 Hello and welcome to my channel. So I'm just getting ready to mix up a batch of seed starting mix We are getting towards the end of January here in Zone 3 Saskatchewan, Canada And I am just getting ready to plant my first round of seeds for my outdoor garden this spring So I'm going to be using these ingredients here to make a very basic seed starting mix But I also like to sterilize it to avoid getting any fungus gnats or Bugs or anything into the house because that can be very devastating and very annoying Once you start your seeds indoors if you get a bad bug infestation So I'm going to mix them up here show you my measurements and then show you how I sterilize my seed starting mix So there's nothing very special about my seed starting mix recipe if you go on YouTube like I do and research You know a seed starting mix that you can make yourself Usually the basic components of it are some peat moss or coconut core mixed with some vermiculite and Paralite or one of the other so I Always purchase these in bulk because I use them in my indoor plant soil I use peat moss in you know my potting soil mix my seed starting mix I add it to my containers out in the garden and wherever I can wherever I can Place it in the dirt to help for soil retention and to just kind of loosen up the soil so I always buy a Bail of this maybe even to by the time summer hits To use for my gardening and it is very affordable This bale here. It's like an 85 liter bale of peat moss. It's Canadian sphagnum peat moss and I've done you know a lot of research on peat moss because you know, there is a lot of concern that it's a non-renewable resource This comes from Canada we have a I guess a huge amount of sphagnum moss beds in our country here only about 20% less than 20% are being harvested For this sphagnum moss. It is a manageable renewable resource from what I've learned. So that's my Research I always tell people to do your own research make your own decision as to whether you want to use sphagnum peat moss in your garden I find coconut core more expensive and last year I bought some of those bricks and Didn't matter how much water I added to them They would not break down and they ended up with these big chunks of coconut core that I could not get to Absorb moisture. It was a very painful process. So I'm back to my peat moss. I Usually go with a basic measurement of two to one which is two parts peat moss to one part Vermiculite or a pair of light so I can mix up small batches very easily in a container like this And it's very easy to sterilize it. So I'm gonna start off by mixing up two parts peat moss to one part of the Pair of light vermiculite combination So I have some Almost empty bags of Pair of light and vermiculite here. I'm just gonna start off by pulling them into here And I do recommend wearing a mask or you know, just kind of letting the dust settle a little bit before you start breathing But if you're doing this, you know in indoors, I'm out in the garage right now I'm gonna use mostly Pair of light in this mixture So here's how much of vermiculite Pair of light I got in here. So I'm basically gonna just add double the amount of peat moss now and mix it up So these large bales of peat moss are also very compact. So it is a bit of a chore to kind of break through it and Scoop it out. This is got a nice little just have a bit of moisture to it already But something like this, you know, I can I'm always worried about it having maybe some bugs or some fungus naps or fungus Nat eggs in it. You don't know where it's been or It's been fully sterilized. So this is why I like to do my own sterilization Just to be sure And you can buy, you know, those bags of seed-starting mix for, you know, about eight to ten dollars, which, you know, isn't Super expensive, but I find that, you know, making my own over the long run and buying this bag of moss and having the Pair of light in bulk is quite economical A bale like this in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan is about $14. So that's not too bad the Pair of light and the vermiculite were $5 and or $6 and $7 each for these three liter bags or six liter bags so we can get a lot of seed-starting mix made out of that and When it comes time to potting up all my my seedlings into larger pots I will make the same mixture I'm making here just to mend it with some You know some all-purpose fertilizer. I Thought about adding some of my worm castings But I just recently harvested just to add that little bit of nutrition and fertilizer to to my seed-starting mix, but I Have been keeping my vermicomposting bins outside during the summer Bring them in in the winter to the garage and I can see that there's food flies and Who knows what else kind of bugs and again? I don't want to bring any kind of that infestation into the house many of my homemade compost or worm castings That I have harvested on my own I don't use them in the house There'll be lots of Chances to use all that in my outdoor containers this spring and summer when I get growing outdoors So we see here now. I've got about a two-to-one ratio of the vermiculite and perlite to this sphagnum moss, so I'm just gonna Stir it all together and then we will add some boiling water So as far as what I'm going to be starting from seeds very soon. I'm going to be starting with onions Those are one of the Seeds that you should start Fairly early, you know 10 weeks prior to 10 to 12 weeks prior to your last frost date and They should actually go out into your garden before your last frost date So I'm hoping that I will be planting out my onions, you know at the beginning of May Here in zone 3 Saskatchewan our Last frost date is about the third week of May Sometimes the end of May depending on what kind of a spring you're having So my plan is to have onions ready to go out into the garden at the beginning of May So before we get the boiling water added in here, it's good to just go through and really Break down all those lumps that You find in the peat moss Want to get your soil as Loose and airy as possible. So those little seedlings Don't have to struggle to push their roots down through So when seedlings are first germinated and they don't need any nutrients in the soil to Germinate they have that naturally within the seeds. So That first period of time When they are germinating until they get to that, you know to leaf stage You really don't need to worry about having any nutrients into the soil so what I'll be doing once See my onions here get growing. I will just start Fertilizing them with a you know a diluted liquid fertilizer probably like a fishy mulsion or something like that Once you got this good and mixed up I think we are ready To add in the boiling water So I've just brought this to a full boil. I'm hoping this is going to be enough For this amount of dirt if not a second kettle of boiled water might be required So basically I'm just going to pour that boiling hot water into this Mixture to try to stir that in I know some people also Do a method of putting the dirt in the oven and you know at a high temperature and kind of sterilizing it that way That is another option to me. It just sounds a little dirty and messy so I Like doing this method And I do this for soil, you know even for house plants if I buy a bag of potting soil for my indoor house plants. I like to always Use a boiling water to Kill off any bugs and it also you know gives that moisture that you need to add into the the mixture So just to help retain that heat in there a little bit longer. I'm going to put a lid on it here Just let it cool off. I Think I'm going to boil another Pot full of water just to top this up a little bit just so we Have it moist enough and ready to set up in some of our little seedling containers So of course you don't want to plant your seeds in this until the soil has cooled down. It's quite hot right now And I am just mixing it up really good here. I think I'm going to add some more boiling water to it when you Get it moist and you want it to not be dripping, but you want it to kind of hold together when you squeeze it So just not quite enough Moisture in there right now. I think another kettle full of boiling water will Do the trick here Another thing you want to remember after you've moistened your seed starting mix or your potting mix that Something I've learned from the past is you know, you have all that moisture in there. It's warm You put a lid on it and you leave it for a few days you come back and you might have some mold growing on your dirt so When you're storing it, especially when it's got a lot of moisture in it and it's hasn't fully cooled off Just kind of keep your lid a little bit of a jar. So there is some air getting into that container So as you can see here now, it's kind of holding together a little bit better so I am just going to put that lid on here Hold in that heat as long as we can before we get it ready to set up in our containers So once that seed starting mix has cooled off, I'll be ready to start filling up these containers and get some onion seeds going So I hope that you found this video helpful and that you will try you know making your own DIY seed starting mix It's super easy. It's very economical and just by adding, you know, a couple kettles of boiling water to that mix it'll just help Hopefully control any bugs coming into your house and not having to deal with that problem So I hope you enjoyed this. Please hit the like button and leave a comment and don't forget to subscribe So you don't miss out on future videos coming to the channel And maybe there'll be an onion planting video coming soon. Thanks for watching. Happy gardening