I am not a gardener so please forgive my ignorance! During lockdown I was browsing the seeds for sale category and bought a couple of packets. Apparently sewing them direct into the pot in potting mix isn't recommended but as I only have a dozen seeds in total it seems a pain to buy purpose made seeding mix. Can I start them off in cotton wool balls in egg cartons to be transferred when (if) they start sprouting, or am I doomed to failure?
articferrit,
Sep 1, 11:48am
you could use fine soil in the egg cartons as next best option and plant them later while still in the egg carton container, which you can cut into 12 seperate pieces to plant out. Are the plants not recommended for growing in pots? or dont they like having their roots disturbed when planting them out?
pauline999,
Sep 1, 12:23pm
I bought some 'mini stuffer' capsicum and some cosmos seeds. I have a tiny balcony so have to plant in pots. If the seed experiment fails, I will just buy potted colour ready grown from the garden centre, and a small tomato plant. Being in lockdown gave me strange ideas about becoming a gardener!
lythande1,
Sep 1, 12:57pm
Use what you like, we use our homemade compost.
blueviking,
Sep 1, 5:47pm
You could also sow them into used toilet rolls. Cut the bottom so you can fold them to hold the soil. Bigger than egg cartons.Then put them some where in the sun to germinate. then when they're bigger, just plant the whole thing into your pot.Potting mix is fine to grow most seeds.Log into the "get growing" magazine, where the co-author grows all her plants in pots.Ask her and she normally replies within a week.Good luck.
oh_hunnihunni,
Sep 1, 6:39pm
I grow mine in pots on my tiny balcony too, with varying degrees of success. I use seed raising mix (small bag from the supermarket) into egg cartons and nurse them in my kitchen on a tray till they are big enough to plant into bigger pots - egg carton and all.
pauline999,
Sep 1, 7:07pm
I like the toilet roll idea, thanks. I have just discovered that egg cartons are quite tough to pull apart into individul little 'pots'.
tegretol,
Sep 1, 7:49pm
New or used?
oh_hunnihunni,
Sep 1, 7:58pm
I cut them. With scissors.
oh_hunnihunni,
Sep 1, 8:01pm
Btw. seed raising mix, so long as you keep the plastic bag closed, doesn't go off. So it will do for the next lot of seeds. For successive crops. I recommend a small trough of lettuce. All year round.
alston,
Sep 2, 9:58am
I have never used seed mix in my life. Potting mix is just as good, as is soil if you can’t afford the potting mix. You need to be aware of when your plants need planting out or attention.
oh_hunnihunni,
Sep 2, 10:16am
The reason I use seed raising mix is it is available in small quantities.
lythande1,
Sep 2, 11:46am
We were about to start some seeds. Peas have been sown straight into garden and are up now. Tomatoes started themselves in compost bin, and are now in a wee decomposable pots.
harm_less,
Sep 2, 1:24pm
Seed raising mix usually has a fungicide included to protect the very tender root sprouts against 'damping off' which can cause them to rot off and die, before they immerge from the soil or soon after. If your compost is of good quality the good organisms in it will help in this respect but substandard or immature compost could be lethal to your seedlings.
Using cotton balls will provide moisture but no nutrients so the seedling will be reliant on its own reserves. A risky strategy if you don't plant out your seedlings into fertile soil quickly enough.
kryptonite21,
Oct 3, 5:50am
Seed raising mix also has less control release fert in it so once germination occurs the seedlings don't bolt. It's also screened to a smaller particle size which helps retain moisture as well as encouraging seedlings to come through uniformly. Be this as it may I still generally just use potting mix, either screened or with more compost fines added. As long as I transplant the seedlings in a timely fashion it generally works well enough.
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