Should You Use POTTING MIX to Start Seeds? Seed Starting V. Potting Mix (Part 2)

Link to Part 1: https://youtu.be/JvQ48u8C6jQ

Are you a new gardener or simply not sure if you should use seed starting mix or potting mix for your seedlings? In this video, I dive deep into the pros and cons of each option, backed by insights from 35 popular gardening YouTubers!

I compare methods from gardening giants like Epic Gardening, Roots and Refuge, Charles Dowding, James Prigioni, and many more. Learn why some gardeners swear by sifted potting soil, while others stick to classic seed starting mixes—and how your growing space (indoor vs. greenhouse) can influence the best choice for you.

🌿 In this video, you’ll discover:
• The difference between seed starting mix & potting mix
• Why some gardeners prioritize sterile soil for indoor growing
• The role of hydration, texture, and nutrition in seed germination
• Insights into DIY mixes and budget-friendly options
• Tips on sifting soil, avoiding pests, and preventing damping off

🌿 Whether you’re new to seed starting or a gardening pro, this video is perfect for:
• 🪴Beginner gardeners who want clear guidance
• 🌸Ornamental flower growers starting from seed
• 🥕Home vegetable gardeners who want to save money by starting from seed
• 🌼Seed starters looking to maximize germination rates
• 🌻Budget-conscious gardeners who want the best bang for their buck

💬 What’s your go-to growing medium for seed starting? Comment below and let’s grow together!

📌 Chapters Included for Easy Navigation!

00:00 Intro
00:57 @epicgardening
02:33 Premoistening
03:19 Bag Holes
06:06 @jamesprigioni
07:00 Scale & Quantity
07:39 Convenience
08:09 Grow Spaces
10:17 @RootsandRefugeFarm
11:04 @perennial-garden
11:47 Cost
12:50 @CharlesDowding1nodig
12:20 Consistency
14:45 Hot Compost
15:11 @HuwRichards
15:58 @GrowVeg
16:35 @SoilandMargaritas
18:14 @Gardenfundamentals1
18:46 @joegardenerTV
19:29 @cranerygardens
20:12 Pro-Mix
21:57 @Blossomandbranch
22:46 @TheGardenersWorkshop
23:45 @notillgrowers
24:40 @urbangardeningofficial
25:04 Garden Soil
26:08 @MindandSoil
27:21 @MIgardener
27:40 Fertilizer
30:25 Table

🔗 Links to the amazing YouTubers I featured (with recommended timestamp):

19. Kevin & Jacques @EpicGardening (20:22) https://youtu.be/0p4g98FURYY
20. James @JamesPrigioni (0:19) https://youtu.be/no3jNKMugEg
21. Jess @RootsAndRefugeFarm (7:45) https://youtu.be/JJicmg9Maes
22. Lars @Perennial-Garden (3:45) https://youtu.be/z3Atzb6kSsA
23. Charles @CharlesDowding1nodig (0:53) https://youtu.be/pTTvodHvKT4
24. Huw @HuwRichards (3:33) https://youtu.be/sEmZAhZK9To
25. Ben @GrowVeg (7:25) https://youtu.be/PDfnieWsOI4
26. Roxana @SoilandMargaritas (6:56) https://youtu.be/0j_QBNdJr1w
27. Robert @Gardenfundamentals1 (5:53) https://youtu.be/3QSsX35Z4-g
28. Joe @JoeGardenerTV (1:15) https://youtu.be/KWA9L9KZGvQ
29. Crane @CraneryGardens (23:22) https://youtu.be/EimDMizsWWE
30. Bri @BlossomandBranch (3:39) https://youtu.be/vFokGiK1MhE
31. Lisa @TheGardenersWorkshop (2:33) https://youtu.be/9QpAPumjH-s
32. Jesse @notillgrowers (10:37) https://youtu.be/tkqkqZF-V38
33. Mohit @urbangardeningofficial (1:01) https://youtu.be/Xd1mwPOwVJM
34. Jordan @MindandSoil (6:14) https://youtu.be/X-mmH0zQ0dI
35. Luke @MIgardener (0:15) https://youtu.be/MrWbPDjxw-s

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Shop my Epic Gardening Store (discount code: KENDALL) for 5% off: https://shop.epicgardening.com/KENDALL

hi I’m Kendall welcome back to our series comparing seed starting mix with potting mix and talking about which one makes more sense to use when starting seeds so in the first video we reviewed 17 channels that thought seed starting mix was the best and now we are going to talk about 17 more channels that think potting mix is the best I did not select these channels based on whether or not they thought seed starting or potty mix was the best I honestly just ended up with really balanced results so this isn’t the most scientific study or comparison but I did think it was interesting that we basically ended up with a 50/50 mix of half people recommending seed starting mix pretty strictly and half people recommending potting mix maybe a little less strictly and we’ll start with some of those that recommend potting mix but also say seed starting mix is fine so we’re going to start with Kevin and Jac over at Epic gardening I went ahead and bunched them into one even though I know jacqu has his own separate Channel because they recently did a Q&A video on Epic gardening and Kevin mentioned Jock’s seed starting method and it seems to have his approval so I’m going to go ahead and say that they’re on the same page as far as using sifted potting mix to start their seeds since um he said it was a good idea and he liked the way that jock was doing it now he does historically have videos using especially as spoma he has a um video from I think about 3 years ago calling it his new favorite seed starting method he has his specific epic gardening trays that he’s using and in that video it’s sponsored by asoma and he’s using seed starting mix from asoma now I found it hard to tell sometimes when people are sponsored um whether or not that’s actually what they think and so because that was an bomma sponsored video where he was advertising using that seed starting mix I actually am giving that a little less credit than the most recent unsponsored video where he’s talking about Jock’s method of starting seeds in potting soil just because I feel like that’s closer to what he thinks right now what he’s more likely using right now um and it doesn’t seem to be as impacted by sponsorships than maybe those previous videos so we’re going to put Kevin and jacqu in the sifted Fox Farms potting soil Camp they are also in the camp both of them of hydrating their mix after they put seeds in it so I find this very strange um because I do think that the soil settles a lot after you add water to it but I also think that when you’re using a potting mix there is less soil settling and less moving around of particles than there is with seed starting mix and that’s because potting mix has more compost in it and things like um composted Forest Products or wood pieces in it um that I think keep the mixture fluffier over time and potting mixes tend to come with more moisture in them already than seed starting mixes if you compare bags of seed starting mix and potting mix in the store frequently the seed starting mix can have no holes or ventilation in them because it’s a sterile medium with most of the water removed so there’s no decomposition happening in that bag that would require a need for a hole or ventilation versus potting mixes that have composted manure um other types of compost worm castings B guano all the things that they add to these mixes a lot of times they’ll put holes in those bags because they need to vent otherwise the bags would fill with gases from that composting process right and so you’re more likely because of those holes to be getting a potting mix that already has some hydration in it and so in a way you’re kind of using a mix that is a little bit pre moistened um even if you’re not saying that that’s what you’re doing so that’s my theory about why more of the people in this potting mix category don’t pre moisten their soil um versus those in the seed starting mix category who almost all of them pre moisten their soil hi editing Kendall here I just got back from the Northwest flower and garden festival where I got a chance to talk to Kevin and jock about seed starting soil and pre moistening because I’m a big nerd and that’s what you do at Garden festivals right so um they were super nice to answer my questions um I brought up the sort of hydrophobic soil um seed starting mix versus potting mix thing um and they did confirm that they agree with what I just talked about which is if the soil is hydrophobic and super dry and Dusty you do need to pre moisten it before you add your seeds a lot of times the soil they’re using on their Channel like the fox Farm’s sifted potting soil already has some moisture in it jacqu even said sometimes he does pre moisten so basically he’s just feeling the texture of that soil when he’s sifting it mixing it and then adding it to the containers and deciding as a professional right um whether or not it needs a little bit more moisture before he puts the seeds in so that the soil doesn’t settle too much and that sort of thing so they they always water it in afterwards but um are just really feeling the soil and the moisture of it when they’re adding it to their containers to decide if they need to add it at the beginning or not so that’s going to be a big difference between using seed starting mix that is really just like dried Pete Moss or compressed coconut quar or some of those things that really need moisture to even be usable and then something like a potting mix where there’s a huge variability on how much moisture that potting mix is coming with in the first place so I just wanted to add that quick note that I did confirm with them that they agree um that you as the seed starter need to check the moisture level of the medium you’re using and that’s how you decide whether or not it needs to be pre- moistened next up we have James from James pidgeon’s the gardening Channel he I went ahead and put him up next because he also likes to use Fox Farm sifted potting soil just like Jac but um in some other older videos he talks about using seed starting mix or making your own mix with an emphasis on texture having a light fluffy texture for planting your seeds um and so both epic gardening and James Pion which are some of the biggest gardening channels on YouTube are using sifted potting soil in their own seed starting but in other videos on their Channel they also recommend seed starting mix I went ahead and put them in this category because they’re actively using sifted potting soil but I did think it was interesting that they don’t have any problem with you using seed starting mix it doesn’t seem like they’re using the potting mix cuz it’s better in some way it’s just what they have on hand and what they like to use in their potting situation you can also consider that these YouTubers are probably producing a lot more things from seed than maybe you are in your small growing situation and so they might just have more potting compost on hand because across the season you’re going to need more potting mix than you’re going to need seed starting mix just for this small period of time here between February March April seed starting season you’ll use some seed starting mix but you’ll need much smaller quantities of it for your smaller trays for starting all these little seedlings then you are going to be for these bigger containers to fill with potting mix so they could be also choosing it because of a convenience factor because they already have the other stuff on hand they care about the texture of it so they are sifting it both shock and James sift their soil to get all the big wood pieces out of it or chunks of compost or other things that are in there so the seed isn’t sitting on a piece of wood and not germinating so they they’re emphasizing texture but they seem to not care how much nutrition is in that soil or not and they seem to not care whether or not it is sterile and so another thing I want to point out about a lot of these YouTubers who are using potting mix instead of seed starting mix many of them have green houses and do a lot of seed starting in their green houses a lot fewer YouTubers in the seed starting category had green houses or if they did they also have indoor grow spaces so like Laura from garden aner she has an indoor seed store in room and she has a few outdoor green houses right Eli from Eli and Kate she has a greenhouse but she also starts seeds in her wife’s office along the side so she doesn’t want bugs or anything smelly growing in the corner of her wife’s office inside right and same with Janie from dig plant water repeat even though she has a greenhouse she has a an indoor Studio where she’s starting a lot of these seeds before she moves them outside so a lot of those seeds seed starting mix people want sterile mixes because it’s in their basement in their home where they’re starting these seeds they don’t want anything growing or flying around in them Kevin and jock both have green houses and James Pion has a greenhouse where they’re starting a lot of their seeds I’m not sure maybe they have basement Grow rooms too but it does give them more flexibility to be accepting of any sort of soil life or smells or bugs it’s easier to tolerate in a greenhouse and in fact you can’t even stop it from coming in when you have a greenhouse so you sort of have a different mentality about soil life and insects in the greenhouse world than you do when you’re growing something in your home in the basement so a lot of the people in this category of using potty mix have this outdoor grow situation that they have access to so that’s another thing to keep in mind when you’re deciding which medium to use if you’re growing things in your basement or in your dining room it seems like a lot of people grow seeds in their dining room you might want to use something that’s sterile and less likely to have fungus n Eggs in it or mold spores or other fungus in it that might become more of a priority for you but if you’re growing most things outside maybe it just doesn’t matter as much that leads us to the next person who is Jess from Roots and refuge she also has a large YouTube channel and she has a video specifically talking about seed starting mix versus potting mix again I’m going to put all these links below to videos that I think kind of best represent for these channels their opinions on seed starting versus potting mix um again she has a big Greenhouse she grows a lot in there but she shows us Jiffy in that episode she said it’s fine to use Jiffy she just doesn’t prefer that she shows us the soil she prefers something called backto that she gets from Wilco and she mentions that it might not be sterile and things like that but again pros and cons she’s choosing what makes most sense for her to have on hand and what has worked for her in the past one more person who’s kind of in this transition from seed starting to potting soil is Lars from the perennial garden he has previous videos in which he said to use seed starting mix and he did use seed starting mix but in some of his newer videos he is now using a potting soil he specifically talks about using one for tomatoes for some reason I don’t know if it’s low fertility or what’s in that he said he likes the texture of it and specifically mentions that seed starting mix is too expensive so that’s going to be a theme with some of these other channels is that they are choosing to use things besides pre- bagged seed starting mix because they think that those companies are charging way too much money for what is actually in those bags but that’s the same reason that some of our seed starting mix people make their own mixes right you can buy a big bail of peach or you can buy some compressed bricks of coconut quar and a bag of vermiculite and make your own seed starting mix really easily so you can make the budget um argument from either side V Loca from budget gardening uses seed starting mix for a budget reason and Lars uses potting mix for a for a budget reason and that could be a location thing too in his area he is able to find a certain product for a certain price and that works for him a lot of gardeners they find something that works for them in their region and they stick with it so So speaking of things being different overseas we do know that seed starting compost or seed starting mix exists in England especially Pete free versions cuz they’re really big on the Pete free in England nonetheless many of the English gardeners who I found on YouTube are using potting mix or potting compost the first one is Charles doubting now to start his seeds he mostly seems to use his own homemade hot compost so we talked about in the previous video how Jim putam would like to use hot compost for his seed starting maybe this is where he gets some of those ideas Charles dting seems to have a lot of success with using his own compost he does do a lot of Trials of other potting soils on his channel I’m not sure how much seed starting soils he has tested he notes that it’s hard to pick a bagged potting mix and have it be consistent across years I think that’s happening because he’s picking mixes that do have compost in them and compost is variable right if you’re using food scraps that are breaking down the content of that is going to be variable depending on what state of decomposition that compost is in the texture is going to be variable the available nutrition in that soil is going to be variable so um I think he could be struggling with consistent potting mixes because he is using potting mixes and not seed starting mixes I think if you’re using a seed starting mix like a bagged Jiffy Mix because there are so few ingredients in there and the ingredients that are in there are a lot more consistent across time you’re using mostly dried Pete and dried vermiculite maybe some perlite maybe some lime those materials are all easier to keep consistent in measurement and consistency over time than any material that has decomposing Forest Products the amount of leaves versus wood in there could be different over time the state of decomposition could be different um the types of things that were composted could be different so I think that’s why it’s hard to get consistent compost and potting soil has a lot of compost in it over time so all that to say Charles doubting mostly uses his own hot compost in his own garden now using your own compost you can really control what’s in there you can make sure there are no a Lilo chemicals in there that you don’t want like black walnut or there’s another list of things if you want to go look into that I think it’s probably better to use your own hot compost than it is to use other people’s compost um so you can control what’s in there and make sure that it’s safe for seed starting the next English YouTuber is Hugh Richards he does a lot of Veggie gardening has done videos Forever on YouTube about gardening and his most recent videos he seems to be using an unsifted potting compost so again this is a potting soil in some of his previous videos he did sift his compost so he like a lot of others has changed over time I’m guessing because he’s producing things on a bigger scale it’s easier for him to just start seeds in a compost or in a potting mix that he can use for a lot of other things as well um and he’s in a greenhouse in most of the recent situations I’ve seen him starting seed starting mix and so maybe he’s not quite as worried about pests or mold or things in that situation and then lastly we have been from Grove Edge he mostly grows vegetables and he’s big on the sifting so he sifts his potting mix and he has some great advice about starting seeds and using what you have available to you he likes to reuse 3in pots and sort of broadcast sew or sprinkle the seeds on there and then pot them from that one 3-in pot into a bunch of other 3-in pots which I think is a fun strategy for seed starting so that is is Ben from Grove Edge and that is our European crowd next we have Roxanna from soil and margaritas she is really consistent using an unsifted Burpee potting mix I think she is an example of somebody just finding a brand that really works for them and that is consistent over time and just sticking with that brand so she can get the Burpee mix and a really accessible size bag they seem to do a good job keeping a consistent texture I think it tends to be a drier mix and so she’s not struggling with pests or anything in her indoor seed starting space and she’s making soil blocks for some of her seeds starting and so I think having the potting mix makes it so that her soil blocks are sticking together a little bit better hi editing Kendall here I just wanted to make a quick note that when I was looking for video to show you of roxan using the burpy potty mix I actually found another video that she just made saying she is switching her brand from burpees to something else so I know I just said she was super consistent she said she’s been using that burpees potting mix for 6 years um and really liked it but her local place stopped carrying it and so she decided to experiment with some other things she tried four different options Burpee ended up being the worst and she has switched over to a brand called Fort V and it is also a compost-based potting mix so she did stick with a potting mix but now she is sifting it she said she bought a sifter from Amazon so I’ll I’ll link to that video below if you want to see um her reasoning behind um switching Brands and things like that so she’s still here in the potting mix category but she has now switched from Burpee over to a sifted for fee potting mix for a seed starting next up we have Robert from garden fundamentals he has a garden sciencey Channel where he’s been gardening forever and likes to dig into the reasons that he does certain things and he has sort of some older School methods of doing things but he uses promic he doesn’t talk a lot about what kind of promix but I think it’s the general purpose or multi-purpose promix that a couple other people who we’re going to talk about next also use I didn’t see him really talk about sifting or anything and he doesn’t really seem to be consistent about pre moistening his soil or not Joe lample from Joe gardening TV is also a promix guy although the most recent video I could find of him making seeds he was mixing promix with worm castings we t talked a little bit in the previous video about why maybe not to use worm C castings but um I have not purchased Joe’s seed starting course that he sells so I would be curious if any of you have bought that course if he is using promix and worm castings for seed starting in that course um the same that he’s using on his videos that he has available on YouTube so as far as I can tell he uses a bag prom miix and then mixes worm castings in there to start his seeds one more person that uses promix is crane from Craner Gardens he just did a really fun recent episode about ways to start seeds that he hates and one that he likes um so I recommend checking that out and it he’s not real clear in that video about what soil mix he’s using but I really liked that video so I dug back a little bit into his other videos and he shows a big white bag of prom mix that’s the same as the one that Joe and Robert are using so I’m assuming that he uses that for a lot of other things too one of the seed sorting methods that crane uses is soil blocking so I think that Prix bag probably works better for soil blocking than seed starting mix that could be a reason that he’s choosing to use that hi I’m back again so when I was looking for images of promix to share with you I found out the ingredients of promix I must have read it before but it just didn’t occur to me that it doesn’t have any sort of compost or fertilizer in there it really sounds like I’m talking about this white promix bag promix BX Michael Ry that seems to be the one I’m seeing in the background of most YouTube videos of YouTubers using Pro mix um that the ingredients of that mix are Pete perlite vermiculite dolomitic lime wedding agent and micro rizy so it sounds a lot like asoma or some of these other seed starting mixes that we’ve been talking about because it doesn’t contain any fertilizer or compost and weirdly enough their seed starting mix has a organic fertilizer in it now that does make me think I know we haven’t talked about Luke from Mi Gardener yet he’s going to be our very last 35th YouTuber that we’re going to talk about at the end um and I kind of give him a hard time about adding fertilizer to his mix but now that I see the ingredients of promix and that they’re kind of doing some opposite things from what I thought seed starting and potty mix contains it could explain a little bit about why Luke from Mi Gardener is making the choices he’s making He is wanting to use an inert media which is what mix is meaning it doesn’t have like a lot of life in it like bacteria and fungus and things like that but then he’s adding fertilizer so if he’s trying to imitate a promix or create his own promix at home that could be why his seed starting mix contains fertilizer so we’ll talk more about Luke later in the meantime let’s visit some YouTubers who are using potty mix to start their seeds using soil blocks next up we enter a little bit more of the soil blocking world with brief from Blossom and Branch Bri is really big on sustainability low Plastics environmentally friendly materials she wants to use a Pete free potting mix um so she makes her own pet free mix she also talks about using Fox Farm’s pot potting mix I’m guessing they have a p free version I’ll have to look into that but she does a lot of soil blocking especially starting with those little teeny tiny soil blocks in her basement and in a greenhouse so she has a PE free homemade recipe for you to use and she updates that a lot she has an updated one this year and is constantly testing soil textures and what works best for her um and then she says her backup one is Fox Farms if you just want to buy a bagged mix so that was brie from Blossom and Branch next up we have Lisa from The Gardener’s Workshop Lisa is the cool flowers lady so a lot of what she’s doing is starting flowers early and getting them out when it’s still cool um to get a longer growing season on certain flower varieties she tends to use a homemade mix she’s also doing a lot of soil blocking and her mix contains compost and so I find her to be right in this potting mix category she has recipes for you and she even sells on her website a bag of mix to add to your compost and your cocoa quar or Pete that’s the other part of the mix and it’s I think it’s rock phosphate and something else in this bag so she has a lot of great resources and especially if you’re starting cool flowers or if you’re doing teeny tiny soil blocks she has great material to check out about how to use that stuff the last person I’m going to talk about who uses some soil blocking is Jesse from no till Growers um he uses a bagged mix called til I think that’s a local bagged mix so he both makes soil blocks and then also recommends the Charles doubting trays that came out out a couple years ago so even though til has something that’s called a seed starting and potting mix the ingredients of it are the first ingredient is living compost Then Pete Moss perlite gyps and blood meal bone meal sand rock dust biochar and kelp meal so because it has so much nutrition and compost in it even though the label says seed starting kind of like the coast of main product I talked about earlier it’s closer to a potting mix so in this case I’m going to put him in the potting mix category with that tilth soil so that was Jesse from no till Growers next we have one more International Channel just because it has so many followers is moit from Urban gardening and he is the only person I could find who’s actually recommending using soil from the ground so moit like a couple of the people at the beginning of this video says use a seed starting mix if you want or use and then he proceeds to use his own mix that contains garden soil so he’s actually taking soil out of the ground and then mixing it with things like coconut quar sand vermiculite other things like that so I found that very interesting because nobody else was recommending starting seeds in soil from the ground there’s a lot of reasons you don’t want to start seeds in soil that you’re digging up from your yard a lot of which we’ve already talked about pathogens other seeds could be in it that you don’t want like weed seeds um there could be other Alo chemicals in it it could have a lot of wood products or other decomposing products in it that you don’t want it could have a high amount of clay or something that’s not ideal for seed starting so there’s a lot of reasons not to use garden soil that said people directly sew seeds in their yard right so it’s not that you can’t do it but it was just surprising that he was using soil from the ground nobody else was doing that so that was moit from Urban Garden very different from a lot of the other recommendations and then we only have two more the second to last is Jordan from mind and soil he does a lot of garden experiments and he just released one so I wanted to include it where he is testing um growing things in compost versus in seed starting mix or a combination of compost and seed starting mix I think he said he’s going to release That official video soon but he already released one showing a difference between two lettuces one grown in 100% compost and one grown in a mix and he his recommendation right now is one part compost to two parts of seed starting mix basically making his own potting mix combination for seed starting so I thought that was interesting he had a couple Reflections about why 100% compost isn’t great so just like Ashley from gardening in Canada talked about how 100% worm castings wasn’t great Jordan talks about how compost is heavier and denser harder for the new baby roots to get down into it also holds too much water can attract more fungus and can contribute to things like dampening off which is very bad for seedlings and now last but not least I saved Luke from Mi Gardener because he does something unique that nobody else is doing and that is literally adding fertilizer to the seed starting soil so kind of no judgment in a way but I have to judge because it’s the video I’m making right now so Luke’s been doing this a lot longer than I have I’m sure he has his reasons for doing that so I’m trying to say this in a nice way without being too suspicious but he is selling the fertilizer that he’s recommending that you put into the seed starting mix right and so like we’ve learned from the 34 people previous to this that you don’t need any nutrition in your seed starting mix I mean some obviously some people are adding room castings and think that you kind of need some nutrition but in order to germinate seeds and take them from dormy to a baby seedling you do not need nutrition that seed has everything it needs in it so the only reason to put any sort of nutrition in the soil is for once it starts growing its true leaves and needs more nutrition from the environment so that it’s there and ready for it and I think that’s Luke’s argument about why to put the fertilizer in the soil but I just I just think it’s risky and I’m not sure why you would add fertilizer when you don’t need to maybe if you’re growing a Seedling in a larger pot and you’re not going to pot it up and it’s going to need that nutrition you could do that or you can just fertilize it later once it’s grown you know into a Seedling so I’m kind of suspicious of actually adding fertilizer to your seed starting mix after watching all these other videos I would say don’t do it it’s unnecessary but also Luke has a ton of experience here so if he wants to come out with more videos explaining why why fertilizer in your seed sty mix I would be totally curious to know more details about why but especially if you are starting seeds in a small container a small cell or if you’re starting them in a tray and then you’re going to prick them out in a small stage and put them in a container with potting mix you don’t need your seed starting mix to have fertilizer or anything in it um it just needs to be a light fluffy medium that can hold just the right amount of moisture to germinate that seedling so Luke from Mi Gardener is in the potting mix category he he makes his own homemade mix that contains fertilization and fertilizer in it so he he gets to live in the potting mix category for starting seedlings and um I’d be curious if any of you have used used his fertilizer to start your seedlings if you’ve noticed a difference there is a lot of room for argumentation about this right like there’s a lot of room to say well I’ve used this forever and it works just fine and I’ve used this forever and that works fine and fine if you found something that works for you and you get enough germination that you’re happy with it that’s great right I thought it was interesting to think about all these different variables that other YouTube gardeners are considering when they’re choosing what medium to use to start their seeds and if you’re a newer Gardener or you just haven’t thought about seeds starting that much maybe you haven’t thought about all these variables yet so I’m just trying to give you some more information so you can think about all the variables in your own environment and all the pros and cons of using different types of seed starting media so you can decide what’s the best fit for you and maybe you do something this year maybe you do something next year that’s different maybe you do one group of seed starts now and then you try something else um and maybe you just find a local potting mix like several of these people have that works really well for you and so you just stick with that because it just works really well hopefully there’s not too much arguing in the comment section about what’s the best way but I think the conclusion from this video might actually be since it’s 50/50 and some people just use whatever they have on hand or they say either one works it’s really about just understanding better how seeds start and why you might use one or the other and how you can best set up a seed starting environment with all the factors you need to successfully start your seeds and to get hydroamination so you’re not wasting your money or your time so that was a ton of information and I know some of it’s going to be controversial but I’d love to hear about what you’re using to start your seeds if there’s something you learned that you hadn’t heard before about seed starting I have to tell you after doing all this research I have found a potty mix that I like that tends to be very dry and compacted when I buy it I’ve never had any trouble with bugs in it it does have big pieces of wood and so I now sift it and I pre moisten it because it does have Pete in it but I found my own combination of things that work for me based on resources I have available to me so I will I will do a future video about specifically um my own seed starting setup but um I’ve taken a a lot of what I’ve learned from all these YouTubers and applied it to my own situation and decided whether or not I’m using seed starting mix or potting mix and now that I know all those variables and considerations when I’m starting my seeds no matter if you choose seed starting mix or potting mix you are focusing on good seed germination and there’s four factors for seed germination that I talk about in this video so I will link to my should you pre moisten your soil or not video here in case you haven’t watched that yet um that will go through those four factors of seed germination you should be considering and that might help you decide which seed starting medium is best for you thanks for joining me I hope to see you again in the next video soon bye