A high-quality plant starts with a healthy and strong seedling or cutting. When choosing a substrate to sow seed or to root cuttings, growers often wonder which substrate to use. Choosing the right substrate not only depends on the physical properties of the substrate, but also on the type of plants to be grown, the growing environment and the availability of the substrate.
Substrate is comprised of a large number of particles. The particle size distribution defines the substrate's texture. Components such as peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, bark, coir, wood fiber, sand, etc. have particles of different shapes (granular, blocky, prismatic, platy or massive), and the size can be coarse, medium or fine. The size of the particles depends on the nature of each component. The structure of a substrate is determined by the way in which the particles are arranged in the substrate.