Damping off disease

[Chuck]

This time of the year many of us will be planting seeds. We hold our breath waiting for the seeds to sprout and when they do we give a sigh of relief thinking all is well. And then what happens! Our seedlings get 3 or 4 inches tall and suddenly just fall over and die for no apparent reason. This is caused by a fungal disease called damping off and it only affects young seedlings. What it looks like in its early stages is the flattening or shrinking of the base of the plant right at soil level. If you can see it you might just as well start over because the plant will be stunted if not killed and production, if any, will be limited at best. As stated before this disease only affects young seedlings and there are ways to prevent it. The easiest way is to use sterilized seed starting soil. You can either buy it or make your own. I prefer to make my own because then I know for sure it is sterilized. Another way to prevent the disease is to incorporate whole ground, stone ground or horticultural corn meal into your potting soil or compost seed starting mix. 15% per volume works great. This cornmeal is NOT the stuff one normally sees at the grocery store. If anywhere on the bag or box it says "enriched" it is not the cornmeal you want. It must say whole ground or stone ground. Myself, I use both sterilized soil and the cornmeal and I take no chances. I do a lot of experimentation on tomatoes and some of the seeds are $.50 each and many almost that much, so a bunch of dead seedlings is not a good thing. I start out by sterilizing the soil. I use my homemade compost, well composted and then sifted through 1/8" wire. I put this soil into a #3 washtub and then build a fire under it until the soil reaches 170F, keeping it stirred and heated evenly. Then I put 10 quarts of this sterilized soil into my wheelbarrow and add 1 1/2 quarts of the cornmeal and mix thoroughly. After I plant the seeds I sprinkle cornmeal over the soil until I can't see the soil. It works. I haven't lost a seedling in many years to damping off by doing this.

 

[CanadianLori]

This is a timely thread. Thank you for reminding us all to get a quality start.

 

[Sheal]

How does the cornmeal make a difference please Chuck?

 

[Corzhens]

We also clean the soil (not sure if it is the same as sterilizing). Like a rice field, we plow the soil with a trowel and check on the color. After screening the soil for stones and small rocks, we would mix compost or any organic fertilizer that is available. Then we leave the soil like that for 2 days before preparing it for planting. But with the seeds, we usually have a seed bed that is in another part of the garden.

 

[Chuck]

How does the cornmeal make a difference please Chuck?

All horticultural cornmeal does is to provide the best growing medium for a fungi named Tricoderma. Tricoderma is present in all soils but only to a limited degree. Tricoderma is a fungus that attacks and kills harmful fungus both in the soil, on plants and humans. There has been a lot of research on this organism in the past few years but its effects have been known for centuries, as in the case of toe nail fungus. Yes, horticultural cornmeal cures it too. Anyway, tricoderma's favorite place to grow and multiply is on the surface of raw cornmeal. Raw cornmeal is not the stuff you make cornbread out of from the grocery store. That is enriched cornmeal, which means that most of the nutrients have been polished away and basically unenriched. The best place to get it is at a farm and ranch feed store as it is relatively inexpensive. I just bought a 50# bag and it cost $21.95. It can also be obtained at some nurserys and grocery stores but it is much more expensive as it is food grade.

 

[Sheal]

Thanks for the information Chuck. I don't know if I'd be able to buy it here, I'll have a hunt around. I've been lucky until now and not suffered this problem but it's worth keeping this in mind should things go wrong.

 

[Chuck]

Thanks for the information Chuck. I don't know if I'd be able to buy it here, I'll have a hunt around. I've been lucky until now and not suffered this problem but it's worth keeping this in mind should things go wrong.

What the processors of the corn bread type cornmeal do to make it, is to get regular dried field corn and polish or grind away that hard outer shell of the kernel leaving behind the inner portion thus removing most of the nutritional value. All that is left is the starchy inner portion of the kernel. You can make the horticultural kind yourself if you obtain a grain mill. It is also known as cracked corn used in chicken feed but it is not as finely ground as the meal but works just the same. You say you do not have the problem of damping off disease but how about blight or downy mildew or any fungus that attacks your vegetables? It works on that too. Most of the harmful fungi lives in or on the soil and is wind blown and being wind blown makes the cornmeal less effective than on damping off. If you have recurring problems with fungus you can make a tea out of the cornmeal and by applying a strict spray regimen you can greatly reduce the damage and in some cases stop the fungus altogether especially in humid areas. I would like you to try it on late blight, something I don't have the misfortune of having although I do have perpetual early blight. It works on early blight but it doesn't really matter here because the plants affected will be burned up soon anyway and have stopped producing. If you can find the cornmeal I would like you to sprinkle it around the base of your tomatoes or whatever is susceptible to the late blight and spray regularly with the corn tea. Who knows, it just might be a cure

 

[Sheal]

I don't grow vegetables in my present garden. The climate and my sandy soil are too much like hard work as I live just 250 yards from the sea. Last summer the weather was so bad here I didn't think my annual flowers would bloom either, they were quite late. I grow tomatoes in my greenhouse in buckets and have not had problems with blight, mildew or any fungus. A couple of years back I had blossom end rot but I put that down to a heritage tomato I had grown at that time and the rot was on just that particular type of tomato. Things will probably be a whole lot different when I eventually manage to sell my house and move to another area.

 

[Chuck]

I don't grow vegetables in my present garden. The climate and my sandy soil are too much like hard work as I live just 250 yards from the sea. Last summer the weather was so bad here I didn't think my annual flowers would bloom either, they were quite late. I grow tomatoes in my greenhouse in buckets and have not had problems with blight, mildew or any fungus. A couple of years back I had blossom end rot but I put that down to a heritage tomato I had grown at that time and the rot was on just that particular type of tomato. Things will probably be a whole lot different when I eventually manage to sell my house and move to another area.

How's the fishing?

 

[headfullofbees]

How's the fishing?

Not bad.
Mackerel in the summer, sea bass, a number of codling species, rarely a cod or haddock, the odd sea trout and tope.

 

[Sheal]

I wouldn't fish off the beaches in Manx waters Chuck the Irish Sea isn't very clean.

 

[Chuck]

I wouldn't fish off the beaches in Manx waters Chuck the Irish Sea isn't very clean.

I have seen pictures of what seems to be low tide images with boats high and dry. It looks like the tides are very high and nothing except flat mud and maybe sand bottoms. Here we have very low tides with the same bottoms but with deep ditches or cuts which can be fished from the beach. How can you fish from the shore when half the time the water is a long way off. To me it is a whole new world over there from gardening to fishing to everything else. I wish I had the means to take a long trip over there. I find it quite interesting

 

[Sheal]

I can only think of one beach here that has mud flats and nobody uses it. The rest are either sandy or stony as you see below.

The tides do come up very high and if the weather's bad and combined with 'Spring' tides (higher than normal) then there will be over topping (flooding) into towns and streets. If anyone wants to fish like the chap above, then they have to wait for the tide to be in the right position, or they can fish from harbour walls. The other option is Course fishing, rivers and reservoirs, and licences are required for any fishing. I wouldn't eat any fish that's been caught from a beach owing to pollution. Any fish brought in from vessels is fine and the island is famous for its Kippers (smoked herrings) and Queenies (small to medium sized scallops.

Chuck I wish I could give you access to my Manx photo files, I think you'd enjoy looking through them.