Hoffman Seed Starter Potting & Planting Mix with Wetting Agent for Moisture Retention, 10qt Bag

This is the second of two great seed starting mixes (Espoma was the other) that I purchased on Amazon.com and both have proven to be winners. I first reviewed Espoma but this Hoffman 30103 Seed Starter Soil is every bit as good! It has a relatively fine consistency which I like. (I have had to sift some mixes to be able to plant small seeds more easily!) Hoffman's is perhaps the most highly water absorbing mix that I have ever used. (Some mixes seem to loathe water and to moisten them takes real effort.) So far the mix has proven to be great as the seeds are springing into little seedlings in record time! I like the fact that lime is added to this mix and high acidity in my soil has been a problem. Finally, Hoffman's is among the very best values I have found in a high quality, effective planting medium!

This year I planned to plant quite a large vegetable garden. Knowing how expensive plant starts can get, I decided to dive into starting my own plants indoors. I spent weeks combing through the various starter soils available. I eventually just went for it and order this starter soil right here. I absolutely made the right choice! I had amazing germination rates and my plants grew surprisingly well. As my plans got more ambitious, I eventually ran out of this starter soil and used some potting soil I had sitting around. The difference was startling! Those started in this soil grew so much better and had better germination rates. I did start some in pure coconut coir and had decent results, but the plants started in this starter soil did the best of all three trials. I would absolutely recommend investing in a quality starter soil, like this, as it will get your garden off to a strong, healthy start!

I’m an experienced gardener who starts thousands of seedlings every year indoors. Over the years I’ve tried many different brands and Hoffman’s is my favorite. It has a fine consistency (every soil will have a few small twigs or bits of bark that need to be removed, but Hoffman’s has a minimum compared to others) and absorbs and holds water well. Some of the reviews here just show the inexperience of the gardeners: for example, seed starting soils should not contain significant fertilizer; if they did, it would rot the seeds. Once the seedlings have their first true leaves you can start using a gentle fertilizer designed for seedlings. Mix the soil with water in a separate bowl or bucket before filling your containers; don’t put dry soil into the seed cells and then try to add water. If your seeds don’t germinate or your seedlings die after germination, that’s a problem with your seeds or the environment you’re providing, not a problem with the soil. Overall Hoffman’s earns two thumbs up from this experienced gardener.

Very good seed starter just make sure your seeds are good. I grew all of this from seeds. I recommend Hoffman seat starter The price was a little on the expensive site, all I wish was that the price was a little bit cheaper Only then will I rate it a five star overall a good seed starter

I thought this seed starter seemed expensive however I bought it anyway. I planted appx. 200 seeds in this mix. It was very easy to work with. No large chunks were in the mix and I had 90% germination. I ran out so I went to my local hardware store and purchased Miracle Gro seed starting mix. I had to pick out all the big chunks of wood and stems. It was much rougher in texture and I can tell that it will dry out too quickly. Very happy I bought Hoffman’s seed start mix. Worth every penny.

I have had good luck growing micro greens with this mix, and plan to start pepper and tomato seedlings in it this spring. It is a soilless blend that contains Canadian sphagnum peat moss, horticultural vermiculite, limestone as a pH adjustor, and a wetting agent, which is helpful when watering new seedlings. The bag includes instructions on the back, and there is a customer service phone number listed for the company as well.

In 2018 when I first started growing my own seeds, I used Hoffman and was totally blown away by the results. Not only all my seeds germinated (coleus, impatiens, petunias and geranium), they also grew indoors to be healthy sizable plants and the impatiens and petunias started blooming after roughly 2 months when they were still in the 1.5'' little seed tray cells. I decided to experiment and switched to a different brand seed starter mix in 2019, but did not have as good of a germination result. This year, I switched back to Hoffman. Almost all my seeds germinated again, but this time all my seedling growth stalled after the 2nd pair of true leaves emerged. The 1st set of true leaves also started turning yellow after a while. I did not realize what was happening until 2 months later after I decided to transplant the seeds to normal potting soil I bought from local nursery. Some seedling has finally started growing again after transplant. However, I've already wasted 2 months of my time waiting for these seedling to grow, and I don't know if all of them are going to come back. I finally saw the instruction on the bag which does say start feeding the seedlings after the 2nd set of true leaves appear, but I didn't read these at all because the great experience I had in 2018. I'm not sure if Hoffman has changed the ingredients of these soil mix since then. Now when I'm preparing my seed packets I just fill them with the normal potting soil I purchased from local nursery which contain fertilizers, and just spread a layer of Hoffman seed starter on top to help the seeds germinate. In the future, I might just start experimenting using wet paper towel to germinate my seeds, and directly transplant into potting soil to save money on seed starter soil.

This is hands down the best seed starter mix out there.

This seed starting soil was ok. I found it really smelled of mould and I did have mould issues with it. However, most seedlings sprouted a grew with it.