Re: CULT: Damping off of Seedlings

From: "Patrick Orr" <PatrickJOrr@hotmail.com>

Anner,

Years ago I had successfully germinated 12 seedlings in garden soil.  Then
one morning, all but one of them were lost.  DampOff had prevailed because
the soil was too wet and was not sterile.

This year I planted my seeds in pots of vermiculite and placed a bit of
sterile play sand on top so the seeds would not float to the top when
watered, and then they were placed outside in the yard.  The sprinklers
water them every Friday, and currently I have six seeds germinating this
week.  No DampOff presently.

A local hybridizer here plants seeds the same way, so the sterile potting
soil is necessary to avoid DampOff.

As a gardener, I grow various tomatoes, and other vegetables from seed.  I
learned my lesson the hard way with DampOff a long time ago.  Since then, I
always start delicate seeds with a sterile potting medium.  This has made
all the difference in the world, and is a lot cheaper than T-Clor.

Prior research on compost has shown that micro-organisms within it inhibit
DampOff.  However, too much compost has been reported to rot irises...I
don't know if it would effect seeds.

Bill Shear would probably have more information on this subject.

Patrick Orr
Phoenix, Arizona
Zone 9 Region 15
Member: AIS, TBIS, RIS, SDIS (local), SCIS (local)

----- Original Message -----
From: <HIPSource@aol.com>
To: <iris-talk@onelist.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2000 9:55 AM
Subject: [iris-talk] CULT: Damping off of Seedlings


> From: HIPSource@aol.com
>
> Greetings,
>
> I've thought of asking this before and passed on it,  but now the thought
> occurrs to me again and since there are, I am sure, many of us with little
> pots of iris seeds on the verge of germination, I think I'll inquire as to
> what is known.
>
> Somewhere very early on in my iris education, before I joined AIS and was
> just a lone crank trying to educate myself, I read in some iris book,
> probably none too obscure, that iris seedlings as such were not much prone
to
> dampoff, understood as a fungus which attacks seedlings at the soil line
> causing them to rot there and keel over. Dampoff is a real problem with
other
> plant seedlings, especially when sown inside since it profits from
conditions
> of poor ventilation and overhumidity, and it can spread through a pot or
flat
> in a matter of days taking your dreams with it. I figured that maybe we
did
> not see much dampoff with irises because they were monocots or something,
and
> I've never had occasion to doubt the words I read since I've never had any
> dampoff of an iris seedling. Most of what I have done have been beardless,
> but I've done others as well, and I've done a lot inside. Occassionally
I've
> had one or two rot when the soil was too wet, for it takes experience to
know
> how much water they want, especially after germination, but I've never
lost
> any iris seedlings to what was clearly dampoff.
>
> What I would like to know is this. In the experience of the list, how
> prevalent is dampoff in iris seedlings, and are some kinds of irises more
> prone than others?
>
> Anner Whitehead
> HIPSource@aol.com
>
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