Since I use a lot of Organic potting soil ( a pallat of 50 bags) from our local ACE supplier)for growing lilies in crates, I use it for the few seeds I start! I'm fortunate in that I have local growers who will start things for me at reasonable prices and with good quality. This is great for me because I don't have a hoophouse or greenhouse. I do "pot up" my lisianthus and keep them in my barn (has good light) in the mini greenhouses until I can plant them out.

Wendy

It's seems quiet on this forum lately.... wish I had a great idea for you. One of those portable electric cement mixers would work great - you could put your trays right under it, tilt it and just get out what you needed. I've wondered how it would work to poke holes in the bag of ProMix and submerse the whole bag in water and let it soak. I've got 2 little kiddos who like to play in the dirt - and to be able to add water, well, that's just icing on the cake for them.
Maybe someone will have an epiphany and share!

Thanks, Wendy and Blueberryhills (can I call you BBH?). It was very nice of you to share your thoughts with me.

BBH I've thought about soaking the Pro-Mix bags in water too. Those bags are already stuffed pretty tight, and I wonder if the mix would swell when it got wet. Could have a mix-plosion. Might be fun.

Another idea you made me think of is kids. I have two grandsons, 2 and 4, and I'll bet they would love to mix up some dirt and water for grandpa, at least for a while. I suspect that I would end up with pretty much the same result as a mix-plosion.

Anyway, I went ahead and picked up another bag of Pro-Mix for this year, since I was in the distributor's neighborhood and it's ninety miles away and I don't get there often.

If anyone has other thoughts to share, I'd still like to hear them. There's always next year, though at my age, that doesn't ring quite as true as it used to.

It is a bit sad to see the decline of this forum, for whatever reason. This used to be a happening place. Even during the busy season, there were lots of posts about who was growing this and selling that. There are still lots of great people here, though, and I always look forward to finding a new gem every time I come.

Thanks to all who are still lending a helping hand.

ThinMan

ThinMan, I'm with you, a "mix-plosion" sounds fun. It would certainly be a memory your grandchildren would cherish! My girls are 9, and when it comes to flower gardening, some things will hold their attention, occasionally even long enough to get a task completed. They are really looking forward to selling at market again this summer.
I digress....
Back to the potting mix, it occurred to me yesterday that a mixer attachment for a drill might would work wonderfully. I haven't actually tried it yet, but the day is not over...

BBH

I don't wet the mix before putting it in the trays, I put it in dry and then bottom water to moisten it. I use Fafard seed starting mix which is loosely packed and fluffy. I mostly use 100 and 200 cell plug trays to start things, so I fill the plug trays with mix and set them in a container of water. They absorb the water in about 15-30 minutes and are ready to go.
Kirk

I tried ProMix for the first time this year. I was using Miracle Grow potting mix, which I'm trying to get away from. I have mixed opinions on the ProMix. On one hand I love the texture and consistency, and the fact that its not full of little sticks, etc.

However, I find it time consuming also to dampen and mix it. And I never seem to be able to mix enough at one time. Your thoughts of immersing the whole bag gave me an idea. I don't think it would work with the stuff still in the bag, but maybe if I just got a bigger container (I'm thinking bath tub size, lol!) I could mix up bigger batches. Of course, since I start my seeds in the kitchen, that might be a problem!

Ah, to have a heated greenhouse or at least a heated potting shed to work in!

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, ThinMan.
:)
Dee

Connie (BBH) - I think that's a great idea about using the drill mixer. I am definitely going to try that on my next batch. I'll let you know how it works. I wonder what would happen if I just stuck the mixer in the bag of compressed dry mix and tried breaking it up before wetting it. I may try that too - outside.

Kirk - Thanks for posting. Your way, using a dry loose mix, sounds like the way to go. I have seen Fafard mentioned somewhere else, so I'll have to look into it and see if I can find a distributor nearby.

Dee - How about using a wheelbarrow to mix a bigger batch? Speaking of that, we lost a lot of snow here this week, so I think I can get at my wheelbarrow now. I have quite a few things (for me) scheduled to get sowed the last week of the month, so I think I'll give it a try then. It occurs to me that wheelbarrows and kitchens might not go together very well, so maybe that's not such a good idea for you.

Speaking of a warm place to work in, I was really tickled to be able to sow seeds in this little structure that I built last fall.

{{gwi:620380}}

It's not heated, but it was awfully warm in there yesterday. Right now, it's 28 F outside and 85 F in the greenhouse, which feels pretty much like heaven to me about now.

I have a little blog on building my greenhouse, if anyone would like to see it. Go the the link below and then scroll down to the section on building it.

Thanks, all.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Little Greenhouse

I, too, am having greenhouse envy. I also would have been jealous of the little hand seeder in the pic. But I got mine in the mail yesterday, that is a NIFTY little gadget!!
Enjoyed the blog! Thanks for sharing. I could also be envious of the snow, but we get it so rarely that just a dusting shuts everything down, crazy huh!

If you transfer the pro-mix to one of those big rubbermaid storage containers (with lid), then it's easy to use a 3-tine claw or hand cultivator tool to break up clumps. If you want to work with pre-moistened mix then add water, put the lid on, let it soak and then mix with the claw again. A short handled transplant spade or shovel works well to bring the bottom mix up to the top.

Having said all that, I use the same method as Kirk, seeding (or transplanting) dry and then soaking. I also always mix in a fair amount of fine vermiculite to my seedling mix.

Hey Pudge, I like your idea of a big Rubbermaid container for mixing. I've been using 5 gallon buckets because I have so many of them, but they are too narrow for easy mixing.

I'm not locked into the idea of having the mix pre-moistened, but it does seem to make the clumps break up more easily. Still, I think it would be easier to fill the trays with dry mix, so I may try breaking up the Pro-Mix dry and see how that goes.

Thanks for your help.

ThinMan

"...It occurs to me that wheelbarrows and kitchens might not go together very well, so maybe that's not such a good idea for you..."

LOL, very true. I think I remember, ThinMan, that you posted when your finished your greenhouse. It's off an entrance to/from your house, is it not? Very nice!

Well, I was at the garden center today for more potting mix. I had the opportunity to buy either the usual Miracle Gro or the ProMix... and I got the ProMix! While at first I didn't like the time it took to use, I've really come to like it, so I'll just take the time. It's not that bad, I guess, and I really like Pudge's idea of a big rubbermaid-type container. Kind of a "doh!" moment though. Why didn't I think of that?

:)
Dee

Thinman,
Could you please tell me how you use the 5 gallon buckets in your greenhouse to heat? Or where I can find that info? What a great idea right now I'm using a propane heater. As for starting mix I have done it all. I use to make my own then gave that up and now by a really good water retentive potting soil, I believe it's also organic. I've used it for two years now and works great, it comes out of the bag moist. I'm also trying jiffy pellets for my perennials, my Home Depot has them for the same price as Harris.

Hi, All Bout Flowers. I'm trying to use the water-filled buckets to store up a little solar energy during the day so it can be released at night. I think the best I can hope for is to keep the night-time temps above freezing, and I don't know if even that is happening, as I haven't been monitoring any temps in the middle of the night yet. I just now remembered that I have a digital thermometer that records max. and min. temps so I'll be putting that out there tonight to see what I can see.

Thank you very much for writing.

Dee, you are exactly right about my greenhouse. Good memory!

ThinMan

All Bout Flowers, is there an advantage of using the jiffy pellets over starter mix? and why just the perennials? sorry if this is a goofy question...

Using the mixer attachment for the drill was not the greatest. A lot of spinning and moving up and down and around and around produced not much mixing. With or without water added, it was very slow going and didn't break the chunks up very well.

My mixer has done a good job on mortar for tile work, but apparently wasn't intended for this kind of stuff. Oh well, it was worth a try.

ThinMan

Hi Blueberry Hills,
Jiffy Pellets are new to me this year. I am trying to reduce and re-use also I'm getting tired in my old age and don't want to wash out tray packs. I have at least 100 lupine in the greenhouse up already and putting out their true leaves. I am just doing perennials because the weather has been too cold and unpredictable to start any annuals. If any one has had experience with Juffy Pellets please let me know. So far so good.

ThinMan, bummer about the mixer. I was hoping that it would work like a charm!!

Thank you all bout flowers. This is a new venture for my family, we need all the help we can get. This forum has been a great source of information.
The lady who owns the local nursery suggested that perennials needed a more coarse mix than the pro mix. I think she mixes soil conditioner with her starter mix for perennials. I just wondered what the difference was.

Hi guys
didn't read thru all the messages but here's what I use for seed starting. Either Sunshine Plug Mix #5 or Fafard Super Fine Germinating Mix. I use ProMix BX for growing Lilies and other bulbs in crates. Metro Mix 200 is good for stuff that needs bumping up, like Lissies. Like goodscents, put the mix in dry in the cell trays and either bottom soak or dampen with the mist nozzle on a hose sprayer and leave overnight before sowing seed.

Reason I haven't been around much, is that I'm busy with the business. It's that time of the year and people have got things to do. Like I just finished planting 1400 Lissies and I'm so way behind in my summer seed sowing schedule that it makes my head spin. Got stuff to do outside and don't have time, (cept real late at night) to sit in front of the pc and surf and socialize.
Cheers Kim
Billabong Fresh Flower Farm

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me out with this question, Kim. Your very specific info is just the kind of thing I was hoping to learn. Some year I will try lissies, but not until I get way better at this stuff.

Good luck on catching up with your sowing and other work. The last frost date is still two months away up here, and patches of snow still abound.

Thanks again, everyone.

ThinMan