At Garrett Wade, we can teach you how to make your own homemade planting medium. When you choose our soil recipe, you can customize your mixture for the needs of your plants and be economical with your gardening. Instead of buying a mix at the store, create your own with our recipe!
Starting from the Inside Out
Home gardeners can start vegetable and flower seedlings indoors from four to 12 weeks before the last average spring frost in the area, which means it’s time to start inside! We recommend you get a fine and uniform germinating mix that’s well-aerated, loose, and free of pests, diseases, and weed seeds. It should also be low in fertility and total soluble salts, yet capable of holding and moving moisture. Soil straight from your backyard just won’t do the job!
Typical backyard soil is too compacted, full of weed seeds, and isn’t pasteurized — which can cause seedling diseases and death. Native soil often doesn’t drain as well as seedling mixes either, and it can develop a crust that prevents seedlings from pushing through. Trust in our soil recipe to see your seedlings grow healthy and strong!
Soil Recipe Ingredients
To get started, you will need to gather the following elements to create a perfectly balanced base for your seedlings:
- 1/3 Pasteurized Soil or Compost
- 1/3 Sand, Vermiculite, or Perlite
- 1/3 Peat Moss
Soil Recipe Instructions
Once you have your ingredients ready, follow these simple steps to ensure your soil is properly prepared and pasteurized:
- Heat your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Put the slightly moist soil or compost in a heat-resistant container or pan.
- Cover with a lid or foil and place it in the oven until the soil mixture reaches 180 degrees.
- Once the soil mixture reaches 180 degrees, cook for an additional 30 minutes.
- Once the soil has been properly pasteurized, mix in the other ingredients.
- Begin planting your seeds.
A Word of Caution
The most important advice we can give you when creating this mix is to be careful not to overheat the soil — overheating damages the soil’s structure, making it useless.
Final Tip
While you might have the perfect soil after following this guide, you still have other tasks to complete before the start of sowing — cleaning your pots, trays, and flats! After washing, rinse the containers in a solution of 1:10 parts chlorine bleach to water. This will kill any remaining plant disease microorganisms that could weaken or kill your tender young seedlings.
Now you’re ready to go! Get the garden party started with this soil recipe, and make sure you have all the tools and accessories you need today!
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