You can easily get confused, choose inappropriate or poor-quality soil for seedlings, since a lot of ready-made soil mixtures of domestic, foreign production are now on the market. Buy, alas, you can even explicit falsification - businessmen do not appease in search of quick money. Each of us at least once bought a substrate for growing seedlings of vegetable and flower crops. Therefore, knowledge, attentiveness in the purchase of soil mixtures will be very useful.
- What is soil for growing seedlings
- Soil composition for seedlings - what does it consist of
- Best soils for seedlings - selection criteria for soil mixture
What is the soil for growing seedlings
Soil for seedlings - which to chooseon:
- professional - with various additives, batteries, moisture and other important components to facilitate labor;
- amateur - as a rule, the packaging is small, so it was convenient to transplant plants at home.
- substrates for rare and ornamental crops.
If you have more than one greenhouse, it’s time to use professional forms of a seedling substrate( packing volume from 150 l).
For seedlings of flowers of one species, you can do with a specialized substrate for a particular culture.
If you intend to grow several types of flowers, it is better to choose a versatile professional.
Well, if you like just decorating your house with plants, buy a substrate for lovers, packaged in 1-5 l.
Soils for house plants are much cheaper than “pros” or tucked “station wagons”.
In addition, there is a category of soil mixtures and fillers, which are intended for professionals who know a lot about the formation of soil composition. This option is much cheaper, but such a product is often infected with harmful organisms or not maintained by fraction. At a minimum, you will have to pour the soil with boiling water( if it is plain sand) or treat with a disinfecting solution.
High-quality heat-treated ingredients or other cleaning operations, usually sold in large packages, are much more expensive. Therefore, lovers take them unprofitable.
If you need very little soil mixture, it is advisable to take a ready-made substrate, filled with all the necessary components. Then you will save a lot of time: you just need to open the package and fill the desired capacity with the contents. It is all the more advantageous to use a prepared substrate if large volumes of soil mixture are needed.
содерж to content ↑The composition of the soil for seedlings - what it consists of
Qualitative substrates consist of two groups of components:
- serve to form the structure of the mixture, consist of top peat, sand, bark, gravel, claydite, shavings and other products notof plant nutritional value;
- are designed to create a nutrient base of the plant, include rich in organic peat, mineral NPK-supplements, trace elements, humic substances( humus), amino acids and other organics.
Some components of the soil have a dual purpose.
For example, coconut fiber, which can often be found. Manufacturers of imported or domestic products often use it. On the one hand, it is elastic, long preserved, creates favorable conditions for gas exchange in soil mixture, and on the other hand, it is able to retain moisture well on its surface, since it has the effect of tension.
For seedlings, the presence of such an element will be only a plus: the soil retains moisture longer, which reduces the amount of watering, and therefore, labor costs.
Substrates with the addition of hydrogel have been developed as moisture accumulators and structural components.
When choosing a substrate soil, whose composition includes wood chips, be especially careful: this is a very ambiguous element. Of course, it holds the structure well, but some tree species will become very muddy if the mixture is very wet, which leads to sour soil. This happens especially quickly if the fraction of chips is very small.
At the choice of ready soil attentively study its structure. It should be listed on the label, as some substrates are good for orchids, but are not suitable for tomatoes.
Another important group of soil composition for seedlings is regulating substances. The most famous of them is lime. It is needed to regulate the acidity of artificial soil.
↑ to content ↑The best soil for seedlings - the criteria for the selection of soil mixture
Cheap substrates are not very homogeneous, may contain wood, stones and even garbage.
Qualitative substrate is leveled in fraction, thoroughly mixed. In its manufacture, the formula was observed, the final product was monitored, both in quality and weight.
The size of the soil fraction( substrate) is of great importance. If it is too small, it is fraught with acidification of the soil, and if it is too large, it is extremely fast evaporation of moisture, incomplete filling of the cartridge when sowing seeds. Both cases can lead to product overspending or even the death of seedlings.
It is necessary to choose a substrate with a fraction of 3-4 mm for the largest components. This will provide an air-permeable structure for the access of oxygen to the roots, while there will be enough space for the roots to “braid” the entire lump of soil mixture inside the tank with the seedlings.
On the Russian market both imported and domestic soils, soil mixtures for seedlings are presented.
The main difference of the import is the high cost, which is compensated by the quality. The price of Russian products is much lower, and as far as quality is concerned, many domestic manufacturers have long learned how to produce a decent product. If you compare high-quality domestic and imported substrate, the Russian will be cheaper than the imported counterpart.
R. Ivaschenko 
