Best to use potting mix, not potting soil. (Potting soil is too heavy, even when re-potting seedlings.)
Some gardeners have had good luck with Hyponex or Pro Mix.
Personally, I always make my own. Equal parts peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite. Check out the link below for more info on potting mix for starting tomato seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Potting mix to use when starting tomato seeds

Do you have any Ace Hardwares or True Value Hardwares in your area??? I like True Value. There is always someone that asks, Can I help you. I has a grow supply store in my area called Hummerts. I got a 4 cubic ft. bag of vermiculite for $16 & 2 4 ft. light bulbs for 3.80 each. I used one cool light & one warm last year. Never again. I ask them for 4ft T12 bulbs to start my seeds. They got me 2 Sylvania Supersaver cool white 34W Ecologic. But they were out of the milled sphagnum peat moss.

I have great results with Hoffman's seed starting formula and at transplant time Pro Mix. I don't care for the chems in Miracle Grow stuff.

I do have True Value and Agway, I had forgotten about them.
Where do you purchase Hoffmans and Pro Mix?

Hoffman's Seed Starter used to be available at HD. I got my last bag from a local Garden Center. Pro Mix usually is available at Agway or similar places. I buy it by the 3.8 Cubic Feet bale but it's also available in smaller 1.8 cu ft bags.

I use Gardener's Supply germinating mix - Item# 03-199 that sells for $6.95 for a 9 quart bag. I always have excellent results.

I found their organic seed starting mix to be a very heavy mix - it didn't work well for me. I also use the Pro Mix BX at transplant and add about 1/3 compost.

Is MG with moisture control OK? I can say that it is not my favorite to be polite. I have the best luck sprouting tomato seeds in soil that is light and airy, MG moisture control easily became soggy and I had severe damping off for the first time in my tomato sprouting history.

I suppose that it could be used if you were very light in your watering and I personally would add a lot of perlite to it to give the roots plenty of air.

Last year I did side by side comparisons of Jiffy, miracle gro and Natural Beginnings from Gardens Alive. Natural Beginnings performed best, with Miracle Gro a pretty close second. Jiffy was far behind, I won't use it again.

Last year I did side by side comparisons of Jiffy, miracle gro and Natural Beginnings from Gardens Alive. Natural Beginnings performed best, with Miracle Gro a pretty close second. Jiffy was far behind, I won't use it again.

Thanks, thats good info. I want to decrease problems with damping off, not encourage them. I will look at the Gardens Alive. I wonder how it compares to Pro mix or the Gardeners
Supply.

Sue

Fresh Pro-Mix with Biofungicide seems to prevent or at least limit damping off fungus. It contains a friendly bacteria that eats fungus. But be warned that if you let it sit around for a year before using it the bacteria dies and it is no better than any other seed starting mix at that point.
Another thing that helps is cover the seed with pure vermiculite instead of the potting mix.
Also as soon as the first seed sprouts take the cover off the seed starting container and never put it back on again so air can circulate around the newly sprouted seedlings.

Most of the commercial potting soils sold in bags at the various discount stores are a bit too course for seed starting. What I mean by this is that they contain a fair percentage of ground up sticks, boards, etc. that made it through the composting and screening cycle without being broken down. So they pack it in the bags and sell it to us.

True seed starting mixes are available but very expensive if you are doing a lot of plants--like 50 plus.

My experience with the potting soil mixes is that the chunks
of undigested wood often blind off my sprouts. Not good!
So what I have done is make a sifting box out of 4 3" wide by 12" long thin pine boards and then nailed a 12" square
piece of 1/4" mesh to the bottom of it. I then sift my potting soil and discard the chunks (5 to 10 %) before
loading my germination trays. Not only are the chunks and
lumps removed but it also tends to "fluff" the soil.

Works just fine SO LONG AS YOU USE FRESH NEWLY PACKED
MATERIAL THAT HAS NOT LAID AROUND GROWING CRUD IN IT OVER
THE WINTER!!!

I've had great success with Ferti-lome Ultimate potting mix. It's not real cheap, about $23 for 65 quarts. Usually go through 4-5 bags per season (I grow a lot of seedlings!).

Recently, I tried some soil less media: Rapid Rooter, BioDome Plugs and Horticubes. The latter won in germination rates, healthiest plants (# leaves, internodal length, root system, stem size) and price. The only negative is they have to stay moist - under a 600 watt MH bulb, they must be watered every 24-30 hours. Skip a day or wait too long and the plants die or almost die. Solved that by keeping them in a small container with water in it. I have not been able to overwater them!

Mike

I used to start seeds in the Jiffy peat pots, then I tried seed starting mix of peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite, or added some potting mix for the vermiculite. If I planted 4 seeds, I would get from 0-4 coming up, taking from 7-31 days. Then I started trying the damp paper towel in the small ziplock bag (from Michael's). I started getting 4 seeds out of 4 most of the time, most sprouting and getting to size to plant more uniformly in 5-10 days. I think the ones that don't germinate by this method are dead seeds. Last year I tried it on seeds that I had from a very old trade, 2001, maybe only 1-2 seeds each variety. I got nearly all to germinate and was able to revive them to grow. I transplant when the leaves are formed and turning green. If roots are growing into the paper towel I tear in toward the roots and generally they come loose. Some people just leave a little paper towel attached.

I then transplant little seedlings when they get true leaves like I would from the peat pot germination method into the peat/perlite/potting mix but this saves me a step and fewer pots are involved in starting since I don't have a pot involved in the first step.

One year I tried the moisture control mix and had many seedlings look sick after a while- I think they are too wet.

Here's a very interesting experiment with seed starting soil vs pepper seeds:
http://userwebs.batnet.com/rwc-seed/Pepper.growing.tips.html
Yes, I know that peppers aren't tomatoes, but I would sure rather use soil that encourages pepper germination rather than inhibiting it.

Punchline:
"Overall, I would recommend the Miracle Gro (Registered Trademark) Orchid mix, as the best for starting pepper seeds."

I personally would mix a fair amount of perlite with the above the lighten the soil even more.

I have had it with Miracle Grow! My potting mix is heavy, doesn't drain, and is awful for my seedlings. I read below that someone recommends equal parts vermiculite, perlite and sphagnum. Thank you for that! It sounds so light, airy, and lovely. And I remember the smell of that as being very clean, long ago. Do you have any tips as to how to handle the seedlings when they need food? I can't remember. I guess I'm growing old! Maybe we used kelp?

I had over 95% germination on peppers and tomatoes using Pro-mix BX this year. I then pot up to Tapla's 5:1:1 from the container forum. Haven't lost a seedling this year. Definitely not a fan of MG soils.

I've been using Burpee's germination mixes for a few years now. I get excellent germination and I'm very happy with them. However, I think the mix is just one factor in many for success. It's entirely possible to get disappointing results with a good product.

I tried three different mixes this year to compare:
1-Gardener's Supply regular (nonorganic) seed starting mix
2- Gardener's Supply coir
3- MG

2 years ago, I had a problem with the Gardener's Supply seed starting mix. I started getting mushrooms! GS was very responsive about it; said it could happen but was harmless to the seedlings and sent me another bag for free. (The 2nd bag last year did give me some mushrooms also but not as bad.) I had some left over so I experimented.

I found the GS mix to still be somewhat better than the others. (So far no mushrooms this year; I'm growing in a different type of flat, a biodegradable plastic also from GS.) The GS coir mix I found came in second to it; I found that the hot peppers germinated very well in it and the tomatoes not quite as well. However, the coir mix was very messy to work with. It comes in a sizeable size brick and it was very difficult to break it up - since I wasn't using it all at once. You also need a gigantic bucket if you are to reconstitute it all at once, a fact that they didn't state until you opened up the package! I did not have a big enough bucket for it. I will not buy it again unless they package it in smaller bricks. The MG came in third; I was surprised at how heavy it was.

This post in general, is just about the very worst advice I have ever seen anybody give in relation to starting tomato seeds in. especially the link,
Anyone who knows anything about tomatoes knows that potting mix as such, has far too much fertilizer in it to start tomato seeds, and in the main the result will be tall leggy plants-stretched as they begin to feed on the fertilizer in the mix, which is exactly the opposite of the desired results of a compact stocky plant, they will germinate in it but it is certainly not ideal for starting the seeds in,

The very best seed starter mix should have little or no fertilizer levels other than very-very low amounts, plus maybe a few trace elements for best results.

mickyfinn: agreed. That's why I use Pro-mix and 5:1:1. They don't have fertilizer in the basic mix.

To the left are seedlings in Jiffy peat pellets in a Parks cell. To the right are seedlings in Jiffy Organic seed starter. Seeds planted the same time.
I think I know what I will use next time.

http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums/af129/jstringer5/?action=viewät=tomatoseedlings.jpg

I know a lot of people don't like the pellets but I have to use what works for me. I have not tried the Miracle gro starter mix and we don't have access to any of the others close by.
The Pellets were just plain easy to use and you can see my results this time using them.

oops.

http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums/af129/jstringer5/?action=viewät=tomatoseedlings.jpg