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Growing Tomatoes

Repotting tomato seedlings - use regular potting mix or orchid mix?

9 years ago

Hi All - I am going to repot some tomato seedlings shortly - I am going to be putting my pepper seeds in MG orchid mix - I can't remember if tomatoes do well in this mix or if they should go into a regular MG seed mix. Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks!

Comments (10)

digdirt2
9 years ago
Why are you using the Orchid Mix? It is more expensive and very coarse.

If you are going to use MG products then both peppers and tomatoes do okay in regular MG Potting Mix (not the MG Seed Starting mix and not the MG Garden Soil Mix).

Dave
Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
9 years ago
Agree, entirely.

Seysonn
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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.
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fireduck
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have studied growing in containers quite a bit...and there is a lot of info available under the "container" section, and elsewhere. Some of the contributions from certain gardeners is very good. One of the primary downfalls of many container mixes is: they do not drain well because of the size of medium used in the mix (over-simplification). Have you ever noticed the bottom 2 inches of your pots loads up with "muck"? There are a couple of reasons for that. I actually "custom" mix to eliminate/reduce this common problem (in addition to using a wick). As stated above...you can really empty your bank account buying supplies if you are not careful. Oftentimes, I buy inexpensive (larger quantity) bags of cactus mix to supplement my other ingredients. I am not sure what your ideas/purposes are...but it is a good thing to pay attention to what you are using for a soil mix. It can make or break your whole planting experience. Some folks plant in crap...and then they spend a small fortune on seeds, plants, fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, etc....and still fail. I do not mean to rant...but rather help some folks avoid trouble and disappointment. With good intentions...I see people put rocks in the bottom of their containers, use "moisture control" mixes, add native soil to the mix, and do all kinds of stuff that shoot themselves in the foot. Kind of sad. goodluck, and keep asking... PS If you are just temporarily re-potting to a larger pot prior to garden plantout...just save yourself some money/time and use "regular" MG potting mix or like product. Not sure what your plan is. haha
jennieboyer
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks everyone

@fireduck - I am potting up from starter cells to bigger pots. These plants will eventually go in the ground.

@digdirt - a year or two ago, I had a problem with my pepper plants getting stunted. Someone on the growing from seeds forum recommended I use MG orchid mix. I did, and my plants exploded. I think the recommendation was related to better drainage and looser soil?

I just couldn't remember if I did my tomatoes in the same. It sounds like MG potting mix it is.....
suncitylinda
9 years ago
I've been using MG Moisture control in my container tomatoes for several years have not noticed a hole in my foot yet =) As to the orchid mix, yikes, pretty costly. I do purchase bags of bark fines and often add to my potting mix for seedling pot up to improve drainage.
Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
9 years ago
.As Dave said any potting mix (soil less) is fine for repotting. Some might hold too much moisture though. There are better potting mixes like kellogg's Fafard, Promix. But these are side issues. Orchid mix is just some fancy expensive coarse pine bark base..

Seysonn
lartomato
9 years ago
Digdirt-----why not mg seed starting mix?

LAR
barrie2m_(6a, central PA)
9 years ago
I used ProMix seed starting mix many years ago to start seeds and saw no benefit over regular ProMix. Nowadays I use only PromMix BX with Mycorise and Biofungicide for everything. Occasionally when potting up I'll add a bit of Agrigel to help with water retention (less watering needed) and some additional fertilizer.

Often for those with drainage issues (usually due to "beercup conversion pots") just add perlite to the media. I'd recommend sticking with planting packs or pots and most drainage issues will be resolved.
digdirt2
9 years ago
why not mg seed starting mix?

Not for transplanting into (potting up). It's for seed starting only. Too fine textured and no nutrients for growing on.

Jennie - look into 5-1-1 for your peppers rather than Orchid Mix. Better mix and much less expensive. Actually that is about all Orchid Mix is - a form of 5-1-1 in an expensive bag.

Dave
Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
9 years ago
The only thing that I thing makes a difference when it comes to starting/germinating seeds, if the structure. In a finer soil seeds will have a better contact AND the soil won't dry up quickly. I have been using the same potting mix for sowing as I do for re potting. . That is the reason , I think, commercial starter mix is made of : PEAT MOSS, and VERMICULITE . and maybe some fine perlite. Vermiculite absorbs a lot of water and increase in volume. I dont like that at all. I use DE. This one absorbs water but wont fall apart or break down.

Seysonn

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