Pour the dampened peat moss or shredded pine bark and perlite or vermiculite in a rough pile.Follow these steps in mixing the ingredients: The night before, spread the dry peat out and sprinkle with just enough water to dampen it, or dampen in the bag. The peat mixes with the other ingredients more easily if it is moist – not soaking wet. This “peatlite” mix is excellent for starting seeds and growing seedlings to transplant size. 3 ounces complete fertilizer as 8-8-8 or 12-12-12.6 ounces dolomitic limestone or ground limestone.1/2 bushel coarse sphagnum peat moss or shredded pine bark.1/2 bushel horticultural perlite, vermiculite, calcined clay, or humus. ![]() The following soilless mix can be prepared at home if the ingredients are available in a local nursery or through a catalog. These mixes are economical when used carefully. Soilless mixes are more expensive than the home mix but can be used right from the bag without pasteurization. Premixed, soilless material can be bought in nurseries and stores. After cooling, the soil is ready for planting. Keep the soil at this temperature for at least 1 hour or until a potato imbedded in the soil is baked. This is easily done by placing the soil mix in a shallow metal pan, covering the pan tightly with aluminum foil and heating the soil to 160° in an oven. ![]() The mix must be pasteurized to kill harmful fungi,bacteria, weed seeds and nematodes which it may contain. Anyone having clay loam should use one part soil to two parts sand or vermiculite and one part peat. To prepare a mix of this type combine by volume one part sandy loam with one part sand or vermiculite plus one part Michigan or Canadian sphagnum peat. Use of a loose, fertile, disease-free soil mix is a basic key to success. ![]() And, plant nurseries are often reluctant to offer varieties which have not been given widespread publicity. Commercial plant growers cannot be expected to grow all of the hundreds of varieties offered by seedhouses. Growing your own plants may be the only way to obtain a new or special variety you want. At least 4 to 8 weeks can be cut from the time required between planting and harvesting or of getting effective landscape color by setting vigorous transplants rather than seeds into the garden. Starting transplants from seeds in your home is a good way to get a head start on the growing season. Roberts, Vegetable Specialist (retired), Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas Janne, Extension Landscape Horticulturist (deceased), and Dr.
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