Hi people, I know their are loads of posts and info on soil / composts, but I have two types of John Innes compost (seed / potting & container) and am wondering which type to use for repotting? I am getting on well with J.I. Seed, but when the roots need repotting, should i move onto J.I. potting and container, which i have, or use a mixture of the two? Any advice would be cool as i don't want to mess up because of a dodgy compost choice.

How old / big are yer plants?

the reason I ask is that JI can be quite heavy in the nutrient dept (yes, I've actually put seedlings into JI#3 ) depending on which one you're using.

I`d go into JI3 after starting them off in your seedling mix(around 2weeks after sprouting probly).

Heavy compost tho with all that sand & grit in there...

Hi ShadyDave The plants are only babies just now, 3 days after sprouting. Just wanted to know in advance what compost to use. I've also noticed the heafty nutrients alredy in the soil, which could cauz probs knowing when to use my own plant food. they are in peat pots just now, with the J.I. seed soil. When roots are breaking throu, was going to pot them with J.I. potting & container. that okay d'yi rekon?

I dont see why not A 50/50 mix wont be too hot, or shouldn't be anyway. But it does depend on the pot size you are going into and how long they will be in them for before you have to worry about adding feeds. After repotting into a non seedling compost most plants wont need feeding for at least 2 weeks, I dont know if yours will get hungry sooner tho.

Although saying that I suspect the JI container compost will be quite rich, as it designed to feed annuals/bedding plants through their flowering season I think.

EO.

Water them VERY VERY gently with a fine rose head if you're using John Inness, overwatering/watering too hard will turn it to concrete.

Personally, I'd err on the side of caution.

The seed should contain enough nutrients within itself to keep it going for the first two weeks of growing I think (or I could just have made that up, maybe someone else can confirm / deny?), so I'd stick with the seedling JI, at least until they're a couple of weeks old.

That's an interesting point. I have noticed when the soil dries up a bit, before re-watering, it does seema bit brittle and hard. I just assumed that was due to it beeing dry. It moistens up fine though when i water it (am using a spray bottle with a fine mist).

I'll be re-potting to 6" pots, (for space and size reasons), putting the whole peat pot into the new pot. You're right about the JI Container stuff beeing quite ritch; says on bag it has enough nutrient for 6 weeks! bit much i thought, would rather use my own plant feed. maybe JI 2 or 3 would be a better bet?

I think I am inclined to agree.... but it seems a pity to waste it so maybe mixing it with the seedling compost would be ok? Or alternatively add some perlite to it, as this will reduce the concentration of nutes a bit and will definately help with the compacting.

EO.

Yeh, that's waht I was planning to do. Of my three plants, I was going to pot one with the JI seed, another with the conainer and the last one with a 50/50 mix. Hopefully this will let me see which works best I can compare the growth etc of the three types. Fingers crossed.

Good idea, but feed times might get a bit complicated, make sure you firmly mark which is which too, so you can report back here on how well each one does. If I was you too I would prepare to be flexible in your feeding regime

, yeh thats a point (the feeding) that i must admit i didn't give much thought. hmmmm could get tricky with the different amounts of pre-feed in the soils. Ah well, nothing ventured.....

I've used JI seed for 4 weeks of my grow, moving my seeds in peat pots to 5 inch pots after the first week. They are under 3 desk lights and are looking very nice. After week 5 i'll be using JI#3 and moving them to larger pots. But for first 5 weeks i recommend JI seed if your lights aren't that poweerful and the rate of growth is not too fast. Ps no additional nutrients have been used so far.