It must be something in some peoples soil that allows those pots to degrade. It does not exist in mine. Tried the peat pellets years ago and finally gave up. Roots never went beyond the net or if they tried the net sliced into them. I now buy my starts for larger plants such as tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers but direct sow all others. Not certain about this year. I was gifted a multi tiered raise bed that I have to put together and fill. Last night I first looked at raised bed soil and was shocked at how small the bags 1.5 cubic feet were and that they cost more than the regular potting soil. This will be an expensive year to garden.

I just use the pellets until each seedling has 2 sets of leaves. Then I transplant each seedling into a small pot of soil, removing the net as I do it. I use the pellets because they seem to eliminate the damping off that can occur.

If you sterilize your seedling soil, or use sterile seed soil, you won't have any trouble with damping off. Sterilized soil is labelled as such. It is commonly said that potting mix and seed starting mixes are always made from sterile ingredients. Not sure if that is, in fact, the case. And yes, the Jiffy pellets are made from sterilized peat.

The damping off fungi naturally occur in the air. Which is why even sterilizing the soil does not always work. As far as using sterile ingredients the minute they touch or are exposed to the air they are no longer sterile. The sterilized soils are heated similar to the way gardeners do when they place starting mixes in their ovens an heat to kill organisms, bacteria, fungi, bugs except in much larger heated dryers. Some substances used, peat, can be acid enough to kill what touches it including plants.

For those who are wondering about my comment on using ovens it used to be a common practice to either use a metal drum that would be heated or if only a small amount of soil was needed in a home oven. The soil was first dampened before heating to produce steam within the soil. Yes it does stink and has been known to catch on fire.

That may be, but if you're using your sterilized seedling soil indoors, it is unlikely that it will get contaminated with damping off fungus. I used to have loads of problems with damping off, and then I started sterilizing my soil. Problem disappeared. Now, my seedlings are growing in a converted garage that is not only isolated from the outside, but also has near zero air circulation.

You won't have any fire problems, and it won't stink much, if you keep the temperatures low when sterilizing. You're shooting for only 180F. If the temps are too high, ammonia is released and at least until that can disperse, the soil is toxic.

I start all of my seeds in Promix BX with biofungicide and have never had a problem with damping off. Coincidence? Maybe but then I'm not taking a chance and sticking with what seems to work for me. The Promix with biofungicide only costs a buck more the Promix without it. I also use it for all of my houseplant cuttings with good success.

I've only started broccoli and cauliflower so far. Lettuce is this weekend, then peppers the following weekend, and tomatoes the last weekend in March.

Yes indeed it's so nice to see Spring right around the corner. After so much rain and ice over the past 3 weeks the sun is shinning brightly this morning and no rain is predicted for at least another full week (that's a loooong dry spell for us). I hope to have workable soil in 3-4 days so that my pea seed can be planted, followed by broccoli and cabbage transplants & lettuce seed.

As for seed starting, my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seed will be planted by the 25th. I don't recommend jiffy peat pellets or peat pots for the reasons posted above. I do use jiffy seed starting mix and use it to fill recycled cell packs (from last year's bought transplants). No problems with "damping off" but I do place my seedlings in direct sunlight (no growlites used here) and bottom water once they have set first true leaves.

I planted a bunch of chocolate Habanero chili seeds a couple of weeks ago and am still waiting for them to sprout. I used a seed starting kit, but it does not have the netting in it, and I've kept the kit in the sun every day, which is fairly intense here in the desert. I'll take the kit back to Los Angeles with me this week-end and hopefully get some seedlings soon. It is already warm enough to plant them outside but not hot enough in L.A. to start them. I'm in a frost-free zone there, and so I have several chili plants outdoors that are a couple of years old, but they do no make as many chilies when they are older, as they get too rootbound. I should plant them in the ground, but I don't have a good place to do that, partly because I have poor soil.

Lars not certain about peppers but a couple of comments. If they are root bound there is not enough growing medium left in the pot. Try a sacrificial plant. Unpot one and remove some of the roots. Repot in new growing medium to see what happens. It is called root pruning. You can do it with all kinds of plants but there are some that do not like their roots touched. I did it last year with a fig and finally had a few end of season fruits.

One of those things that I do when I am bored and do not want to do what I should be doing. Next up will be some tree peonies that have been in pots for about four years.

Maifleur, that sounds like a good idea. I'll try it when I get back to L.A.

I won't start seeds before March 15th. Tomatoes and peppers near the end of March.

Onion plants are coming in late March if the Texas storm didn't set them back.

I discovered that my old chili plants are now no longer worth saving - weeds choked them out while we were gone.

However, I finally have six sprouts from the seeds that I have been trying to start since February. A few weeks ago, I gave up on my initial starting kit and added some seed starter soil to it, along with new seeds. I assume that these are the seeds that have now sprouted. All of these seeds are from chili plants that I harvested at the end of 2019, and so I was afraid the the seeds were too old, but it appears that some of them are still viable. Next year I will buy new seeds, and I think I will stop trying to save my own seeds. However, in February 2018, I did get harvested seeds to sprout. The chocolate Habanero chilies take about eight months to mature after sprouting, but I'm still hoping to get chilies this November and December. The plants do very well here outdoors all winter, providing I keep the weeds out. I would like to have a harvest this December so that I can make a new batch of hot sauce to give as Christmas presents.