Some people dust with cinnamon powder to avoid damping off.

I like watering with 0.1% hydrogen peroxide
1.5 tsp per cup
1 ounce per quart
1/2 cup per gallon
(Starting with 3% "drugstore peroxide" and diluting 1:32.)

I also keep coarse pine bark shreds on the surface. Water drains right through them, they dry out, and keep the surface dry.

Most people advise bottom-watering. This is how I bottom water:
http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...

Low humidity helps, unless your seedlings need humidity.
A small fan is good, even intermittently.
No digestible organic matter in the mix will discourage fungus.

To protect such valuable seedlings, maybe use a real, chemical fungicide.

I just had a thought - maybe a dumb thought.
Say one of your seedlings is killed by damping off.
Say you notice that right away.
Damping off only kills the stem right AT the soil level.

Would it be possible to cut a few mm off the bottom of the rotted stem, drop the seedling into a cup of water, and make the dead seedling into a live cutting, then hope it roots?

Rick - Thanks for all that exhaustive list. I pretty much do all what you suggest - including the H2O2 solution which is what I use for watering. Will sprinkle a bit of cinnamon and then cover with sand - these are desert plants but as seedlings they like quite a bit of moisture.

I too thought about also spraying lighting with a real fungicide.

WRT the damping off - interesting. I never tried. But in my experience, damping off usually happens when the seedlings are extremely small - TINY. Not sure how much one would have to work with

I would not that since I started using really good seed starting media AND watering with nothing but H2O2 solution, I hardly ever have damping off - just a few times over the past many years with 10s of thousands of seed.

One thing I did do was plant these in fairly large "peat" pots. Which I never, ever use any more cause I have had such bad luck with them wicking. In this case, I figured I could use it to my advantage! I figured that perhaps that might correspond to what happens where they grow. There they get moisture almost every morning from fog/mist. Then the day progresses and they dry out. Next day repeat. So I am adding a bit of moisture via spray bottle and the "peat" pot wicks the moisture away. Like the desert might do.

So far so good!

Thanks again

>> One thing I did do was plant these in fairly large "peat" pots. Which I never, ever use any more

I don't use them either, though I bought a few once. Just didn't like them.

>> I hardly ever have damping off

I figured you already know most of the usual strategies. The fact that you use many of them re-info4ces my belief that each one probably does help a little.

But there's an old saying: if you ask how to do something, and there are twenty answers ... that's because there IS NO, one, totally effective way. If there were, everyone would give just that one answer. I'm with you - do everything possible to avert damping off, and then continue to look for ways to protect the most valuable seedlings.

>> I figured that perhaps that might correspond to what happens where they grow. There they get moisture almost every morning from fog/mist. Then the day progresses and they dry out. Next day repeat.

Smart. The plant is probably adapted to it's home environment.

>> But in my experience, damping off usually happens when the seedlings are extremely small - TINY.

In my mind, that suggests that you have enough light, and only lose seedlings when fairly young. Back when I had lots of damping off, it could also occur after the seedlings had been around long enough to become leggy.

>> Not sure how much one would have to work with

Maybe that's why we never hear of people trying to root damped-off seedling stems. Or, they are smart enough to get plant matter that just died from rot, OUT of the growing area ASAP. (That's why I suggested trimming a few mm off the bottom, assuming there ARE a few mm to be removed!)

I was curious about that growth stage when the young stem is elongating. Doesn't the "hypocotyl" often have the ability to produce roots if below the soil line? Might that mean it could more easily be rooted than a similarly small chunk of mature stem?

Maybe the next time I have to thin some leggy seedlings by cutting at the soil line, I'll drop a bunch into water and see if any put out roots.

Let me know the results of your experiment.

Easier to grow from seed than cutting for most things.

It is interesting - I too hardly ever have damping off any more. Probably combo of many things.

One more seed up today.

DavidLMO said:Let me know the results of your experiment.

Easier to grow from seed than cutting for most things.

If I ever get around to it, I sure will publish any "results". So far, I only had ONE cutting ever "root" instead of "rot". And that one turned black a few days after showing some root.

>> Easier to grow from seed

That may be the other reason you never hear about anyone rooting a "cutting" from a damped-off seedling. easier to start 20 more seeds than root one cutting.

DavidLMO said:... It is interesting - I too hardly ever have damping off any more. Probably combo of many things.

Same here. I'll never really know which of my fetishes made the most difference in preventing damping off.

DavidLMO said:... One more seed up today.

Applause!

What % are you up to now?

6 out of 10 so far Rick. Needless to say I am elated. Particularly in that I thought it might take some time.

Sprinkling with cinnamon as soon as I send this.



BTW - I am convinced the H2O2 is a major factor! I use it to moisten the seed starting media and then use it for bottom watering and misting the surface. Once the seeds have some size, I continue to use it and add a bit of weak strength fertilizer - like 1/4 -> 1/3 strength.

Update....

6 germinated - 2 poorly

Of those 2, 1 keeled over in a matter of days and the other dies in a couple of days.

Of the remaining 4, 1 died after approximately 2 weeks.

I am down to 3 and 2 of these looks quite healthy - the other not so much.

I am not surprised given my research. I am not happy though. I had really hoped to get 5 up to some size.

This species grows in a strange fashion in that there are not "true" leaves that come up after the seedling throws up its cotyledon leaves. The seed throws up 2 leaves and that is all the leaves it has the rest of its life.

I would like to be able to grow on 2 of them. If not, so be it.

Crazy plant... I guess if one survives and thrives it will be cause for celebration, David!

A celebration that's culmination will take decades, even centuries...

One of my favorite Moody Blues albums is entitled:

To our children's, children's children

Mine too.

I wonder how David's children's children's children will feel about their inheritance?

Smugsville hot house? Shades of Blade Runner seems the route we're seemingly so reluctant to change; hopefully, Blade Runner's last scene will be effected but it must be initiated in our era...

jmorth said:Smugsville hot house? Shades of Blade Runner seems the route we're seemingly so reluctant to change; hopefully, Blade Runner's last scene will be effected but it must be initiated in our era...

Am I the only one that has no idea what you are talking about, Jack?

Duh - huh was my reaction.

Our children's children's children will inherit a doom-plagued planet unless we humans do something about it now...

Climate destruction...the path we are following today...will result in hot house gases (smugsville) precipitating acid rain which would necessitate wearing protective gear (masks/raincoats/umbrellas) when outside - this was depicted very realistically whenever a Harrison Ford shot required it in the movie). That playout could easily happen by 2050 (near future) unless massive measures are instituted in the very, very near future. Those measures are what we (the human race) are 'reluctant to change'.

The last scene in Blade Runner was of Harrison Ford and his cyperbiotic lover, Sean (can't remember her last name) driving down an idyllic road in a beautiful countryside, in a convertible...a very optimistic view of a possible future that is possible only through embracing those 'massive measures' in first paragraph. That's where the 'hopefully' comes from.

I think the movie depicted the 'smugville' part as endemic to industrialized cities, while rural areas retained a degree of 'pristine'. The sad fact more likely is the whole earth (industrialized and rural) will be affected if we don't act.

LOL -- I saw Blade Runner but can't say I remember much about it... thanks for the explanation, Jack!

I think the rest of the planet (now, even China!) is taking climate change more seriously than we (USA) have up to now. I think even this country has awoken to the issue in the last few years, except for some vocal science deniers who value this quarter's profits over the next generations' habitability.

It seems to me that being able to continue growing familiar crops would be in the interest of anyone who eats food. And that declining crop yields would worry anyone who is "against" mass famine.

Taking my hijacked post back.

3 look fine today - 2 of them really good. About 2 inches high.

Will try for some pics tomorrow.

BTW - grown specimens are worth a lot of money.

BTW - I WAS tryng to keep this thread alive for some time assuming I can keep them alive for some time.

'highjacked' - Is that some off-hand reference to me?