Helpful suggestions from the growing pros? “It’s your water.” But I’ve had the same well for 9 years, and been growing tomatoes and peppers from seed for the past 8 years, and until the past two seed starting sessions – I’ve never had nutrient imbalance problems before! Still, I followed the suggestion, investing a bunch of cash into distilled water, and correcting the pH to 6.5. I’ve got two years of experience with this nutrient imbalance thing, this year being way worse than last. It wasn’t a case of poor potting mix (Ocean Forest and Happy Frog), or the fertilizers used. This is a sign of a nutrient imbalance, which I must say is NOT always from your water. And nothing you do to bring the nutrients back into balance alters what’s going on.Ībout the time the purple trunk line starts rising above the growth media the peppers and tomatoes develop yellowing or purpling leaves. Like a line drawn in the sand, marking the point in time that your gorgeous new tomato and pepper plants went from incredible to suffering. One you can clearly see on the stem as the weeks go by.
It’s almost an overnight change that starts about a month into the grow stage. Give it a soak in a vinegar bath for 20 minutes to dissolve that, rinse well, and you’re good to go. It wicks nicely. Recommendations are that it’s best to pre-wash to remove sizing. Enough for like 6-8 trays and it only costs $5 bucks… Awesome! That’s certainly inexpensive! A yard of craft felt, or a 12-pack of felt sheets is enough fabric to give you lots of seed tray wicking mat material. And finally, I discovered that some home gardeners use felt. Eww – can you spell mold and mildew? Others use an old wool sweater or blanket – none of those hanging around here.
Google reveals that some people use old bath towels. And it wasn’t just reusing the two I had, seedling production was going through an expansion, and why would I want to pay for a complete seed starting kit when I would not be using the peat pucks, the undersized cells, or the flimsy riser platforms that collapse? It’s cheaper to buy these parts separately. This is the point I reached two years ago. What else could you use? Surely there is a less expensive way to get the same result. wicking mat) material gives you sticker shock. But the cost of purchasing new capillary mat (a.k.a. After all, not being able to remove ALL the old dried up roots hooked into the fabric covering might present unnecessary problems. You remember that reusing things could lead to disease, so looking for a replacement becomes important.
After several years of sprouting season service, a seed tray wicking mat really starts looking sad.
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