Last year I lost all my eggplant and pepper seedlings to "Damping Off Disease". After reading this blog I immediately sprinkled cinnamon on the soil of all my seed starting containers. My eggplant and peppers are just starting to come up and I don't want to lose them again this year! He also doesn't recommend using the clear plastic domes that come with seed starting containers because they help create a moist humid environment which damping off loves. So needless to say I also removed all the plastic domes from my seedling containers. Just click on the link below to read his blog. Happy reading!
The Rusted Vegetable Garden: Using Cinnamon on Seedlings: Stop 'Damping Off' Di...: Using Cinnamon to Prevent and Stop 'Damping Off' Diseases on Seedlings Cinnamon has some anti-fungal qualities and it smells gre...
Cinnamon, never heard of this technique. I use plastic wrap over my peat pots & remove them so soon my seeds sprout. I than use a fan to prevent damping off problems. I may have to try this, thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteFor me the cinnamon didn't work. Temperatures and soil dampness, especially at the top of the soil, seem to determine the favorable conditions for at least two of the more prevalent strains of damping off. One, the most common, prefers cooler tamps and the other a more temperate environment, like the 70Fs. The spring I lost over 200 seedlings in first transplant stage I was using a cool environment, 48F to 65F. Every time I transplanted I used copious amounts of cinnamon, sterilized pots and new soil. Still, more damping off. When I raised the temps there was no more damping off. I experimented by using non-sterilized pots and reused soil from those plants that died with damping off, the only difference being temps and soil moisture (warmer, and watered sparingly and from the bottom only)...no more damping off.
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