I was REALLY skeptical about this seed starting mix…
...upon opening this bag and seeing the makeup of it. First off, it is very, very black. I've never seen a soil mix so black. Is it the biochar?? It is also very well-draining; the water goes right through because it doesn't appear to have anything in it to hold onto the water (vermiculite, coco coir, peat moss). I get that it has all the good stuff that you want in a seed starting mix (compost, worm castings, mycorrhizae). But the very large pieces of bark that you find in this (and it's throughout the whole bag; it's not just a matter of the finer components settling to the bottom and then the bigger, "lighter" components remaining at the top) made me really question whether this would even work as seed starter. But I'm taking a risk, because if I give this seed starter a couple of weeks and still nothing grows, that pushes my seedlings that much further into the short spring growing season I have where I live (desert of SoAZ). At the same time, I've been trying to start seedlings indoor for a few seasons now, and often unsuccessfully, even with the finer, lighter seed starting mix of other brands and mixed with worm castings and coconut coir, mind you. Even that has given me choppy results, so at this point, really, what do I have to lose (again)? Half of the time seeds will germinate "on time," the other half of the time the seeds take forever to germinate.
Well, it's been only 3 days and I am VERY pleasantly surprised. Of the 15 different seedlings I planted, about 4 of…