Mold

Does anyone know of a product that will prevent and kill mold that occurs when growing from seed and when propagating? Hydrogen peroxide did not work for me. And I know about air circulation but that's not enough.

I'm wondering if a little spray of diluted alcohol would work but I'd prefer a buyable product.

I would try to figure out why you are getting the mold in the first place. Something is "off" with your propagating methods or you would not be getting the mold. Mold generally comes when there is too much moisture and not enough sun/light.
I have noticed that a common mistake made is to leave a cover on after the seeds have germinated. I don't know what you are doing but is you want to run thru your program maybe we can find the problem

I use cocofiber.

I put it in plastic cups with holes on the bottom and I stick two cups into one freezer bag and I microwave it to sterilize.

Then I put the cup in a cup with a clear cup on top so that the seeds get light. I sow my seed and keep them on the sunniest windowsill that I can find.

I try ventilating them by leaving it open but there's still mold. If I take the top off completely, the seedlings dry out. I usually use this method for really fine seed that I need to make sure don't get dampening off.

I water with hydroguard.

Sorry, I bottom water with hydroguard.

I don't know the first thing about coco fiber-except that they are doing tests to see if it can replace perlite in the soiless mixes because perlite is becoming so expensive. I would think that it dries out fast-esp in a sunny window?? Is that why you put the cup in a cup-to prevent drying out faster? If true-you shouldn't be getting mold. Are you keeping the cup in the hyroguard water? That would be a problem.
I grow flowers for a living, so I start lots of seeds-all sizes, and I start them all the same way-regardless of the size. I fill seed flats with a soiless mix, spray with a fungicide, make sure the soil is pretty wet and sow the seeds-even very fine ones, on top of the soil. Mist with hot water and cover the flats with a large piece of clear plastic (or black plastic if zinnias etc). I mist the inside of the plastic as well and then tuck in the sides so there is no condensation escaping, and every morning I lift up the plastic and mist the soil and the inside of the plastic and tuck back under. As soon as the seeds are 50% or more germinating, I take the plastic off and mist 1-2 times a day. As soon as they all germinate I switch to watering the flat once a day with low pressure of water. Seedlings do better with dryer soil.
Usually the finer the seed, the faster it germinates-like 3-4 days-not enough time to develop problems with damping off or mold.
Also, I don't germinate more than one type of seed in a container because they germinate at different times and then you either have to leave the germ. ones under plastic or chance the ungerm. ones drying out if you take it out from the plastic.
The other thing to think about is bottom heat/or lack of, and it may be that yours doesn't have enough bottom heat and isn't germ fast enough to stay out of trouble in the mold dept.
Could you try the soiless mix for the finer seeds? They germ fine in it, and cover the container with Saran wrap.

I've tried bottom heat before and still had mold.

I used to use peat/perlite and still got mold. I don't let the cups sit in water, I just put enough in for wicking.

Maybe there's mold spores in the air??

Hi Michelle,

Plant Disease & Fixes: http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html#Apple%20Cider%20Vinegar%20Fungicide

I do use the Chamomile Spray Treatment: at the bottom of that page:
Chamomile tea is an excellent preventative for damping-off. Use on seed starting soil, seedlings and in any humid planting area. Chamomile is a concentrated source of calcium, potash and sulfur. The sulfur is a fungus fighter. This can also be used as a seed soak prior to planting.

~* Robin

Oh! I forgot the recipe:
To make: Pour 2 cups boiling water over 1/4 cup chamomile blossoms. Let steep until cool and strain into a spray bottle. Use as needed. This keeps for about a week before going rancid. (I put mine in a cool placed in the kitchen.) Spray to prevent damping off and anytime you see any fuzzy white growth on the soil. Chamomile blossoms can be purchased at any health food store and usually grocery stores.... ;^)

This message was edited May 5, 2006 7:25 PM

No, my problem isn't the dampening off, it's mold. That's what the expensive hydroguard is for!

I'm finally past losing my seedlings to dampening off and now if I can just get past the mold..

I've noticed when I get mold, it's for three possible reasons.

The seeds are DOA. This usually shows up when I am germinating seeds in a paper towel and the majority of them mold.

The seeds are very weak, maybe not sufficiently ripe, or they hate acid soil. The seeds will germinate in the paper towel but weakly, and when I transplant them to Jiffy pellets, they up and mold.

I water with the wrong fertilizer. I found this out with some Aconitum heterophyllum seedlings this year. They sprouted fine in a paper towel. I transplanted them to Jiffy pellets but then watered them with an organic fertilizer designed to encourage flowering. They all molded and died in a couple days.

Most seeds, probably 95%, I never get any mold with, so when I do, I think it is something about the seeds being weak. I would say that if it's more than a minority of your seedlings getting mold, then it is something about your practices. If it's just a minority, then I would think it's the seeds.

The rotting peat is the problem. Do not use anything organic other than living Sphagnum Moss. Buy dried "long fiber Sphagnum moss". Grind it in your blender to the size you want. Revive it with water a little fertilizer and sugar.

I have had simillar problems but only w/ specific seeds and I generally chalk it up to 1 of 2 things: bad seed as Paracelsus suggested and my own incurable inclination to overwater. Another thing, in Houston it's humid in general so covering seeds for more than the 1st 24 to 48 hours contributes to mold. I germinate most seed in the house out of the ungodly humidity but sometimes that's not enough. I do admit that I am fairly lazy and use commercial potting soil specific for seed germination- do you think the peat is part of the problem?

Yes, April; get some lime and put it ontop of your seeds & water it in quick.

I checked on some of my seeds that I had started in peat; and found out it was the peat, too.
I took some of them out & washed them off with the peroxide treatment, added lime to the soil & put them back in. They were trying to sprout though.

~* Robin

Thanks! Will do it!

Ohhh, the acidity can cause it?

Right now I'm taking advantage of the free lighting and warm air outside for my seedlings. I germinate them in covered containers and prick them out and pot them up as they sprout.

Things look good so far.

CaptMicha, I grow in coconut husk chips. Coco (coir, CHC, fiber) is supposed to be pH neutral.

This message was edited May 20, 2006 5:17 AM

most commercial "peat based" soiless mixes contain a slow release lime charge that keeps the PH around 6.3 or so. Better to see if that is what you are using first before applying lime. If you are just using plain peat than the PH is lower.

Thanks, will check all.

Thank for web site

*~~]:^)

~* Robin

I've been using the chamomile until my hydroguard arrives, it seems to be helping with the mold!

This is what a grower I know uses:

Zerotol - http://www.greenfire.net/hot/P195.html

Dax

Yeah, I was wrong about the chamomile for mold...

I can't afford the zerotol, even though it sounds perfect. I think I'm going to try Natamycin, which is a natural mold inhibitor which was listed on my cream cheese container. They use it for food preservation, obviously.

Yeah Zerotol is too expensive for noncommercial use, don't you think?

Well I hadn't done any further web-searches, but that stuff sure is the real deal.

I just knew it would be perfect :)

Take care,

Dax

I had a outbreak of pythium on my pansies last fall-it came in the dirt that I used for the plugs ( it was old-even though I had just got it in) and the pythium had a resistence to Subdue-which is usually the most effective fungicide for pythium. I spent over $ 550.00 on Zerotol to treat the crop-and it didn't do a thing to the pythium-it was a waste of money. I still have a 2.5 lb jug of it.

WOW! That was a very expensive nothing!

yeah it was, and I had such high hopes for it- I think its a "feel good" solution, everyone talks about hydrogen perioxide as a great solution for when you have a fungus, but I think once you actually have a fungus, esp one like pythium-its going to take a real fungicide to control it.

I would like to hear about people that had a fungus ( that was confirmed in a lab and specifically identified ) and successfully treated with zerotol. I am not sure that its even a good preventative. I think the best preventative is to use sterlized pots/flats ( or new), new dirt and to grow on the dry side with the appropriate amt of fert for the size of the plant. One thing that didn't help the pansies was that I was fert with 300 ppm of fert and I should have been at 200 ppm/week

Hmmmm. I won't name who uses the stuff, but he swears by it, uses it for conifer-growing both cuttings and grafts. He also uses a 50:50 perlite/peat mixture for cuttings and another mix I didn't ask about for his grafts.

He's over 90% success rate (which is high I believe for a production conifer nursery). VERY HIGH!

Thanks for your experience tigerlilly. Sorry to hear that.

(and here begins the debate)

Dax

Theres no debate...so far. Unless you know for a fact that the grower had an identified fungus and then used the zerotol and was successful in eradicating the fungus-then you don't know whether the zerotol stops a fungus. You just think its a good preventative-cause you haven't gotten a fungus. Thats not enough to say that zerotol works. I can say without a doubt that it didn't work on my fungus-and I drenched-using the full strength rate.
Ask your friend if he has successfully used it for a fungus -and which one-cause that could be relevant. The reason why is that the way it works is to kill on contact any active fungal spores-so if it is a airborne fungus like rhizoctonia or anthracnose than the spores are right there on the surface and are easier to kill-thats one reason why the fungicides for these are fairly inexpensive. Daconil, Clearys etc. But when you get to the soil fungus like pythium, phytopthera-those spores are in the soil and most experts will tell you that the hydrogen dioxide is not effective in killing spores in the soil.
I can't tell you whether Zerotol is effective in killing any spores, I have never used it for the airborne ones, but I can say it did nothing to stop the pythium. Truban, a fungicide was what slowed it down. Really, what happens when you have an outbreak of pythium or phytopthera is that you use a systemic fungicide to protect the healthy plants from the fungus that is heading their way. You can't save the infected plants-not usually. I don't think Zerotol is a systemic. I think it does oxygenate the soil. So does keeping the soil on the dry side when you grow.

People, Hydrogaurd WORKS on pythium!!!! I didn't have any dampening off when I used it and I didn't even sterilize the soil in the sandwich bags which I grew the seeds in. (

Right on tigerlilly. I haven't even read the label but you're right as I do recall him saying he sprayed once every two weeks religiously, whatever that may be understood as. I just know he told me it was quite safe stuff, that re-entry was fast, and that he stressed should I use it, to go over the label which is where I neglected to do so myself upon answering to this thread.

I don't know the answers, but I'll definitely go read the label now.

I also seem to remember him mentioning that it was a contact fungicide/algicide, but the conversation is far from my memory right now.

Thanks for your help,

Dax

That's weird... The rest of my message got cut off...

CaptMIcha...did you have a bonafide case of pythium that the Hydroguard erradicated? I used the baciillus ssp on the pythium and nothing-I don;t think there was anything that I didn't try-to the tune of about $ 2-3 thousand worth of trying! Once a fungus like pythium is established -it is one of the hardest funus to get rid of. As a preventative, it might help a lot-and I am thinking of using it on the pansy crop, but once the fungus is there-its a different story.

Yeah. I already had my seedlings infected and it prevented it from happening to the rest of the seedlings that came up. But you have to keep in mind that once the stem has weakend from the pythium, nothing can bring it back. In seedling cases. I haven't had the fungus problem on plants.

I've had a 100% sucess rate. I LOVE this product and I stand behind it.

But... I still don't know what to use on the mold. If I had that taken care of, I'd be golden.