4 Seeding Starting Mixes for Any Garden Plant (Indoor or Outdoor, The Ingredients, The Recipes)

Timestamps. Here are 4 seed starting mix recipes you can use for growing any garden plants. You can use this indoors to start seeds, for potting up transplants, or outdoors. I cover the ingredients, the mix ratios, and make all the mixes in real time.

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0:00 Buying Mix in a Bag - Convenient but Pricey
0:44 Seed Starting Mixes Have the Same Basic Ingredients
1:34 Yes... You Do Want a Sterile Seed Starting Mix - Here's Why
2:00 Where Do Fungus Gnats Come From? and Cure
2:57 Basic Ingredient 1 - Coco Core
3:58 Basic Ingredient 2 - Peat Moss
4:14 Basic Ingredient 3 - Very Fine Vermiculite
4:26 Basic Ingredient 4 - Perlite (Not a Must Have)
4:57 Don't Add Dry Organic Fertilizer - Here's Why
5:16 Preparing the Coco Coir with Boiling Water
7:43 Preparing the Peat Moss with Boiling Water
9:10 How to Measure Ingredients Using 'Equal Parts'
9:50 Making Recipe 1 and 2 - Peat Based
11:34 Making Recipe 3 - Peat and Coir Based
13:21 Perlite is For More Drainage and Optional
14:35 Making Recipe 4 - Coco Coir Based
16:55 You Can Add Worm Castings
17:48 The 4 Starting Mixes Up Close and Recap

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Thanks so much for your support! Cheers & Thanks, Gary!
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Products I Use and Recommend and I have an affiliation with them:

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[biscuit]

All awesomeness in under 20 minutes. You gotta ❤this. Thanks again 4 sharing. God bless.

[ScarlettEmeraldASMR]

Hi there. I've learned so much from your wonderful videos. Always a pleasure 😊

[necolestone]

Gary, you're the best! I'll be following you all summer. Thank you, sir🎉

[jujubee]

Thank you for my order Gary and family, the root pouches are awesome, looks durable . From zone 10a Riverside Ca.

[janetg.]

For the past 2-3 years I used your recipe from a couple years back. I think it was 4:1 peat to vermiculite and I added 1/2 measure of worm castings. Works great!

[chriscornelius]

Thank you for the videos Gary always appreciated

[Adellehenri]

Informative video! I bought peat moss on sale for $2.50 a bag on clearance at Home Depot! I couldn’t believe my luck. They also had potting mix for $1.90. I feel like I stole something 😂😂 My seed starting mix is going to cost less than $10!!

[ceecee-thetransplantedgardener]

Looking forward to the blog post - but in my area, peat and peat based products are the easiest to find and the least expensive. I use the Jiffy Mix (12 qts at about $6 a bag) when it doesn't make sense to make larger quantities (small backyard) - but I add vermiculite to that with worm castings when it's cool. Goes a long way for brassicas in early spring. For summer vegs, I go full bore with the 2.5 cubic ft peat - vermiculite, and worm castings. I start several hundred seeds each spring and through the summer and I've had super success with this method.

[dorothyhughes]

Thank you! It would be very helpful, especially for those in you zone, if made a video of your favorite varieties of seeds from your 2024 garden.

[rockyusa]

Great video Gary I like both the coco coir and peat moss. I like the perlite for the drainage. I purchase the large blocks from Amazon.

[MrRazz]

Just a heads up, I was at Home Depot yesterday and noticed the 2.2 Cu. Ft. bale of Peat Moss was only $14.97! It's usually $24.97 but I think maybe discounted because it is winter and in low demand. Good way to save money.

[PrettyAliceNight]

Fantastic! I haven’t had luck with the coco coir based starting mixes that don’t also have peat moss. I’d love to see a video about a potting up mix.

[michelezimmer]

Thanks for the tip to hydrate the bagged seed starting mix before planting seeds. I noticed you don't use heat mats to start germination. Is this not needed for the cool weather crops?

[kaiser_sose]

Do you have any recommendations on seed starter trays? Any reason to not go with the cheapest?

[jessn]

Does boiling the Promix defeat the purpose of the Mycorrhizae?

[davecarroll]

Hey Gary, I have been following you and your seed starting mixes for years. I owe any success in my gardening to you but have been wanting to ask about reuseing last years starting mixes. Am I good to use left over mixes from outdoors after fluffing the mixtures and adding boiling water to save money? Dave.

[ValSpringer]

If I use peat, do I need to add lime?

[knowledgeandmultiskilled]

Retention of water is what you focus on, and this is how I killed all of my plants. I had drainage the last time I was growing, but what happened was I neglected to protect my plants.

The point of drainage is to allow water to escape soil, so if this does not happen then the soil's moisture level can increase then causing plant roots to rot do to drowning in water.

I believe it is a gamble to use something that can retain water in soil. Regarding myself I did not use anything to retain water do to me overlooking not protecting my plants from mother nature's rain. Anyway lesson learned for me.

Balancing nutrients hmmm. Do you ever try to grow something, and it does not fully develop, or maybe it becomes sick, or perhaps it eventually rots?


I think it's very easy to screw up when growing plants.

Now I have a new set of seeds, and a verity as well, so the next time I try to grow plants well I am going to be more cautious.

[KellyMaloni]

Last year was my third year starting seeds indoor in my cellar. I start a LOT. For the first time I had a massive fungus gnat problem. It was a nightmare and I’m a bit scared to start again this year.

My questions:
- I cleaned the area thoroughly at the end of my seed starting last year. Is there anything you would do before starting again? Could eggs be in the area?

2. If I keep bags of opened and unhydrated peat moss in the cellar, will that create problems?

3. Would adding Mosquito Bits to the mixes (after they have cooled down) help prevent the gnats?