Wool pellets make an excellent addition to your seed starting mix. Below are 5 reasons why you should use wool pellets and at the end is our favorite seed starting mix recipe with wool pellets.
Wool pellets add nitrogen, potassium, and other micronutrients to your seedlings from the beginning. They slowly release these nutrients that are essential for seedling health and growth. If you've ever forgotten to fertilize your seedlings, you know that devastating feeling that goes with losing a whole tray of seedlings! By adding wool pellets into your seed starting mix, you don't have to worry about fertilizing after the initial input.
Wool pellets hold 3 times their weight in water which means your seedlings will stay well watered. If you use soil blocks, you know how quickly your blocks dry out. Wool pellets can help retain that much needed moisture and keep the blocks intact.
Wool pellets naturally biodegrade in the soil in 6 months, all while slowly continually supplying nutrients, making them a eco-friendly solution for your seed starting needs.
Made from 100% sheep wool, wool pellets are all-natural and renewable. Without anything else added, they are safe for the whole family, including kids and pets.
Here at Kestrel Ridge Pellet Company, we source our wool from a sheep shearing crew right down the road from us, meaning that all of the wool we use to make wool pellets comes from a 200-mile radius of our ranch in south central Nebraska. Sourced in the USA, made in the USA, and for gardeners in the USA.
If you're ready to use wool pellets in your seed starting mix, here is our favorite seed starting mix using them:
Wool pellets retain moisture well, so if you’re starting seeds in trays, you might want to reduce your watering a little. Cinnamon has been shown to have to have some anti-fungal properties, so I do recommend adding it to the recipe. Our pellets are 100% sheep wool, so they do have the distinct smell of sheep. The smell mostly derives from the natural oil, lanolin, that coats the wool fiber. The cinnamon also helps lessen the smell of the wool, so if you're worried about that, just make sure you add the dash of cinnamon.
You can also watch this reel from Josh & Jo of @flgardening, where they go through the process of soil blocking using the seed starting recipe above with our wool pellets!
You can purchase wool pellets online at krpelletco.com and please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Happy seed starting!
Megan 🖤