Use the correct growing medium for safe seedling production

Instead of buying expensive growing mediums for seedlings, farmers can make their own mixtures from local resources, such as manure, which are economical and produce excellent results

- Bill Kerr

There are various commercial seedling growing mediums available on the market. These are generally safe to use, but with seedling production you need to keep costs as low as possible while still producing good-quality seedlings.

Imported components are costly, but poor performance is costlier. There has to be a balance between quality and cost.

I once did a big trial for a seedling producer who was using a commercial pine bark medium and fertilising through his irrigation system. I took combinations for each one. I would use the pine bark medium and mix in various combinations of agricultural lime, potassium sulphate, trace mineral mixtures, urea formaldehyde (slowrelease nitrogen), and superphosphate.

I used one-third sifted cattle manure on half of the mixes. The seeds planted were tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, Swiss chard, and cabbage. One tray was used for each mixture.