I actually use a mix myself sometimes but I guess I didn't complete my thought originally, I do that a lot.
I was mainly thinking about germination. Sorry for the confusion. Though basically what I said is true you "could" be bringing the nasty's with it which is why "I" would not use it as a starter mix. But bad soil will compact a lot more if it were straight soil not mixed with all this fancy smancy lightening material we use today. But than again I had some "Top Soil" I got from Lowe's in 2008 that I put in pot's and it became a rock, seriously concrete like I had to use quite some strength to chip it apart with a garden trowel.
I had a bag of potting soil, last spring, and I couldn't get it moist. I ended up filling a tub of water, and kneading it, and nothing... it was a suspension and simply would not mix up.
I don't recall the exact brand, but it was Scott company because I ended up emailing them about it... After two days, covered with water, it still simply would not mix... stayed in suspension.
I gave up and simply threw it out.
So, not all commercial soil mixes are created equal either.
It was allegedly a seed starter mix... How do you start seeds with dry soil floating in water... It was unreal... like there was oil coating the soil or something... never saw anything quite like that.
Scott did offer to refund. But, I had had the bag for awhile... I suppose it was too old? I knew it was dry, hence, my attempt to moisten it a day or two before planning to start seedlings.
A few years back, a box vendor, gathered up all torn bags, and sent them to the "warehouse" Where pallets were made up... they were all mixed together... fertilizers, compost, potting mix, lawn food, pesticides... on a pallet. The pallet was sold to employees for $5.00. It must have weighed a ton... my 3/4 ton truck squatted when the fork lift loaded that pallet on it. And we bought... 3 or 4 pallets. We sorted them, and stacked them in my gazebo... I still have probably 20 bags in there! Well, it was one of those bags, and since there was probably 40 in the pallet... for $5.00 what would they refund my quarter? Too bad the vendor no longer does that. I assumed the soil would not go "bad", but I do plan to spend extra time wetting it down...
Does anyone know of any other problem with this building full of these bags? I did remove the fertilizers and pesticides since I don't use either one of these.
Great tip, if any more of the bags act that way... I will try hot water on it.
There was an awful lot of compost materials, that were just not composted down enough, mixed into it too. So, if I had a compost pile, that would have been what to do with it... heat to get the peat going, and moisture to continue breaking it down...
Live and learn...
The longer I live.. the more I need to learn..
Hot water it is. I was planting tom seeds in peat pellets last night. My kids were asking what the dry pellets were, I told them they were the same as the ballooned "pots" I was putting seeds in. Than went to show them how they swelled up with cold water and nothing happened sitting in a cup of cold water. Started thinking, it needs warm water tried again with warm water and it swelled up, no problem. So there is something with the temp of the water. Don't know why, don't care why but it works.
I use the Jiffy peat pellet greenhouses every year with great success. About a day or two after with the cotyledons (first set of leaves) have spread open, I pot them up to 16 oz plastic cups though. Peat pellets are great for seed starting, but that's all they're good for. If you leave them in the pellets for too long, you will definitely run into problems. There are all kinds of horror stories, along with pictures, out there of peat pellet started plants where people have not taken the screen off & the roots have a terrible time growing out of it. Then, the plant either dies or is very unhealthy and barely produces at all, if any. Anyways, your best bet is like previously suggested, to wet the peat pellets thoroughly, then remove all of the screen as carefully as possible from every pellet.
