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Oldiebutgoodie
| | Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2008 - 01:47 pm EST : |   
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I planted some cantaloupe and tomato seed yesterday, and as always, I'm worried about damping off. I've read various suggestions regarding garlic tea, treating the soil with cinnamon, etc. Has anyone had any experience with these sort of solutions?
I find it really amusing that until this past week, my front flower bed was covered with about a foot of snow. I happened to glance outside on Saturday to find tulips poking their noses through the remaining couple of inches of the white stuff. Today, they're about four inches high and my daffodils are poking through the soil. (There's no snow left on that bed, but there's still lots in the heaps left by the snowploughs and the winds.
Oldiebutgoodie
- Ontario,
Zone "5"
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Growit
 Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Time
| | Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2008 - 04:18 pm EST : |
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Arlene uses a chamomile mixture to prevent damping off.
Growit
- Hants UK,
Zone "8/9"
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Valia
Supporting Member
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 03:32 pm EST : |
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Are you planting the seed outside or in pots?
Anne
Valia
- UT (winter) WA (summer),
Zone "8 and 5"
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Oldiebutgoodie
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 03:50 pm EST : |
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I'm starting them inside. Here in central Ontario, it's wa-a-a-y too early to think about sowing seed outdoors. There are still patches of snow around and the frost's not out of the soil yet. I hope to put my tomato plants into the garden about the first of June and the cantaloupes about 10 days later.
Oldiebutgoodie
- Ontario,
Zone "5"
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Oldiebutgoodie
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 03:52 pm EST : |
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p.s. My grape hyacinths are in bloom alongside a big pile of dirty snow.
Oldiebutgoodie
- Ontario,
Zone "5"
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Valia
Supporting Member
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 05:32 pm EST : |
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I was thinking it was a little early to be starting anything outdoors where you are!
The only time I've had trouble with damping off is when I've used seed starter with a lot of peat moss in it. It seems to retain too much moisture. I usually start seeds in wet paper towels in a warm spot -- amazing how fast they germinate -- and immediately pop them into trays or pots with a loose soil mix that does not retain a lot of water. I put a big, clear plastic bag over them at night and take it off in the daytime. I do make sure that I'm using clean trays or pots.
For the first time this year, I followed other gardeners' advice and ran my old pots through the dishwasher before re-using them. It sure was easier than washing and disinfecting them, but someone's going to have to tell me how to get the little shreds of potting soil out of the filter in the bottom of the dishwasher! I sponged away at it, and then attacked it with a brush, but they are still there.
Good luck with your seedlings. What else are you planning to grow in your vegetable garden?
Valia
- UT (winter) WA (summer),
Zone "8 and 5"
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Oldiebutgoodie
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 12:41 am EST : |
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We have a very large vegetable garden - about an acre. We have perennial asparagus and strawberries. I generally have a lot of volunteer sunflowers. I always put in peas, cooking onions, Spanish onions, Dutch sets, parsnips, carrots, beets, three varieties of potatoes (generally Alaska gold, Chieftain, and Irish cobblers, but sometimes I vary - last year I had an amazing crop of California whites) lettuce, radishes, Swiss chard, yellow beans, Royal Burgundy beans, a lot of cucumbers, (I try to put down 50 jars of pickles annually. I've had serious crop failures for the past two summers, though.) squash, pumpkins, gourds, cantaloupes and tomatoes. I had really good luck with broccoli one summer, but I haven't found good plants in the nurseries since.
We have a friend who grows corn for his roadside stand, and he's got that down to a fine science, so we don't plant any. We try very hard to avoid chemicals on our garden, and the bugs ate my cabbage and cauliflower, so I don't put them in anymore. I'm afraid I'm going to have to spray my cukes, though.
We have two apple trees and two pear trees, some gooseberry bushes and a couple of black currant bushes.
We're still eating potatoes, carrots, parsnips and onions from last summer's garden, besides the produce I've canned.
As you can probably guess, between the vegetable garden and my flower beds, I'm pretty busy during the summer months.
Oldiebutgoodie
- Ontario,
Zone "5"
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Valia
Supporting Member
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 12:55 am EST : |
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Wow! Sounds wonderful!
I wish you were my neighbor.
Anne
Valia
- UT (winter) WA (summer),
Zone "8 and 5"
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Oldiebutgoodie
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 01:02 am EST : |
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If you're ever in the neighbourhood, please drop in, Anne. There's always plenty of good stuff from the garden to share with family, friends and neighbours.
Oldiebutgoodie
- Ontario,
Zone "5"
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Valia
Supporting Member
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 11:32 am EST : |
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Thanks, Myrna, I'll do that!
I have relatives in BC, Quebec & Nova Scotia, and I've dreamed about taking a trip across Canada. Maybe that dream will come true some day. I've added a new scene to my dream: a fresh veggie snack at Oldiebutgoodie's.
Anne
Valia
- UT (winter) WA (summer),
Zone "8 and 5"
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Big_bwana
| | Posted on Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 03:21 pm EST : |
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Preventing it is easer to do then treating it just use a good seeding mix which has been sterilized ( just bake it in the oven 200 deg for an hour, if you can't buy sterilized mix ) and sterilize your pots/ trays with a simple water and bleach mixture ( see the bleach bottle for the right mixture and soak it for at least ten min ) I have yet to get damping off in over ten years.
But should it happen, this is how you can fix it along with most other fungus problems, Copper sulfate and lime work good.. You can get both from most agricultural stores and pond supplies store as it is used by both...
See http://www.copper.org/applications/compounds/copper_sulfate02.html for mixing instructions.
To see what it controls see http://www.copper.org/applications/compounds/table_b.html
And if you only have a few trays ?? you can get ready made No-Damp fungicide which you add to the water and treat your plants
Big_bwana
- Alberta,
Zone "3a"
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Heirloomgardens
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Garden Journal
My Garden
| | Posted on Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 08:35 pm EST : |
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It's probably too late for you this year, but for future reference...
I have always used pure peat moss (with organic fertilizer) for starting seedlings and I've never experienced damp-off. The second year I started seedlings, I topped off my peat pots with vermiculite. Not only does that help prevent damp-off, but I discovered that it also keeps the peat pots from drying out as quickly. This year I started everything in pure vermiculite and potted up into plastic cell plugs filled with peat moss and topped with vermiculite. No damp-off whatsoever.
Heirloomgardens
- Massachusetts,
Zone "5b"
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