Making our own Seed Raising Mix

Because the soil isn’t reliably warm yet we sowed loads of different seeds into punnets, using seed raising mix we made ourselves. Here’s the recipe:

Mix together:

1 part sand (the salt from beach sand can damage or kill young seedlings, so horticultural sand is best)

2 parts coir fibre

3 parts compost (or 2 parts compost, 1 part vermicast)

Whaea Clare brought along the coir and the compost, and Mr Skilton kindly let us have a bucket of sand from the school sandpit.

First we sifted the compost to get all the chunky pieces of bark out. Big bits of bark are too hard for tiny seedlings to push their way past! Then we added water to the dehydrated coir fibre and watched it expand. We mixed everything together like we were making witches brew, filled up our recycled punnets and planted our seeds.

We put our punnets up on Miss Hunt’s balcony, which is sheltered from the weather. It’s also close to the classroom and the sink so with her help we were able to keep an eye on them and keep them regularly watered.

It was amazing how quickly some of our seeds sprouted!

Here are some of the seedlings about 8 weeks later…