Which Potting Medium is Best for Starting Tomato Seeds?

Choosing a potting medium wisely is an important step to take when growing tomatoes from seeds. The potting medium you select will be home to your tomato seedlings while they sprout and during their first few weeks of life.

A potting medium’s main jobs are to get the seeds to sprout and to keep new plants disease-free. There are three kinds to choose from: garden soil, potting soil, and potting mix.

Garden Soil
When it comes to starting tomato seeds, garden soil (dug up from your outdoor patch) has three drawbacks: extra seeds, texture, and undesirable organisms.

First, garden soil is full of weed seeds. Good sprouting conditions mean weed seeds will compete with tomato seeds for space, light, nutrients, and water. Moreover, garden soil’s texture is heavy. It compacts easily in small containers, which prevents good circulation and can choke seedlings. Worst of all, garden soil is crammed with bacteria and fungi, which are the main culprits in damping off disease. Damping off has claimed many tomato crops as soon as they sprout – or even before, by killing off the seeds.

The best thing that can be said about garden soil as a seed starting medium is that it’s free.

Potting Soil
Check labels carefully when shopping for potting mediums at your local nursery or home improvement center. Note some are labeled “potting soil” and others are “potting mix” – a subtle difference on packaging, but a huge difference in content. In general, potting soil is heavier than potting mix. Content listings reveal additives like clay, sand, and compost. While these combinations are excellent for established plants, they are a less helpful environment for seeds and newly-sprouted seedlings. When potting soil compresses with planting and watering, there are fewer air pockets, which make it harder for seeds to sprout.

In addition, most potting soils have a higher percentage of fertilizer than potting mixes. Tomato seedlings don’t need to be overfed. They acquire their initial nutrients from the seed. In fact, too many nutrients for brand-new seedlings can cause them to grow too tall and thin too fast.

Potting Mix
Potting mix is the best choice for starting tomato seeds. It is sterile, lightweight, holds water, and is low in fertilizer. Purchase commercially-prepared potting mix or make your own. A good prepared potting mix contains ingredients like sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite. Sphagnum peat moss has anti-fungal properties that help keep seeds and seedlings disease-free. Vermiculite and perlite provide air pockets to keep the mixture light and allow circulation, while still retaining moisture.

Whichever potting medium you choose, prepare it before planting seeds by adding warm water and stirring until the mixture is evenly damp. Press it lightly into your seed starting containers, plant tomato seeds, and get ready for a wonderful tomato crop.

About the Author
Kathy Widenhouse is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises and owner of Tomato Dirt (www.tomatodirt.com), a leading source for information on growing tomatoes and using them.

Add Tomatillos to your Home Vegetable Garden

They are in the same family as the tomato and closely related to the cape gooseberry. They have the shape of a sphere and produce a green (sometimes green-purple) fruit and tomatillos are readily used in Mexican cuisine. Believe it or not they are easier to grow than you think and can be added to virtually anyone’s home vegetable garden. Just keep in mind that in order to have successful tomatillos in your home vegetable garden, you must grow at least two plants. Two or more grown close to each other will ensure proper pollination.

Because they are in the same family as tomatoes, and if you have grown tomatoes before, the learning curve to grow tomatillos in your home vegetable garden will be small. Just like with tomatoes, you can start your seeds indoors about 7 weeks prior to the end range of your frost area as noted by the USDA frost zone map. For example in my area, zone 6, the range is March 30 to April 30. I will start 7 weeks from April 30.

When planting your seeds indoors make sure the seed does not exceed ¼” in depth. The seeds are fairly small and if you put too much soil on top of them they may not generate the energy needed to push through. You can expect your seeds to germinate anywhere from 7 to 15 days. Using a humidity dome, cold frame etc, will definitely speed things up.

Like tomatoes, tomatillos like the soil to be a bit more acidic, so try and get the pH range of your soil in the 6.0 to 7.0 area. Now would be a good time to invest in a pH soil tester if have not done so already. Tomatillos grow best when the temperature of the soil is around eighty degrees Fahrenheit. You can help warm the soil up by putting down a clear plastic tarp over the area and letting the sun do the rest of the work.

When the day finally comes to move your tomatillos to the outdoors make sure you give them plenty of space. As a rule of thumb, stick with 3 feet from one plant to the next. This will give the plant and their roots plenty of room to grow, but at the same time be close enough for pollination purposes.

Make sure the plants are in an area that receives full sun and don’t forget to give them a moderate watering. Every other day should suffice, unless you are experiencing periods of extreme heat. Then give them a daily watering, first thing in the morning just as the sun is rising.

You will know it is time to pick a tomatillo because the outer layer, called the husk, will start to turn brown and/or split. Just use a pair of garden scissors to snip them off.

For you advanced home vegetable gardeners out there who practice in crop rotations and companion plantings avoid following eggplants, potatoes,tomatoes and peppers in a rotation and stay away from pole beans, dill, fennel and potatoes in your companion plan.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, who operates the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook and the widely popular Seeds of the Month Club.

Think Before You Spray

Too many times when we have a pest invasion in our garden, we reach for the chemicals. It’s an immediate reaction; I mean how can you not? The bugs often invade fast, and it’s the panic that gets you….back in the day that was my reaction too. Not now.

Before you spray, do your research. Despite what most of the chemical pesticide, insecticide (etc.) companies tell you, it’s not the only answer. Over the years I have found sure fire ways that work just as well (maybe a little more effort is involved) and you don’t have to worry about chemicals on your crops. I have quite a few animals, and between gardening and them, I have been able to banish most chemicals from my property. I worry most about my 4 dogs, and if you have dogs yourself, read up on the chemicals you use; it is scary how most chemicals used just on lawns raise the lymphoma rate in dogs by 50%. Frightening, right?

If you look to your organic remedies, even some of those aren’t safe for you to handle. That makes me uncomfortable. If it’s not safe for me to handle, I don’t want to spray it in my yard for my critters to come in contact with, no way. Like I said though, there are other options!

Aphids for examples, regular spraying with a “weak” soap water solution will kill them in no time (2 tablespoons per gallon, but I use a little stronger solution). I prefer to use Dr. Bronner’s organic, free trade soap in peppermint or orange. This same mixture also works great on spider mites, which are prolific during the summer here (zone 9). It may have been made for people, but works great for the solution as well….not to mention it smells wonderful, and now worries about the mist….it’s all safe!

Fungus gnats? Put out a bowl filled with apple cider vinegar mixed with a tiny bit of soap, or left over beer. They are attracted to fermentation/decomposition, and they drown in either solution. I use both in my home greenhouse. It will not wipe them out immediately, but much better than worrying about what is going to contaminate your food. Even better set a trap for them, they are attracted to wheat which acts as a good decoy plant.

A great natural preventative is planting garlic (or a lot of other things in the onion family). I’ve planted it among a lot of different crops, and it seems to deter/greatly reduce the pests. For every rule there an exception though! We get black aphids during the cold weather which seem completely happy eating ANYTHING in the onion family.

Just remember, think before you spray! With a little research, and a little extra effort you can ban the toxic chemicals forever! Good luck and happy gardening!

About the Author
Megan McDonald is a garden blog writer for Heirloom Garden Girl. Megan’s garden specialties are tomatoes, peppers, heirlooms and organics. She is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, who operates the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook and the widely popular Seeds of the Month Club.

What kind of Hydroponic System do you have?

Ask six different hydroponic gardeners what type of hydroponic system they use to grow their plants and you will likely get six different answers. It seems there are countless systems out there, because the world of hydroponics has a lingo of its own. You may hear someone say, “I use an ebb and flow, flood and drain sub-irrigation system.” What the heck is that? You might wonder.

Making sense of it all is not as daunting a task as it seems. Basically, hydroponic gardening can be broken into two main categories; Solution Culture Systems and Medium Culture Systems.

As you might have guessed, a Solution Culture System is one that grows plants in a liquid solution with no solid medium to hold its roots. There are three main subsets of a solution culture system. They are; Static Solution - which grows plants in a liquid solution, usually in a jar or bucket, in which the solution is not aerated. Continuous Flow Solution – in which the roots of the plant are continuously sitting in a flow of liquid solution, where a pump creates the continuous flow. Aeroponics – a system that mists fine droplets of nutrients to the roots in a continuous and discontinuous fashion.

As you may have also guessed, a Medium Culture System is one that grows plants using a solid grow medium for its roots. The subsets of this type of system are usually named for whatever type of medium they are. For example; rockwool, clay, coir, perlite, sand, vermiculite, etc… The water in these types of systems is usually in the form of a sub-irrigation or top irrigation system.
For those of you that haven’t tried growing hydroponically, because making sense of it all seems impossible, give it a try. Hydroponic gardening is an easy, fun and very low maintenance form of gardening.

About the Author
Michele Daniels of Grow Home Organics, distributor of organic nutrient amendment and growth enhancers for plants, is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, who operates the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook and the widely popular Seeds of the Month Club.

Soil Basics

Everyone knows plants need sun and water, but most people overlook the importance of a good soil base. New gardeners assume that they can simply bury seed in soil, water it, and give it plenty of light and it will grow. To a certain point, it is true that seed will grow in any soil. Plants are resilient and they often find a way to adjust to the environment in which they are planted.

It is not even uncommon for bulbs—whether they are flower or onions bulbs—to grow without water sun or soil. Many gardeners can testify to the strange miracle they find when sifting through a box of onion bulbs and stumbling across one that eagerly began to send a tender shoot out into the world without any encouragement.

At the same time, few things are more frustrating than tending to a garden that should be in full stride only to reap no fruits. Without a careful assessment of the situation, new gardeners often overwater their plants, causing further damage. The first culprit to check should always be the soil.

When a tomato bush will not produce fruit or a flower will not bud, it is almost always because the soil they live in lacks important nutrients for their growth. Well-balanced soil has a mixture of primary, secondary and tertiary nutrients (or macro and micronutrients). The most important three are nitrogen phosphorus and potassium.

Sandy soils tend to lack these nutrients and must be fertilized for optimum plant growth conditions. Clay soils tend to be rich in these nutrients, though plants may struggle with nutrition delivery if the soil is too compact. A gardener must determine whether the soil is sandy or compact.

Sandy soil should be mixed with enough firm garden soil to shore it up and give plant roots something to bite into. During this process the gardener can make sure to till a nutrient fortified fertilizer into the mix. Clay requires the opposite treatment.

Clays are more difficult to prop up for the best gardening results. Because they have high levels of primary nutrients and settle compactly, clays are often acidic in nature. Higher acidity is good for growing blueberries and nondeciduous plants, but most garden-variety vegetables need a pH neutral soil.

The benefit to laboring for a well-balanced soil is higher fruit production. There are thirteen important soil nutrients. Most naturally occur in soil as organic matter decomposes and redistributes into the ground, but many gardeners need a boost on one or more of these nutrients based on geographic location. When all three primary nutrients are available for plant growth, gardeners will be pleasantly surprised with the fruit heavy branches their garden plants produce. In a perfectly blended soil, less work by the gardeners hand will still be rewarded with more produce.

About the Author
Jody Sperling is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, who operates the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook and the widely popular Seeds of the Month Club.