Stump dirt vs. potting soil
I love stump dirt, but my
onion seedlings apparently aren't nearly so keen. I ran a side-by-side
comparison of stump dirt versus store-bought potting soil...and the
latter won by a landslide.
Despite my disappointment
that the homegrown organic matter failed the test, I can guess the
reasons. Stump dirt does a great job holding moisture and looks like
rich, fluffy ground. However, if the product really is simply beetle castings, I might be seeing the same problem that those who use straight worm castings with seedlings see --- excess salts keep the baby plants from thriving.
Either way, I'll squash
my urges to go entirely homemade and will start my next round of seeds
in store-bought potting soil. After all, the final crop is the goal and
I'll take whatever path I need to in order to achieve that destination.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Hi Anna and Mark,
You might want to plant both. From what I read starting slowly is not necessarily a bad sign. i.e.- germinated seeds adjust to the soil they germinate in. So soil with chemical fertilizers can make them grow quickly at first.
Then they never adjust to the final soil they are asked to grow in.
You might also Brix the leaves and final products and see how well they store and also how they taste.
For me a useful quip is that "nutrient dense produce doesn't rot, it dehydrates".
Lots of fun :).
John