Sustainable Farm Journal

In my comparison of using a seed starting mix and Oasis cubes for germinating seeds, I have found that the Oasis cubes far outperform the seed starting mix. Not only is damping off not an issue with the cubes, but there has been a greater success of germinating pepper and tomato seeds with the cubes. It remains to be seen if the advantage of the cubes continues on to transplantation. It may turn out that the cubes simply do not measure up to a root ball of seed starting mix when it comes to putting them out either in the garden or into hydroponic media.

My trial of growing basil for commercial production has been very rewarding and shows promise. I have seen that I need to rearrange my trays as basil apparently needs full sunlight. Trays at the top that receive more sunlight grow faster and trays at the bottom have been sluggish and are taking too long to grow. Altoghether though I see how growing basil for commercial production year-round is within reach.