Growing healthy vegetables requires the addition of ‘dirty’ soil!

Most gardeners who start their own vegetables from seed know to use a sterile starting mix at the beginning of the process. This practice allows for a good environment for seed germination, free of bad fungi or microbes that are responsible for such problems as damping off. I generally like to use a potting mix like Miracle Gro’s Seed starting mix that contains a water-absorbent formula with sphagnum peat moss and perlite, specially blended for fast germination of seeds. It’s also enriched with Miracle-Gro® plant food to help build strong roots. This mix will ensure that your germination efforts result in good starts and the fertilizer will help insure some food for hungry roots to feed on.

However, in order to prevent certain ‘growth checks’ that can result in poor fruit production later on, you should consider seeding the soil with microbial inoculants. A mix of good ‘bugs’ which will help protect your seedlings sensitive roots from attack by ‘bad’ microbes and fungi later on. The easiest way to do this would be to go out to your existing garden and dig up a little soil there to add to the top of the sterile mix your seedlings are growing in. The microbes will multiply very quickly in the days to follow. Some of these actually get involved in the transport of nutrients into the roots themselves! Then, by the time you are ready to transplant the young seedlings in to the garden (assuming you properly harden them off) they will be ready and able to fight off problem microbes and should prosper.