I've never put my soil through the microwave, not sure why you are, so I can't say about that step. Also, I don't bury my seeds. Insead I poke a hole down into the soil with a pencil or bamboo skewer, about 1/4 inch and place the sprouted seed in, hopefully with the root heading downward, or at least not upwards. The medium has previously been wetted through bottom watering and being surrounded by damp soil is enough to keep things going.

I'll guess that your soil is too wet, the seed is already sprouting so it just needs moist soil- it is not large enough to use most of that water at this point. You may be compounding things by burying the seed, especially since you are tamping down the soil, making more work for both the root and the shoot to do their various jobs. You can always add more soil once things are up if you feel that it is too shallowly rooted. With peat based mixes it is better to not tamp and to bottom water, I think, to keep tiny air pockets in the medium. It could be different with the gritty mixes. Hope this helps! Cheers!

Many people heat their soil in an oven to "sterilize" it. I am not sure if microwaving it would do the same thing but it could also cause some changes to the soil that are not desirable. I usually do like sunnibel and simply poke a hole in the starter soil 1/8 to 1/4" deep and drop a seed in. I usually do 4-5 seeds per 3.5" container and then simply push a little soil over the tops of the seeds. It has worked well for me. I use MG Orchid Mix for my starters. About 5 days ago, I started three of my Super Hots. But I did it a bit different this year just to see if my new idea would work. I filled the 3.5" container nearly full, then i just dropped 4-5 seeds on top of the soil. Then I had some seed starter (peat) mix and placed a thin 1/4" layer over the seeds on top of the MG Orchid mix. I have yet to see any sprouts but I am not really expecting any for a few more days. It is really a simple system and I hope it works.
Bruce

Bruce and sunnibel:

Maybe that's my problem -- I might be overheating which releases plant toxins.

Anybody have an idea of how much DRY weight 2 lbs of moist potting medium is?

Maybe I shouldn't worry about sterilizing. It's usually because I use peat where the bag has been opened and sitting in my garage for a few months, so I try to be proactive and sterilize.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: sterilizing soil

This post was edited by woohooman on Sat, Feb 9, 13 at 18:33

Well, I don't worry about sterilizing but you will get some growers who swear that you are nuts if you don't. I think the type of soil that you use has a bearing on that too.

As for the dry weight of moist soil, it would depend on too many variety of soil itself to give you a realistic answer. What you could do is weigh out two pounds of wet soil, the spread out on a flat surface (maybe a tarp or plastic sheet), preferably near warm dry circulated air for a couple days or until it is completely dry, then reweigh it to get the dry weight.
Hope this helps and I hope you get it figured out. Here is my advice, don't over-think the job. Just buy some good starter soil (I use MG Orchid Mix), moisten it up, plant your seeds and wait for them to sprout. Adding a moisture dome and some heat would be a plus. This is similar to how the vast majority of growers do it.
Bruce

Bruce:

Yeah. I probably am overthinking it. It really is starting to perturb me. I guess it's part of my failures in the past(and present) that I feel I have to have the most "perfect" of conditions in my very IMPERFECT setup.

Btw, I didn't mean the actual DRY weight. I meant dry MEASURE. With soil being moist -- as in wrung out sponge. i.e., how many quarts of MOIST orchid mix equals 2 lbs?

Thanks

Kevin

P.S. C'mon GardenWeb! More feedback! There are more questions in my original post that need answering! ;) I'm being impatient -- it's only been a couple hours.

Alright Kevin, I'll chime in.
You can't equate dry/wet/moist measure (dry/wet/moist volume) to pounds with soil mixes because you will always have variation and compaction of the soil. Manufactures either state the pounds or they state the volume and usually put in a remark like "packed by volume some settling may occur" for legal reasons.
As far as it goes with sterilizing soil; I would not recommend it unless you have access to a laboratory to test for toxins after sterilization. Yes a lot of toxins can be produced by sterilization. When chemicals are heated chemical reactions occur and they may not be beneficial.
A lot of potting soil manufactures mix in a mycorrhizal inoculant; if you sterilize the soil you will kill the mycorrhizae. They also add it to coconut coir and it is one of the main reasons soil mixes grow plants so well.
The other thing is heating soil can change the PH of the soil by chemical reaction making the soil too alkaline or acidic.
"How come I like capsaicin so much" that's an easy one; we all do, it releases endorphins:)
I don't care how anyone else feels about MG but as for me and my opinion I will never buy it ever again. A few years ago I opened up a bag of MG and it was infested so I bought another bag from another store looked through a magnifier and guess what? that one was infested too. No thank you; for the price it's not worth it. They should have better quality control than that. Now I mix my own potting soil mainly for starting the plants out. I mix my own with coconut coir mixed with perlite and a mycorrhizal inoculant.
Vermiculite has a tendency to retain way too much water and in my experience leads to damping off killing the seedling before it even has a chance.
Bruce said it best "don't over-think the job"
Here is another one "Kill them with kindness"
It's easy to do when you love growing plants:-)

Eric

eric:

You're right. After my last post, I rethought my question--- weight to volume would be a tough one depending on the mass and weight of certain ingredients. .e.g. perlite has an enormous mass relative to it's weight.

As far as sterilizing, you're probably right regarding TOXINS, but I disagree in regards to mycorrhizae -- a plant does not NEED mycorrhizae to live. However, toxins can't be a good thing. And, if I've been overheating my media, I just may have been writing my seeds death sentences. In the future, if I have a fresh bag of soil, I'll nix the sterilization.

Kevin

I think maybe you are trying too hard to over-control everything. I have pepper volunteers come up in my garden midsummer... Certainly it is not sterile out there! Also my first seeds of this season (which are all fine) are in soil from last year.and it never crossed my mind to sterilize that soil, tho�gh the bag has been open for 12 months. Really, I think the role of various microorganisms is not understood when it comes to many life processes... A sterile environment is probably the most artifical one that you can create, rather than the healithest one. Try aiming for a soil that is like moist, cooked brownies, rather than heavy, wet batter if you keep trying with the peat soils.

Sunnibel:

You're right. Because of my past failures regarding damping off and poor germination, I'm trying to give the seeds the best chance at success. Much to my dismay, I might be trying TOO hard. In the past(when I knew much less), at least I had SOME sprouts. Damn you, Gardenweb and the rest of the internet! :)

Kevin

Have you used the "germination stations" which has the humidity dome, and the bottom heat mat. Works great with just moistened potting soil, and or vermiculite/perlite. They need warmth and humidity to germinate. My problem is starting them too early and it is still too cold to transfer them outside, with no grow lights on the inside.

I felt the same way with thyme. I can't grow it. Spent lots of seeds and plants and easily kill them off. I'm still trying though. This year, getting more of a gritty mix.

The way I do it (1st year grower)
Small container
Orchid mix
Put seed in hole 1/8" down
Cover hole lightly
Moisten soil
Put on heat mat with dome
Walk AWAY!!!!!

Lightly water as needed, every two days at most. I have started 100 plus seeds with 90% germination in 5-10 days. These are all hots, mostly super hots. I believe let "nature" take it's course. I tried babying my plants last year, results DEATH...

Just what I do and I am having good results IMO.

Bill

Yah, Sometimes I think Aphids and Damping Off Fungus get a bad rap on this list. 9 times out of ten, it is the grower who is killing their own plants and is just looking for a scape goat.

Kevin, 'tis a noble pursuit! I think maybe the problem then lies in knowing what gives the seeds the best chance of success. Which is understandable, we are human beings and tend to think like such. It's hard to think like a plant! A lot of time we think we know something just to find out it isn't the way we think it is at all. Like you were probably looking at your pots full of wet, compacted, sterile soil thinking it would work, it would be just like the natural conditions that pepper seedlings thrive under! But, no. :)

Real rich humus outside is teeming with life, tends to be drained of excess water fairly quickly, is light and loose, but not too much so, is exposed to sun (warmth, light, and UV to help keep microorganisms from overwhelming the seeds) and wind (also helps with excess water and microbes)... It is vibrant and dynamic.

And not least to remember, most plants use the shot gun approach to creating offspring, which is to say they count on sheer numbers to help get at least one good seed to one good area. We try to get each and every little seed to thrive, when they just might not. A good example of that is artichokes, where between the lower germination rate and the tendency to have 30-40% of seeds be genetically weak, you are lucky to have 50% of your seed become viable plants. (Except apparently when you take that into account and plant twice as many as you need. No, then they all thrive. Which is why I have 18 artichoke plants hogging my lighting setup.)

I don't know if any of that helps you wrap your head around things, but maybe it gave you a little entertainment at least! Cheers!

My take:

1) You shouldn't "sterlize"; if anything you should "pasteurize". Put dirt in oven at 200�. Spread it out or mix if necessary to try to get even distribution of heat. Monitor the dirt temp. At 160� take it out. This will kill most of the bad stuff, but not everything. The microwave does nothing but heat the water in the dirt, and quite unevenly at that, so microwave is right out.

2) Too much water, too much tamping. You want to fill the pot with dirt that is moist, but still fluffy. Tamp *lightly* with your finger tips. Plop in seed, using hole or additional soil, cover, and water *lightly* directly over the seed - enough to settle the soil around the seed but not enough to saturate the soil anywhere else. Don't water again until the surface is dry.

Try going too far to the dry side and see if your results are any different. I bet they will be.

Thanks for the feedback and advice everybody.

Personally, I think I poisoned them by sterilizing at too high of a temp. I may have been saturating and tamping too much but in the past, I got at least SOME sprouts

So for the next batch, I made a soil of orchid mix, potting mix, some vermiculite and perlite, moistened it, and didn't tamp much at all. Then I just misted the top 1/4" to eliminate any compaction. I feel confident now.

Toucan: Yes. I do the heat and plastic wrap. I think I just tried to get things TOO perfect.

Sunnibel: LOL... I hope you like artichokes. I've never grown them but where I live, I heard they're heavy producers.

DMF: Good idea about pasteurizing. This batch, I left it alone though.

Thanks again everybody.

Kevin