Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Of course, use garden soil or compost without seeds in it - at least not the 
same kind you're planting! My tomatoes and peppers need at least 70 degrees 
to germinate evenly, and tomatoes then need nights above 50 for good growth, 
setting fruit, and ripening. Maybe there's less damping off etc. here with 
low humidity.

Season extension here is a given, if you want to make the best use of the 
time and garden space. It's a matter of doubling production over the season 
with little extra bother. How did that cold frame work out with tomatoes and 
peppers?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 1/29/2010 at 11:07 PM yarrow@sfo.com wrote:

>At 6:01 PM -0700 1/29/10, Tradingpost wrote:
>>Interesting. Speaking only for myself, I see no point in sterile
>>potting mixes. I've never seen any evidence it avoids disease or
>>other problems. And I don't spend money on heating pads and lights.
>>I tell myself KISS - keep it simple stupid ...
>>
>>I just use some commercial coir-based mix, with small amounts of the
>>things that go in the beds, soil, alfalfa meal, screened manure,
>>bonemeal, greensand, maybe some vermicompost. Hardly sterile! And I
>>germinate in 4" pots in flats indoors, then move to get some light
>>soon as stuff sprouts. Never had a problem with disease or damping
>>off.
>>
>
>I used homemade compost the first year I grew a lot of seeds and
>found that some of the volunteer tomato seeds sprouted before the
>tomato seeds I planted. (All tomato seedlings look alike at first.)
>So ever since, I've used a coir-based purchased potting mix.
>
>I've grown tomatoes and peppers in a cold frame (google wintersown
>for more ideas), and I agree that keeping the seedlings in a cooler
>environment helps prevent diseases and damping off.