[Twood]

Morning everyone
Another dry day here in the North west.
I'm planning on starting a few veggies off at the weekend. Do I really need to use seed compost ? Multi purpose ok? Or are there some seeds that have a preference??
Thanks in advance

[mumofstig]

I use mpc for everything, but will sieve some to cover the tiniest seeds...

[Plot 1 Problems]

Same here, I use cheap and cheerful MPC and sieve it when covering small seeds.

[Twood]

Great thanks for the tip. I'll give it a go this weekend. Hurrah seed sowing at last 😀👍

[Goosegirl]

I use and do the same as the others. I find MPC "warmer" when the temps are a bit low because it doesn't hold as much water as seed compost.

[Yorkie]

Seed compost is generally designed to be a bit finer than regular compost, and will have fewer nutrients in it because seeds don't need high levels of nutrients to germinate.  Like the others, I also use just MPC throughout.

[DHM]

I prefer to use seedling compost for seeds in cells, but when I've been a bit short of it for pot sown seeds I've used half MPC topped up with the seedl8mg compost to make it go further. This has meant once the seeds have started to root they've found the heavier, nutritious MPC.

[lettice]

I've been using Verve multi purpose for over a decade for all my seed sowing and not had any germination problems.
For some of the more finer sowings, have on a few occasions done some sieving.

[Lardman]

I switched to proper seed compost about 2 years ago for smaller seed, things like toms, peppers and lettuce.  I normally mix it with a goodly amount of vermiculite and have found it much better. It doesn't dry so quickly, set with a hard crust and there are very few lumps so I think the seed has better contact. Large seeds like peas, beans, courgettes still get put directly into MP though. I'm still only half way into the bag I expect it to last into next season so the cost difference is negligible.