HelpfulGardener.com

When it comes to starting some of the very small seeds like celery and some of the very small flower seeds be careful! It seems like more and more potting soils and even seed starting mixes have bark or big chunks of anything mixed into the mixture. Even the peat moss has chunks in it! Just get a small screen or strainer with a fine mesh and shake it over the seeds with your soil mix works super
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I started doing this with the small seeds but have found that even with tomato seeds it works fast and the covering of the seed seems much lighter and more uniform plus easy for the seed to penatrate! My celery came up perfect! I could not believe the size of some of the potting mixes! The strained potting soil seems to crust less also!
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When I strain the potting soil I put the big pieces left at the bottom of the new box! Little things mean alot especially when covering tiny seeds!

I use vermiculite which, if too course, is run through the blender to cover seeds.

Remind me not to have smoothies at your house....

Tell me about it! I haven't had time to make a 20-mile round trip to pick up Fertilome Ultimate Potting mix and have been stuck using that crappy MG. Out of a 16 quart bag, I picked out nearly a half-gallon of big pieces of bark, twigs, rocks, etc.

I don't like to sprinkle only fine mix on the top - my seedlings seem to do better if they have to put up a bit of a struggle to sprout. But they don't like to push a tree stump out of the way either!

Mike

I like to cover the seeds with a little sand; that seems to work well, regardless of the potting/seeding soil underneath.

I agree with farmerlon. Sand is what I've always used to cover seeds. It's excellent stuff.

I have used sand many times. I prefer white sand since it reflects light back on the small plants! You can also strain sand for small seeds! I mix sand into my top 2 inches of seed started for cucmbers and a few others because the roots seem to come out easier in my seed boxes!

I use a flower sifter and toss the chunks into my tree hole... don't ask about my tree hole.

Darn I want a tree hole!

I don't really fuss too much with staring mixes. I normally use Dr Earth which is pretty fine and no bark. But if I get something that has bark in it I just move it out of the seedling area and have never really had a problem.