Getting your seeds off to the best start this year

[Carbon Gold]

Hello. Excited to be posting our first thread on this forum! Just wondering what you folk will be planting your seeds in this growing season to give them the best start? And if anyone can share any top tips?

A seed compost with a fine texture that holds lots of moisture and allows good drainage is very important. A number of professional growers recommend using our peat-free biochar seed compost as a result of experiencing excellent germination rates.

Planting in compost that has been kept undercover and frost-free can also help with germination - so good to store your compost inside or in your greenhouse if you're lucky enough to have one!

With hopes for more sunshine and less rain then 2012!

[Bigmallly]

As many seeds can be germinated in kitchen paper, I think the question should be more focused to planting on seedlings. In answer to your question though, I sow my seeds in seived MPC with added vermiculite.

[phil the shed]

Hello. Excited to be posting our first thread on this forum! Just wondering what you folk will be planting your seeds in this growing season to give them the best start? And if anyone can share any top tips?

A seed compost with a fine texture that holds lots of moisture and allows good drainage is very important. A number of professional growers recommend using our peat-free biochar seed compost as a result of experiencing excellent germination rates.

Planting in compost that has been kept undercover and frost-free can also help with germination - so good to store your compost inside or in your greenhouse if you're lucky enough to have one!

With hopes for more sunshine and less rain then 2012!

so it's nice to see the blurb but one question

what's the forum members discount............

well someone had to ask as its a posted advert..........

[WendyC]

No discount, but I expect we'll all have a big bag of it in the post so we can trial it and join in an informed discussion. Sorry it's 1st February not 1st April!

[rustylady]

As many seeds can be germinated in kitchen paper, I think the question should be more focused to planting on seedlings. In answer to your question though, I sow my seeds in seived MPC with added vermiculite.

I too use MPC, and certainly won't be buying this advertiser's products.

[Nicos]

** we're about to make an announcement folks!

This is a genuine member of the forum who is here to advise and also is allowed to advertise.
He's not a spammer and we expect he will be a valuable member of the Vine

[veggiechicken]

.........Ooooh, the suspense.........hurry up, I have seeds to sow

[woody21]

Hello. Excited to be posting our first thread on this forum! Just wondering what you folk will be planting your seeds in this growing season to give them the best start? And if anyone can share any top tips?

your the expert so you tell us your top tips, this is a forum and has hundreds of posts already containing excellent tried and tested tips
PLEASE USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION... HA HA

A seed compost with a fine texture that holds lots of moisture and allows good drainage is very important. A number of professional growers recommend using our peat-free biochar seed compost as a result of experiencing excellent germination rates.

who are your professional growers? and whats the trade price as this seed compost is expensive and so is the all purpose. Coir is cheap as chips and so is charcoal so the price needs to be justified with proof of results.

Planting in compost that has been kept undercover and frost-free can also help with germination - so good to store your compost inside or in your greenhouse if you're lucky enough to have one!

Noobs :P

With hopes for more sunshine and less rain then 2012!

the trial results document on the website is nothing but pure sales crap, it contains no solid information from any professional sources imo and its even written like a sales brochure.
http://www.carbongold.com/userfiles/...hts%202012.pdf

* 67% of triallists said they needed less water, 16% saw no difference, and 16% said they needed to water more.
† Carbon Gold Seed Compost came 2nd out of 10 medias trialled, and was top of the peat free medias trialled, composts with GroChar as part of recipe also came 2nd and 3rd in emergence time trials.
63% quoted GroChar range as giving as good as or better results.

So we know 37% found it rubbish, whats the breakdown of that 63%? as the top results have been diluted with average results im gonna say its a low amount found it much better so maybe 3%

Was there a test of straight coir against biochar enriched coir? and what were the results?

[veggiechicken]

Hello Carbon Gold - I think I said Hello to you last time as well

[Nicos]

Woody.....

This is a genuine member of the forum who is here to advise and also is allowed to advertise.
He's not a spammer and we expect he will be a valuable member of the Vine

...please be gentle!

[Potstubsdustbins]

This thread is going to be controversial thats for sure.

Colin

[zazen999]

This thread is going to be controversial thats for sure.

Colin

I'm sure it won't. The Vine is financed by people advertising so people will be keen on getting the advice of the experts in their field, I'm sure.

It's an opportunity, not a threat.

[Nicos]

I am sure all our Experts will be more than happy to answer any questions- no matter how in depth they are ( including their personal surveys).
After all- they are Experts in their fields!

We are a well educated load of Grapes on this forum and I'm sure they will rise to the challenge of what we consider pertinent questions

[boundtothesoil]

Hello. ..... A number of professional growers recommend using our peat-free biochar seed compost as a result of experiencing excellent germination rates.

Hi Carbon Gold. I'm quite new to this forum and don't really know yet what the accepted balance is between giving 'impartial/expert' advice and steering people towards a particular range of products, however good. The above looks a little like the latter. I've always thought it's a tricky line for an expert to tread, as it risks losing some degree of integrity/credibility. Without wishing to be too nosy, are you a soil scientist working for 'carbon gold'?

[Mikey]

Personally I like to mix up my own. This year it will contain some sieved MPC, some home grown chicken manure, a bit of grit, some moisture retentive crystals and some soil from the garden.

I'm not keen particularily on the composition of most MPC's as they are very woody, if I wanted bark I'd buy bark!!

Every year the mix varies dependant on what I have to hand, I built a seed tray so I could mix up a small batch at a time, I try to keep the mix similar but it does vary a little dependant on the plants needs, a bit more grit and no crystals if the seeds don't like to be left wet.

I have seen your adverts in the magazine, but thought it would contain some ash biproduct, being named Biochar?, what's in the name?