For those seeds expected to germinate in a week or two I use a mix of half peat and half vermiculite. I keep this mixed and moistened at all times, not moist enough to be able to squeeze any water out. I start most of my seeds in four inch (used)nursery containers. I fill the pot with mix and press it down firmly. it will then be about 5/8 inch down from the top. I TRY and spread the seeds evenly up to about 25 for most seeds. Now the pot is set into about 3 inches of slightly warm water in the sink. When the top of the soil glistens with moisture wicked up, I take it out of the sink and cover the pot with clear cling plastic wrap, securing it with a rubber band. I put the pot on a 70 degree mat and will not have to water again until germination is apparent and the plastic is removed. There will be variations of this routine dictated by the seed variety being planted, some requiring light and some requiring dark. If a seed requires stratifying or scarifying it is a waste of time and money not to provide it. Al

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.

Link to several best-mix discussions here Most frequently recommended is ProMix, least favorite often mentioned is Jiffy, and one used by many is MG (the low-dose, slo-release ferts in it cause minimal problems). As long as it is a soil-less mix. We use ProMix BX exclusively in the greenhouse for all our germination and growing. Metro Mix 360 is another good one if you can get it. The need for a special "seed-starting" mix is highly debatable. Dave

I know you can start cuttings in a variety of mediums and combination of mediums but I'd like something quick and easy and it seems like seed starting mix would be just the thing. I know a drawback would be the cost because seed starting mix is more expensive but since I do just a few cost isn't an issue. Quick and easy is what I'm looking for. I know I have to moisten the seed starting mix but that's true of everything. Thanks, Ginny