Re: Germinating seeds?
- To: propagation@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Germinating seeds?
- From: M*@aol.com
- Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 19:22:30 EST
In a message dated 2/24/99 4:29:39 PM Central Standard Time, peggy@unicom.net
writes:
<< I have always wondered whether using sugar for this purpose would
promote the growth of unfriendly bacteria and fungal disease? Has
anyone noticed any difference in this regard between using sand v/s
sugar?
>>
If you start with clean medium the sugar will not introduce any pathogens,
second most pathogens live on plant tissue not on what is in the soil.
Sugar is also a good source of nitrogen for the plants, the down side might be
that it can be a food source for fruit flies.
If I might respond to the vermiculite question here, Yes vermiculite would be
a good medium to START seeds on if you use a very fine grade. The problem
comes in when you do not move the seedlings. Vermiculite has very little ion
holding capacity and as such does not release or store nutrients for the
plants to use as they need them. But to start the seeds and grow the plants
out for a while -- it works very well. Plants are easily extracted from the
medium and it is light so that minimum damage is down to root structures.
Just before you transplant out let the vermiculite dry out a little bit and
you will find that the seedlings come out nice, make transplanting a lot
easier.
Paul
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