdier. I always germinate my seeds in a shallow seed flat and transplant from that into waiting containers, usually cell packs of some kind. The seed flats are heated but the transplants are not. I think your plan sounds like a good one.

Walmart won't sell busted bags for less money, at least around here. I saw a bunch of big bags broken open this spring and asked about them, and was told they send them back to be rebagged and then resold. :o( Since I really only use up 2 big bags with all my wintersowing, I just bite the bullet and get them whenever I can. I guess my time is worth something too.

I went back to the Premier website and saw that they actually have several different sizes and varieties of the ProMix both in compressed bales and loose. I'm thinking that the ones people are getting at Home Depot for $10-$20 must be the smaller bales. Most of the ones I saw for sale online were more like $30-$40. They are headquartered in Canada but they have a neat page on the website where is shows distributors and even where the peat bogs are. I may have to contact them to ask about other suppliers because all the sources listed around here are Home Depots, and I haven't been able to find any of their products there so far. I know I could probably use one of the cheaper mixes or make my own, but this is my first year winter sowing and I want it to go well. I'm trying to limit the number of variables of things that could go wrong by getting a mix that everyone seemingly praises. I have started seeds indoors before with Jiffy Mix and it was not pleasant. It would not wet easily and dried out very quickly. It's just frustrating that everyone recommends the Pro-mix, yet I can't seem to find it... and I definitely don't live out in the boonies :) Here is a link that might be useful: Premier Locations

That helps, Kat! :-) The soil I was using for the demo at the swap was Sunshine Mix #1. Yeah, that's what the neighborhood cats are using as their own private porta-potty! (I'm putting the lid on the container over night now! When I'm potting things up, I don't like it when I grab a handful of soil--and it goes squish in my hand!) I never heard of Fafard until you posted it, so I don't know anything about it! When I worked at Center Greenhouse (retail location closed in '96) I think it was Premier Pro-Mix that we used for everything--which was mostly potting up and repotting house plants for the customers. I don't remember which mix it was (all the good ones have multiple mixes), but it would have been their most basic "all purpose" or "basic potting mix" one! Any good all purpose mix by Premier should work for you. That said, I don't ever, anymore, use a mix with vermiculite in it! Any time I get within ten feet of vermiculite, I overwater everything--and it dies! So if you decide to get a mix with vermiculite in it, remember that vermiculite holds a LOT of water, and be careful with your watering until you're used to it! I've posted this before, but I use Sunshine mix for everything--in pots! I use Sunshine #1. Number 1 and Number 2 are the same thing, but #1 has a "starter" shot of fertilizer in it--and it's the same price as #2! (at least at Paulino's!) Here's a page that shows you the ingredients for the different Sunshine Mixes. Paulino's carries a bunch of the different mixes, #1 and #2 are about $34 a bale--if I remember right! (I get the Little Olde Lady discount now, so I paid less than that!) Wait! Alright, I'm thinking in bales! Maybe you're not!!! If you want to save some money, I seriously recommend you buy whatever you decide upon in bales! The biggest bale potting soils come in is 3.8 cubic feet--that's about the same size as a big bale of peat moss! The bales are compressed, and 3.8 cubic feet of compressed soil is MUCH more than 3.8 cubic feet of loose packaged soil in a bag! At least twice as much--and it seems to me even more, tho I've certainly never taken the time to measure it! But a bale just goes on and on and on! (I use about a bale a year--most years! Got kinda carried away at this year's Spring Swap!) It keeps forever, and what you don't use one year, you use the next! Mine is outside by the side of the house--you were walking past it coming and going at the swap! In winter you just need to be sure to bring some inside in time for it to thaw and warm up before you use it! But for price comparisons, compressed soil and loose soil is like apples and oranges! Bottom line is you're going to pay a lot more for whatever you buy if you get it in bags rather than bales! You're closest to Tagawa, and they're a good company--they do a lot of their own growing--so I checked their site to see what I could see! They don't list specific products, but I found a picture of a bale of Sunshine Mix, so I assume they keep the stuff on hand! Having used both the Premier, and the Sunshine, for all practical purposes, they're the same thing--at least the one we used back in the 90's! I couldn't find a link to the Premier Horticulture site, but from what I found on other sites selling Pro Mix, I'm finding "other stuff" in some of their mixes, for instance one of them has polymers in it--which, like vermiculite, would have ME overwatering everything! Be sure you check the ingredients of whatever you buy so you can decide if that's what you want--and so you know for sure what you're getting! (Can't do that with MiracleGro--they don't want you to know what's in the bag--cause they don't know themselves what's in it from week to week!) Sunshine #1 (& #2) is just Canadian sphagnum peat, perlite and some dolomitic lime to help neutralize the acidity of the peat--with some nutrients in #1! A very simple and basic mix! Any good mix should have at least those first two ingredients (and probably the lime), and then there are other things added to different brands and mixes. My brother in Illinois uses Ball Mix, don't know which mix, but, again, for all practical purposes it's the same as Sunshine #1! (I've never seen Ball Mix out here!) So, Tagawa appears to carry Sunshine, Paulino's definitely carries Sunshine, and I was wondering what Kelly/Timberline carried, and he lists Black Gold on his site--which is also made by Sun Gro--who makes Sunshine Mix! The only thing I could find on his site was bags, but I can' imagine he doesn't carry a basic potting mix in bales too! The Black Gold mixes that I looked up did have other stuff in 'em--like earthworm castings! I'm sure the Black Gold mixes are good--was it Digit--or David--who was saying he liked them a lot? Go to Timberline's site if you want to check out the ingredients more! I didn't stop to look at who carries the Pro Mix, but I did see that there were a whole list of places, so if you decide on that, you should be able to easily find it. (Bonnie, I think you just didn't scroll down far enough on that site.) You asked about EKO, and I believe they have good products, but if they make a potting soil, I'm not familiar with it! The product you find most often (all over the place) is EKO Compost, and it's used as a soil amendment outside. I know they also have some kind of an Outdoor Planter Mix, but I doubt that that would be appropriate for small pots or for starting things in, a/k/a winter sowing. Ok! A whole bunch of stuff there--and I'm not real sure it's in any coherent order! I'm doing other things too as I type this! If I raised more questions than I answered, say so! About the Hyponex! Yeah, it's like concrete when you're carrying it around--or like lead--but do you remember the samples where I had added water to the Sunshine mix and to the same amount of Hyponex the night before the swap, and the Sunshine mix was all nice and light and fluffy, and the Hyponex was just some "stuff" standing in water--and none of the water had soaked in 'cause there was nothing for it to soak into? That's the "soup" I'm referring to! I kept what was left in the bag for "future reference," but I dumped the soup and the other samples into my veggie garden. Sure hope I didn't wreck my Heavy Clay with it!!! ;-) Gotta go! Let us know what you wind up getting--and how you like it. Skybird