Soil for seed starting

albuslux

One of my "try something new" projects this year is starting some trees from seed. *For Christmas I received Black Pine, Chinese Zelkova, Chinese Hackberry seeds. *I soaked them in water for 24 hours then placed them in slightly moist sand in my fridge. *They've been there for about 30 days.
My question is what type of soil mix should I sow them in.

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The hackberry and elm will root and grow in most any rooting medium. Literally anything from potting soil to garden soil. I would not use garden soil because there are about 100 weed seeds per cubic inch of soil, so just get yourself some supersoil and mix in a bit more sand so it doesn't float away when you water.

Pine soil is more critical as the seedlings will sometimes germinate and then "damp off." For those, you need good drainage - maybe 50%sand and 50%perlite or vermiculite, and you have to watch your watering, and as Al suggested you can use Benomyl to help with fungus problems.

Regards,

Matt

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