Tomato plant experiment!

Three clay pots marked S for soil, C for added compost and M for Miracle Gro.

I recently got it into my head that since I was already planning to start some Brandywine Pink variety tomato plants from Burpee, that I might as well take a look at how some different starting soil mixes (and populations of microbes) might affect the rate of growth! Note: This is not a very scientific experiment – it's more of a fun project to see what might happen...

For this 'experiment', I started out with three identical clay pots* and then added 3 soil mixes:

100% Miracle Gro potting mix.

A 50-50 mix of Miracle Gro and regular garden soil.

Regular garden soil mixed with compost from my kitchen.

I planted just one seed into each pot ,(yes, I took a bit of a gamble there) and watered each pot with enough distilled water to get the soil damp, but not soaked. A square of plastic wrap was then placed over the top of each pot to help conserve moisture and they were then placed in a room where the average temperature was ~74ºF.

[*Clay pots! I used this type of pot to help insure excellent drainage of the soil mixes – plastic pots tend to stay overly damp and thus promote fungal growth that can inhibit the growth of the young plants! Anyway, that was my call on this experiment.]

[Soil: The soil I used came out of a well established raised bed – it is a clay loam that has a good supply of earthworms in it - a sign that that the soil is fertile with a good supply of organic matter!]

[Water & pH: I used distilled water – 50 ml initially and also tested the soil's pH – it came out to 6.8. This is just about right for the garden soil. I Miracle Gro potting mix was also close to a neutral pH of 7 and it was sterile.]

I'll be sure to add future updates as this experiment progresses! 

Update: April 2nd - All three seeds have germinated with the pot containing the potting mix the clear winner at this point in time!