How will this work as my starter mix? - tomatoes

[Greens]

Starting 10 Celeb. Hybrid tomatoes in plastic Solo cups. 1 part peat, 1 part EWC. Sound good or should I another part vermiculate?

[ReptileAddiction]

What is EWC? It sounds pretty good but I need to know what EWC is.

[Greens]

oh sorry. EWC Earthworm castings or simply worm castings.

[ReptileAddiction]

I don't know if I would add worm castings or not. If you don't then you would have just peat which I wouldn't be better than both. You typically do not want a lot of nutrients in starter mixes because they are just to get plants started because very soon you will move them to bigger containers. Personally I would make my mix peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite with equal parts of each.

[Greens]

Thanks again Reptile! For helping out on both threads. Anyways, I did think to use vermiculate and I think I'm going to have to get some tomorrow. The consistency of my starter mix is close to mud. Not draining well either. Looks like I need alot of vermiculate too. Got any recommendations on how to buy vermiculate in bulk? My local garden store drains the bill fold and I gotta find a cheaper source.
I.e 2 cu ft of perlite cost me $25!!

[rainbowgardener]

I have been making my own potting soil this year from mushroom compost, coconut coir (peat moss substitute), and perlite. RA is right that you don't need nutrients (the mushroom compost in this case) to start seeds. However once the seeds are sprouted and have true leaves (which maybe be only a week or so from planting), they will need nutrients and will rapidly start failing without them. Since the compost 1) doesn't hurt the seeds and new seedlings and 2) improves the texture of the potting mix , I don't see the point of having two different formulations and having to try to up pot right away.

[applestar]

Did you get vermiculite already?
Some people use just 50:50 peat and perlite mix as starter. 1:1:1 peat, perlite, vermiculite will work as well. I like to add compost in my starter mix so the it's already inoculated with soil foodweb microbes to give the seedlings a good start. So I would still add EWC but not 1/3 of the mix. That would be too much. Maybe 1/2 cup of EWC to 4 cups of the mix... So 1/8 -- I don't measure so I might use maybe as much as 1/6 of the mix.

Like rainbowgardener, I'm getting coir and only using peat when they are already in commercial potting mix. As soon as they are more readily available, I'm switching to coir-based rather than peat based potting mix if and when I buy pre-mixed.

Coir doesn't seem to have the hydrophobic issues that peat has.

[imafan26]

Whatever mix you decide to use, it should drain well. Be careful not to over water.

[ReptileAddiction]

I also recommend using coir. For a few bucks from the petstore you can get an expandable brick that will make probably about a cubic foot. I use it in my reptile cages and then just recycle it after they are down with it.

[Greens]

All great stuff! Thanks everyone. Off to get some vermiculate I suppose. Seems to really be the only thing I'm missing from the list. Might pick up some coir from the pet store too. Bed a Beast haha I had some leopard geckos a couple years ago. used to buy coir all the time.

[ReptileAddiction]

Yup!