Mangotree
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The close-ups: It looks good, but now the question is about its cleanliness. Because of the way it is supplied from the store, and the purpose for which it was originally sold, I have concerns whether there may be some poisonous contaminants in it. Read on:
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Yeah, Mangotree found a bag of sand around his home. I wanted to see the grains a bit closer, so I asked for a better close-up.
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Suddenly Mangotree posts these pictures of compost and Perlite that he found in another store. Very expensive, but better than dried chopped leaves. Mangotree explains that this compost is imported (Natural compost is not available in his country), therefore very expensive. I noticed that the compost is also completely dried out because of its being stored in the 30%rH environment there. But, when it is again re-hydrated, hopefully the microbes will again come to life and begin doing their thing in the mixture. The Perlite looks good.
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The average humidity in Mangotree's grow area is 30%, therefore I advised him to find some way to help keep the moisture around the seedling. Mangotree found and posted this picture from the internet to ask if such a method would work. I mentioned that it would help a little bit, but even better would be to find bigger bottles that cover the entire cup to help keep the moisture in the soil as well. He is continuing to work to find a solution to his humidity problem.
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Here's the mud-test. As you can see, it seems to mix well to the consistency of plaster or fine cement. I recommended that he does not use this soil.
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Still unable to find any compost, neither natural nor in any store, Mangotree had posted a picture of a collection of leaves that he was prepared to blend very fine in a blender, in order to add to his soil as a substitute for compost. Of course, that is not optimal because it would still need to go through a rotting- or composting phase before the nutrients would be available to the plant. But at that time, given that there was no compost anywhere to be found, we were prepared to proceed with this, better than nothing at all. Thankfully, Mangotree did eventually find a source for store-bought compost, as you will read later in this journal. So, he was spared from ruining the family's smoothie-blender. Mangotree disabled this picture also, but unknown why.
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In order to help him in his ongoing search for soils, I had asked Mangotree to photograph the areas around his home so that I can get an idea of his environment, horizons, trees, dirts, and such. His pictures were here, and they served that purpose. The pictures served the purpose to show me that there are not sufficient trees in his environment to provide natural leaf compost, and much of the soil around him is desert-blown and powdery. So, if he is to use his garden soil or river soil, then either one will defiinitely need amendments to add biological material and other components to make it airy. Mangotree has understandably disabled the pictures for security reasons.
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In his search for a suitable "lighter" soil, Mangotree has found this soil in another part of his yard. My comment to him was that yes, it is lighter in color, but the color was not what we had meant. "Lighter" means airy. I commented that this soil looks like a powder so fine that it might become like cement or plaster if it is mixed with water, so I asked him to do just that as a test. Mix it with water and stir it up and take another picture. Let's read further and see what happens:
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Slimjim and I differ in opinion about the use of distilled water for germination, but it has never let me down. We shall see what happens. @Slimjim, I respect your opinions, and if your objection was because you had seen this de-ionized water then I agree with you whole-heartedly. Mangotree, I had advised distilled water, not de-ionized water. There is a difference. Distilled water is not necessarily de-ionized. De-ionized water is basically like dead-water, that is why it is marked "not tor consumption". I would recommend opening this bag of de-ionized water and transferring it to a couple of cleaned water bottles. Then cut it 50/50% with rain water or tap water, and allow it to sit open to allow any chlorine to escape. Even cut 50/50, it should still be clean enough for germination purposes.
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Not being patient, Mangotree has already put the second seed into a glass of water to begin the germinating process before he had mixed his new soil. Now we are under time-pressure to mix the new soil with very limited resources. Where he lives, there are very few gardening stores, and what stores there are, there are very few choices of resources, so we will see what unfolds.