Maximizing your media

Whether you use pre-formulated packaged growing media or if you mix your own, care must be taken when handling to avoid damage to the physical structure and to maintain its integrity for the best plant growth results. Following are some guidelines to follow.

Achieving maximum yield
•    If product is stored outdoors in freezing temperatures, move pallets indoors to allow for thawing. Do not fluff frozen bales or bags since this will damage the structure of the growing medium and result in lower yields.
•    Avoid the use of front-end loaders or other heavy equipment to break up the bales, since this fractures media components and reduces air porosity.
•    Use a commercial bale breaking machine or manually hand fluff compressed baled material.
•    Add some water when fluffing growing media. This will give ‘spring’ back to the peat fiber for maximum yield. However, be careful not to overwater. If you can squeeze water from a sample, it’s too wet.
•    Avoid excess processing and over-handling since this will decrease the porous structure of the growing medium.
•    Once fluffed, it is best to use the growing medium as soon as possible since the addition of water will activate the limestone that has been added for pH adjustment.
•    Avoid storing growing media in open-filled containers since moisture can evaporate and the growing media will shrink in the pot and cause re-wetting issues.

Container filling
To maintain the structure of the growing media and to minimize loss of air porosity, the following should be avoided:
•    Whether using filling equipment or filling manually, do not compact the growing medium into containers since this dramatically will reduce porosity. Allow the growing medium to flow freely into containers.
•    Monitor filling equipment to be sure it is filling each container with a consistent volume of growing medium. Uneven filling and compaction can cause plant cultural problems in the greenhouse such as inconsistent plant growth and uneven drying of cell packs and pots.
•    When filling containers, do not add excessive water or saturate the growing medium.
•    Do not stack pots directly on top of each other since the weight of the stack will compact mix in lower pots.
•    Once containers are filled, it is best to transplant immediately.
•    When moving newly transplanted trays into the growing area, avoid excess travel on carts since bumps and vibration will cause compaction of growing medium and reduction of air porosity.
•    Once placed in the growing area, water-in newly filled and transplanted containers.

Storing filled containers
Although not the best practice, if containers must be filled in advance, the following is suggested:
•    Do not stack or nest pots directly on top of each other since growing medium will compact in lower pots.
•    Cover or shrink wrap filled containers and pots to minimize moisture evaporation.
•    Store in cool, shaded area away from exposure to weed seed or chemical sprays.

With proper handling of the growing media, you can minimize plant growth variability and achieve the maximum performance for uniform, quality crop production.

For more information and assistance in selecting the right growing media for your growing needs, contact Premier Tech Horticulture’s Grower Services team at (800) 424-2554.