It’s out of the moist paper germination environment, and into the wilder world of the cellpak. This is a baby golden cherry tomato—can’t you tell?!—going into standard sterile seedling mix of equal parts perlite, vermiculite and peat. As long as the root hasn’t gotten too long, I just plunk ’em down, cover and water in, letting the roots find their own way down (a few years back, I probably would have made tiny holes and painstakingly inserted each one, but really, they seem to do that work a lot more efficiently). On a side note, I think I heard that perlite or vermiculite (maybe both) have made it into some people’s not-so-environmentally correct category, along with peat. So complicated—I will look into that. :)
Try coconut coir (or coconut husk) instead of perlite/vermiculite/peat. Perlite/vermiculite are mined (I believe) and heated/cooked for a while. Peat is quite unfriendly as it comes from peat bogs and harvest can be similar to clear-cutting forests or worse (from what I’ve read and thus stay away from it). Coconut husk has a long way to go (from the tropics to Canada for me anyway), but is renewal and a byproduct.
Coconut coir is a by-product (of the coconut farming industry) and is available in different sizes (fine to really coarse). Fine can be used as a soil alternative/enhancer and the coarse can be used as mulch (or amending soil as well). Holds moisture really well. Depending where you live it may be difficult to find (I have trouble finding it and buy a bunch when I do find it). I buy compressed “soil blocks” or “mulch blocks” (just make sure it says coir on it).
Works great as a soil/starter alternative, you’ll just need to find a size that work for you.
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