Author Topic: Damping off  (Read 6073 times)

greenstar

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Damping off
« on: March 26, 2007, 16:27:11 »
After being smug about my tomato seed germination, I have lost some of them to damping off.  I'm in the process of potting on the survivors - what do I need to do to ensure that these too don't fall victim to the dreaded fungus?  I've done around half of them so far.  I put them in clean pots and used a reputable loam based John Innes seedling compost with vermiculite (I don't know if that's good or not).  Two questions:

WIll they automatically have some off the fungus on them, and is there anything I can do about it without damaging the roots? 

At what stage do seedlings cease to be at risk from damping off?

FYI, they are all indoors on windowsills, and all have two seedling leaves and are just getting their first true leaves.

cleo

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2007, 16:39:08 »
I`ll leave this to the experts but for my two penneth-just keep the compost moist-not wet and keep the ambient humidity low.

you can/could buy stuff-Chesunt compound? but you really don`t need it

It`s unusual for toms to damp off if you go with my ideas above-did you sow too thickly?

manicscousers

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2007, 16:53:36 »
we only water from below, so's the leaves stay dry  ;D

greenstar

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2007, 18:04:43 »
Thanks for that Cleo and the Manics

I sowed them in 4" pots, about six seeds to a pot - is that too dense?  And I tried to water them without getting any on the actual seedlings - very fiddly.  I may have had the compost too moist to start off with as they've only really needed watering once since I took them out of their plastic bags over a week ago.  Also, used compost from the pound shop, so I think I've learnt my lesson there  :-\

If they survive to the couple of true leaves stage, will they be OK?

potterfanpete

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2007, 18:09:43 »
I watered my antirrinhum seedlings that were damping off with cheshunt compound, and the remaining seem fine now - no more have fallen victims since I watered!

manicscousers

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2007, 18:25:40 »
Thanks for that Cleo and the Manics

I sowed them in 4" pots, about six seeds to a pot - is that too dense?  And I tried to water them without getting any on the actual seedlings - very fiddly.  I may have had the compost too moist to start off with as they've only really needed watering once since I took them out of their plastic bags over a week ago.  Also, used compost from the pound shop, so I think I've learnt my lesson there  :-\

If they survive to the couple of true leaves stage, will they be OK?

don't think the compost's a problem, ours is cheap stuff..I put 4 per 3" pot, pricked out fairly small..I try to keep them quite dry, then water and let them dry ish out again, I tend to under rather than over- water  ;D

shirlton

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2007, 18:44:54 »
I lost a few asters. apart from that all is well
When I get old I don't want people thinking
                      "What a sweet little old lady"........
                             I want em saying
                    "Oh Crap! Whats she up to now ?"

cleo

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2007, 20:47:43 »
as they've only really needed watering once since I took them out of their plastic bags over a week ago.

Say no more ;D-would you thrive in a damp plastic bag?

greenstar

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2007, 20:57:30 »
Nuff said  :-[

Biscombe

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2007, 08:42:50 »
Heres my 2 pence worth!

1.  Water from the bottom
2.  After sowing sprinkle with cinnamon
3.  Mist with a  very weak tea tree oil solution

Never had a damping off problem since

greenstar

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2007, 12:50:21 »
Cinnamon?  How does that work then?

Biscombe

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2007, 13:19:56 »

coznbob

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2007, 16:17:23 »
Just looked at the link, very interesting! :)
Smile at your enemies.

It makes them wonder what you are up to.

greenstar

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2007, 13:53:04 »
Thanks Biscombe - very useful!

Obelixx

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2021, 12:23:43 »
I've just been reading an article about using chamomile as a fungicidal spray that helps prevent damping off.  Anyone tried it?
Obxx - Vendée France

Digeroo

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #15 on: January 25, 2021, 20:42:35 »
I would like a fungicide to use on courgettes.   Maybe cinnamon or chamomile will do that job as well.



Obelixx

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2021, 22:50:59 »
Worth a try then.  You need to steep fresh or dried chamomile flowers in boiled water till it cools then strain and apply as a spray.

1/4 to 1/2 a cup of whole chamomile flowers
2 cups of boiling water

The drained flowers can go on the compost heap.

It works as a preventive spray for damping off but also a cure for molds such as powdery mildew and botrytis if used early enough when you spot the problem.
Obxx - Vendée France

Vinlander

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Re: Damping off
« Reply #17 on: January 27, 2021, 13:04:12 »
Bit of info here

http://tomclothier.hort.net/page13.html
Your first move should be to increase the drainage, if that doesn't work use sterile seed compost (even safer to use any medium you have if you microwave it in a cardboard box or in containers you use for meals).

No mention of using bicarb solution in the link above (potassium bicarb is said to be even better) - it's crazy to use any newly created molecule as your first response to anything - of the thousands released over the last 70 years, all but a few were banned for home use a few years later - most of the remaining ones are banned somewhere in the world, and the rest only evade this by being too new to have been caught out yet.

On the other hand the old (simple) copper fungicides (basically neutral solutions of copper hydroxide or copper carbonate) have been banned now despite the fact that they have been working harmlessly since the mid-1800s (1840 if you count the copper refinery whose smoke accidentally kept blight off several square miles of potatoes).

The zealots who trumpet that copper is poisonous ignore the fact that the easiest way to buy copper compounds is as an animal feed additive to improve the health of mammals on a poor diet (we need it too, we just get enough from a more varied diet - the WHO said in  1998 "there is greater risk of health effects from deficiency of copper intake than from excess of copper intake"). So there are literally $#!tloads of copper on pasture and always have been.

These zealots helped the 'cide companies get cheap copper off the market, and those companies are now selling new copper compounds (all more complex & often chlorinated) which are relatively untried, but are presumably more profitable - certainly much more than selling the ingredients for copper sulphate and lime solutions that are mixed at the last moment to make proper neutral bordeaux or the washing soda (instead of lime) that makes burgundy mix.

Neither of these mixes is anything like as effective if they are made as a single solution from a packet, as you don't get the short-lived colloidal copper you need.

Rant over,

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

 

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