Damping off

What Can I use to keep my plants from damping off ?

I would start by sterilizing your seed starting medium. Then make sure you're not overwatering, if you don't have excess moisture around it's much harder for the fungus to get going. You can also add some hydrogen peroxide to the water when you're watering, or water with chamomile tea, both of those have antifungal properties.

Don't plant too thickly. Once the seeds germinate, thin them ruthlessly with a scissors. Crowding is bad and stresses plants, making them more susceptible to fungus. Ventilation is important too. Some people use a little fan blowing on the seedlings.

You can add something like "Soil-Guard" to your peat/soil-mix that you put your seed into. Or another product called T-22 you sprinkle on the seed. Both are for controlling "damping-off."
After they are up and at cotyledon stage, (the first 2 leaves which are usually oval but do not end up looking like the real leaves ) you can then use CHAMP, a newly designed neem-type product that you spray on the plant to protect it from most fungal & bacterial pathogens. Other neem products do not work controlling most fungal pathogens; it's CHAMP or do not spend your money at all on other neem products: most are worthless.
There are also two organic fungicides that I suggest be part of your tools necessary to grow organically: Serenade & Sonata. You will find they both are very effective in controlling various fungal pathogens.
Questions?
relasker@gmail.com

ReLasker... I agree with all what you have said. I was wonder about using T22 in a soluable form. Do happen to know if it would be possible to add water to it and use it as a drench for seedlings besides seeds and if so at what ratio?

I haven't heard of Cha,mp yet, but I know the only thing the regular neem oil is good for is polishing the leaves on plants not reducing pests.

I've had good luck with neem for fungus as well as spider mites. Never noticed any leaf polishing effect though!

Neem?? Does that work for white flies too?? Cuz I got like little tiny flies in the potting soil all the time.. I get those sticky pads but they just fill up over and over again..

Thanks everyone for all of the great information.Where can I buy this neem oil called champ ?

There is a product that good for whitefly that you can use indoors or out if your infestation getting to be a problem. Go to Walmart and get the Garden Safe brand made by schultz of the HOUSE & GARDEN INSECT SPRAY. They carry alot of different products that safe to use and works well. You just have to watch which one you get. The House and Garden spray takes care of the insects including the eggs of whitefly, mealybugs, fungus knats, aphids, ants, thrips, mites, scale, japanese beetles and a few others and for the most part it kills on contact.

it about 5 bucks for the spray bottle but it works and it good and I have asthma and I have no effects from it. It a product that can be used on plants and most fruits and veggies. It has 0.01 % of pyrethrin in it and 1.0 of canala oil .

You can use it and also get ya a piece of potato and make ya some small thin slices and put aroudn the base of your plants to and that will help get rid of the white fly. it hard to atch the white fly on the plants some times cuz they hide under the leaves and I swear they have some super sonar cuz it like they know you coming and dive down into the soil to hide so ya can't se e them.

I know nothing about the Champ other than it is a copper product, which means you would have to really watch its use and other things. I have tried evry which way I can to try and find the company that produce s Champ to get it's product , materials hazzard and safety label and so far I have no had any luck doing so. Have only foudn a few articles of growers using it to fight peach tree blight and a coupel of other diseases on some fruit trees.

Flowerpower. If you don't have a lot of plants, you can use a bit of hydrogen peroxide with water, the camomile tea think ws suggeste d above too. The biggest thing is starting with sterile soil and sterile seed. I give all my seed before planting a quick bath in some hydrogen peroxide water. Keep the moisture levels low.

If it your seedlings that damping off, don't water them, mist them. That way you only getting the soil wet where the roots are growing and not waterign the whole pot where that water will just sit there .

At Walmart you can also find the Garden Safe 3-in 1 product. It is a mitacide, fungicide and insecticide all in one. It good too for spot hitting.





Use the

starlight1153, the Garden Safe brand made by schultz of the HOUSE & GARDEN INSECT SPRAY sounds good since my DH has bad asthma too. I will check that out.. Do you happen to know if it's okay for pregnant females to use?? I was wondering what's in there, if it's organically safe and stuff cuz I'm pregnant.. And is the spray called Garden Safe or HOUSE & GARDEN INSECT SPRAY??

Icosden.... Th eproduct would be ok aroudn your hubby, but definately NOT you. Since you are preganat you should not be aroudn any chems at all. Protect your baby. Congrats by the way! : )

Since you are pregnant do this. Get you some AJAX antibacterial dish soap the one that orange colored. Put some of the dish soap in a mister and add some water slowly or you wil have foam bubbles every where and it wil be hard to spray. Spray your plant down with it and drench the soil real good with it. let the dish soap sit on your plants for about a half hour and then give them a good rinsing with plain water. Make sure ya rinse the soap out of the soil too. Ya may not get it all in the first try, but get as much as ya can.

Then don't water til the plants are almost to the point of wiltign from lack of water. The knats like the moist soil to lay the eggs in the dry soil helps cut back on that. Then put ya som epiece s of potato there and just keep changign the potao piece s every few days. The critters can lay tons of eggs in the soil so it il take a bit to get rid of them.

If ya have a bit of sand you can put that on the top of the soil too to help slow em down.

The above is an organic way and especially with you being preganant you should not be around any chems at all. So glad ya said something. Any chem product wil have tiny fume s and the fumigant will stay in the air mircoscopic that you can't se e but your body will breath it without you knowing it.

When yopu get unpregnant. The product called Houseplant and Garden Insect spray. Garden Safe is the brand name and Shultz is the manufacturer.

try the soap and potaoes and if that dont work then will tell ya what else that safe for you to use. Will take a couple of weeks usually before they all gone.

Just a word of caution on using Schultz. I used some last spring in a small enclosed room where my plants were and it stunk for days - it was actually somewhat overpowering, and very irritating to my throat.

The spray was supposed to be organic, and came in a teal colored spray bottle. I'm not sure if it is the same one recommended, but it isn't something that I would use again in an enclosed area.

This message was edited Jan 6, 2008 11:17 AM

Neem does smell pretty bad. There are probably multiple brands that have it as the active, but they all smell pretty much the same. I won't use it indoors for that reason unless I'm really desperate.

Safer brand makes a copper soap fungicide, I imagine it's similar to the Champ product http://www.saferbrand.com/store/product.asp?dept%5Fid=70&pf%5Fid=98932

starlight1153, thank you for the homemade recipe. I will try that.. Guess I always just figured if I don't breath it in when spraying, I'd be okay.. I'll leave the chemical stuff til postpartum then.. :)

How much hydrogen peroxide do I use in the water and how often ?

I don't know how critical the amount is--I think I've read where some people used it straight out of the bottle, personally I put probably a tablespoon or two per gallon of water (this is all assuming you have the 3% peroxide from the drugstore). When I'm starting seeds, I'll typically use it every time I water

Good air circulation is important for preventing damping off. once the seeds germinate, you should be giving air circulation.

Okay, what's damping off

Here is a website to read about damping off. Keeping the soil warm during seed germination, and not over watering will prevent damping off.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1167.html

Question, I have a problem recently.. All the seeds I've been planting, they germinate but promptly die off.. And they always die off from the new leaves outward, starts as soon as the secondary leaves starts emerging.. Based on what I read about dampening off, it doesn't sound like it's dampening off.. Does it sound like something different?

with damping off, the stems melt/rot from the soil upwards. Its mostly happens when the seedlings foliage is not allowed to dry out ( the cover is kept on the seedlings after they have germinated) or the soil is kept constantly wet and or watered in the evening. Seedlings can take some dry soil-not as much as a plant with a developed root system, but they need the soil to dry out some between waterings.

I am not sure that I understand exactly what you are saying, but I think its that the foliage is rotting? If so, keep the foliage dry and have some fan near by it for good air circulation (which will also help to dry out the soil some). Stay on top of cleaning off the rotted foliage or it will spread throughout the container of seedlings

Icosden... What are you planting your seeds in. What type of mix are you using ?

My seedling are dying from foliage downward.. Not the other way around.. And I have mine in an hydroponic/aeroponic set instead of soil. Does that matter?? Cuz I never had any problems before these two months..

Could be... I have no experience with the type of set up you have. If the others on here can't answer to your set up either you might make a new thread about your problem and the pics and set up you have. Maybe somebody with exprience and I know there some hydroponic people around, can help ya.

I second the recommendation to start a new thread, there's a really good chance that seeds grown hydroponically can suffer from some different problems than seeds grown in soil

Got it, I will do that and see if it's some other problem.. Thanks.

sorry - I found the answer to the question I posted here on another thread and thought I'd remove it from this one... :)~

This message was edited Jan 29, 2008 7:16 PM

Question about seed pellet planting- I purchased the trays and seeds, and trays have the ferry morse-jiffy seed pellets for planting in. looks very simple. question is I am reading about the damping off, and articles say to sterilize the soil mix, which I will if I use it, but with these pellets, I may not need to. Do you need to sterilize the round planting pellets too?(like suggested in the microwave) if so, will that change they way they react when watered, or do you sterlize with Hperoxide in the water when you first water them to plump up before you put seeds in them? There's more to this than I thought! I have never tried germinating seeds indoors, but on a very tight budget this year, and I can get 4x the anount of plants this way for the same money, so I thought its worth the effort,, and sounds like more fun too!, just worried about the damping off problem. I have Hperoxide, and to dust soil w/ cinnamon, and lots of other prevention tips - this article is good info: http://tomclothier.hort.net/page13.html. I have not seen the planting pellets mentioned though? and my trays are going in my bathroom, which has a large glass block window on west side right next to tray area. my house faces west. do you think this will be enough light in OK, or should I put in a grow lite bulb/lamp pointed towards trays as well?

I don't know anything about the jiffy pots, but I do know that you should not put the pelleted seeds in the microwave. All pelleted seeds are, is a very small seed that has a coating on it to help see/handle the seed because it is so small, and when you are using a seeding machine, it helps a lot to have a pelleted seed to use. Just treat the pelleted seed like a normal seed and sprinkle them on top of the soil/soiless medium or I guess, jiffy pot. Cover the flat with plastic to keep the moisture in after you water the pelleted seed (after you put it on the medium) and mist once a day and replace the plastic afterwards. Once the seeds germinate (about 50% of them) remove the plastic and mist/water twice a day until they grow some-maybe when they put out a set of true leaves, and then start letting the medium get dryer to get good roots.

Don't ever let pelleted sds get wet before you put them on the medium-the coating will start to dissolve. Also treat them gently or the coating will break up.

Im sorry, I did not use the right term earlier. I have the peat pellets discs that you water, then plant seeds into, in the bottom of the trays. do you need to worry about sterilizing these too to prevent damp-off? or can you use the Hperoxide & water when you first add water to the peat discs before you plant your seeds on top of them? Thanks for the info on pelleted seeds though, didnt know that either, and some may be, as I havent opened them yet- got got them yesterday afternoon.

shubbard... Don't microwave your pellets. Those pellets should be made of peat moss which is more or less a sterlized mix.

Soak your pellets to blow them up and then let them drain really good. Those pellets hold a whole lot of water especially near the bottom of the pellet for a long period of time.

The biggest problem with damping off, is those pellets get to wet, you put the top on and the humidity builds and them you have the roots of the plant rotting and damping off.

Let your pellets dry almost completely out. You can go back right before planting and mist the top of the pellet again a little bit. Once you put the top on all that moisture on the bottom of the pellet is gonna move back up the pellet and form droplets on the top of the dome as the heat and humidity rises.

You can also when ya get ready to plant if ya afraid of damping off. Instead of moisting the soil again with regular water you can use your hyrdogen mix if ya want.

If ya don't have a top do like tigerlily suggested and cover it. As soon as I see a couple of seedlings emerging, I always remove the cover then. That just my practice. It may take a few days longer for the other seeds to come up, but they will eventually and will catch up with the first seedlings.

Not sure about the bathroom window thing. I lay all my trays on the kitchen tabvle and just use the kitchen light above them til they germinate then i move then to a plant stand with work shop lights.

If ya don't have alot of plants, you can go to T's Flowwes and Things and click on the link for plant stand. You can use the same principal to make a baby stand that would fit on a table or someplace. I just use 3/4" pvc pipe too, works just as good and cheaper.

Ya, tigerlily right if ya using pelleted seeds. Make sure ya got dry hands and once the seeds hits water that where ya might as well leave it cuz you'll never find it again. LOL Once that sugar desolves them teeny weeny seeds is dust.

ok, good deal, thanks! It looks like I might need my DH to build me a stand. I have a large sunken tub I was going to put the flats in, raised up, to the level of the window,, which is about 5' x 5' glass block window faces west. I have a flex neck lamp I was going to put grow lite bulb in too, and add an oscilating fan in the room. we have 3 Jack Russell terriers, but they dont get to come in my bathroom/vanity area at all, so my plants will be safe! glad for all the advise here! I might just be successful!

ok, just an update. I scratched the bathroom, as it was too cold in there today. found a good spot in front of living room windws, and put starter trays on wood tv trays . its the warmer part of the house and lots of light from windows and skylites in kitchen nearby. I must say it takes much more reading,planning,knowledge than I thought. I read the posts here and for each plant in the Garden Helper book from Ferry Morse, and seed packets as well. I am all organized now, waiting for the peat pellets to plump up now, then Here we go planting! It will be great if I have all these new plants out of it ! Here goes somethin! :)

In reading these various threads, it was suggested ..."Mist seedlings once per week with Chamomile Tea. Chamomile tea is a natural anti-fungal and will prevent damping off." My question is, do you dilute the tea solution or use the same strength you drink?

Just asked somebody else who does use the camomile tea. and they said they just brewed it up and used it that way, and it is somebody i trust to give me advice, so i would say just use like regular tea if nobody else chimes in about it.

Thanks Starlight 1153 for you prompt response and guidance. Much appreciated.

Re: the chamomille tea, here's what I do and it has worked well for me 2 seasons: Place 4 teabags in 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup. Add boiling water to the top. Leave till room temperature, then squeeze excess from the bags (then add the bags to compost bin. :~} ).

Pour into 3 liter jug (CostCo is selling bottled water in this size jug so I grabbed one from the office recycle bin), top with bottled water.

Bottom line: I dilute mine and add probably a couple TBL of 3% hydrogen peroxide to this mix.

I use cheap chamomille tea from the 99 cent store.

I also keep a small fan going in the room where the seeds are sprouting to give them some good air circulation

I have a different problem though. I'll start a new thread if I can't find the answer in a search.

HTH, Mary

This message was edited Feb 17, 2008 7:14 AM

Sorry I didn't find this thread sooner... but I think the question has been answered well. I dilute the chamomile tea also, or just use hydrogen peroxide (1 Tbsp of 3% per quart) in the water.

Here's a DG article I recently wrote on preventing damping-off: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/277/

I don't know if you'll find much additional info in it (this has been a good thread), but it may be a useful summary.

I would just add that always removing the dome/plastic after you get about 50% germination will help a lot. I saw a few posts recently where people were leaving the dome on after the seeds have germinated, so I thought I would mention that here. You do have to mist/water the seeds twice a day after you remove the dome, but once they start to germinate-the rest will follow in the next few days. The only reason I might leave the dome on longer is if the flats are under lights that are very close to the seeds and would dry them out fast. I grow/propagate in a grhouse so I know nothing about how hot it gets under lights. I guess I would raise the lights myself high enough until they weren't drying out the soil/seeds so fast, if that were a problem.

I also poke a bunch of holes in my plastic domes, and I think that might help regulate the humidity levels.