Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] Eliot Coleman's seed starting mixture

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>
  • To: Market Farming <marketfarming@lists.ibiblio.org>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Eliot Coleman's seed starting mixture
  • Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:08:23 -0400


From ATTRA:

The following four recipes are credited to Eliot Coleman. The first
was published in the Winter 1994 issue of NOFA-NJ Organic News, in an
article by Emily Brown-Rosen. The remaining three are adapted from
Coleman's book The New Organic Grower (see Appendix 2).

Organic potting mix

1 part sphagnum peat
1 part peat humus (short fiber)
1 part compost
1 part sharp sand (builder's)

To every 80 quarts of this add:

1 cup greensand
1 cup colloidal phosphate
1 1/2 to 2 cups crab meal, or blood meal
1/2 cup lime

Blocking mix recipe

3 buckets (standard 10-quart bucket) brown peat
1/2 cup lime (mix well)
2 buckets coarse sand or perlite
3 cups base fertilizer (blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and
greensand mixed together in equal parts)
1 bucket soil
2 buckets compost

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Coleman does not sterilize
potting soils; he believes that damp-off and similar seedling problems
are the result of overwatering, lack of air movement, not enough sun,
over-fertilization, and other cultural mistakes.

Blocking mix recipe for larger quantities

30 units brown peat
1/8 unit lime
20 units coarse sand or perlite
3/4 unit base fertilizer (blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and
greensand mixed together in equal parts)
10 units soil
20 units compost

Mini-block recipe

16 parts brown peat
1/4 part colloidal phosphate
1/4 part greensand
4 parts compost (well decomposed)

Note: If greensand is unavailable, leave it out. Do not substitute a
dried seaweed product in this mix.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page