Organic fungicide for damping-off?

16 years ago

For the first time, I've gone big with starting my seedlings inside, and it really started to pay off. The pumpkins are huge, with thick green stalks, the cukes are gorgeous looking, and the melons were already showing promise of the delicious days of summer. I did a bit of thinning in the styrofoam cups they were growing in, and moved them to larger peat pots to mature until the last frosts were over.

The next morning, two of the melons were dead, keeled over, and I thought I must have damaged the roots. An hour later, one of the healthy melons nearby drooped alarmingly, and by 6 o' clock, it was gone, too. When two cukes started to droop, I started to realize it wasn't transplant damage - I've got something going on.

Postmortem analysis of that last melon showed a strange pattern I've never seen before - a nice healthy stem that looked "pinched" at the root line and collapsed near the leaves. The cukes looked similar, although they weren't dead yet, just headed there.

I've never encountered damping off before, but I assume this must be what I'm seeing. I think some combination of cheap peat pots, a new bag of starting soil, or overzealous watering has invited a nasty friend to move into my seedling trays.

Does this sound like the problem? Do I need to quarantine the sick ones?

What I've done: Lightly sprayed with weak chamomile tea and followed up with a 1:20 dilution of hydrogen peroxide and sprinkled cinnamon over the soil of the affected plants and their neighbors. (I felt a little silly doing this, but the Internet sez it's a natural fungicide.) I put a fan in the growing closet, and pulled the peat pots out of the plastic tray they were in to improve airflow around the pots in an attempt to dry them out quickly. And I've stopped watering. I would give each pot a squirt or two from a spray bottle a few times a day before. Now, I'll wait until the top soil is dry and asking for it, and I'll try to work out some process to water from below.

Is there much else I can do? If I can avoid introducing chemicals, I'd like to, but organic solutions and product suggestions are welcome.

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Comments (10)

madmagic
16 years ago
If you have a worm bin or you know someone with a worm bin, vermicompost is supposed to help reduce damping off. Perhaps a quick shot of vermitea or a sprinkling of worm poop over the soil surface layer?

(Disclaimer: I haven't tried this personally, but have read multiple references online to the beneficial impact of vermicompost on damping off, from KellyS and other sources.)

Good luck with your seedlings. It's awful frustrating when they get sick late in their growth, especially when they're otherwise growing so well.

All the best,
-Patrick
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
16 years ago
Root Shield fungal powder from Johnny's or Fedco mixed with the seed starting soil may be helpful for the fussier seedlings like melons and other cucurbits.
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Chamomile tea is a good fungicide, used as a topical spritz, and as a drench to prevent damping off in seedlings and cuttings. An apple cider vinegar spritz is also an effective fungicide at 3 Tbsp. per gallon of water - especially if you add a Tbsp. of sulfured molasses to the mix. Both work best when used prophylactically instead of as a fixative. Al
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There is mounting scientific evidence that the use of compost tea can help suppress some diseases and insects that affect plants. When looking for real evidence on compost tea, or any other product that you have heard about don't forget that Google has a feature under the more button at the top called scholar. If you use this feature you can filter out the sales pitches and read the science. Here is an overview of what I know and have learned about compost tea. Compost tea is not a miracle cure for all diseases or pests. Evidence does show that it can suppress certain diseases, insects, even root nematodes and possibly within an acceptable level in some cases. Most fungi infect plants when the leaves are very young and vulnerable so applying compost tea, or for that mater any chemical control, after the symptoms are seen is usually not going to give you any control. Even if compost tea does not give you the desired control, it can do no harm and will supply your plants with nutrients. Compost tea seems to work better the fresher it is. There is still a great deal of research to be done on compost tea to determine how it works, on what, timing of application, production methods, how to keep it from loosing its potency over time, and a lot more. By all means add compost tea to your arsenal of things you use to protect your plants under an integrated pest management approach, but don't expect it to cure all that ails. Remember that healthy plants can grow and produce fruit with a variety of diseases and insects, depending on the pest and the level of infestation. There are also new organic fungicides such as Actinovate that use beneficial bacteria to control fungi that are showing promise, but the jury is still out on how good they are. Again do your Google scholar research on these. Also Oil(Neem or Horticultural), Soap, Bt, and Spinosad, for insect control are all accepted as organic.
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Serenade is organic. it eats the spores and bacteria etc. It originally was found in soil. I have added it to water and water the soil and let stand. If the soil is full of bacteria it will eat them and multiply and basically sterilize the soil. I also use it when watering new seedlings. My opinion is that I can use more or less of it depending on the problem. I buy the liquid concentrate and add to water. For the above when watering I use less then at some other times. The above has worked for me. It is very low cost as the concentrate makes a lot of solution. Your mileage may vary and I would recommend an experimental trial before making a final decision. Originally when I had a big infestation I would spray all of the entire plants for protection. I have also used it to sterlize everything. no harm in spraying everything to help with prevention. I like it because it is very safe to use. It is NOT poison. It is a microbe that eats pretty much all spores and bacterias etc. It is completely safe to people and animals etc. Works for me. I do not claim it will work for you. Only you can determine that. spraying your plants with water sounds backwards. but the water contains this hungry microbe that is looking to eat all the bad guys. You might also consider phoning the company that makes Serenade and talk to them about your problem and see what they say.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
16 years ago
Cinnamon (yes, that same stuff that you use in baking) has a long history of being effective against damping off issues. It has natural antifungal properties. Just sprinkle it across the top of the starting medium before you see signs of the problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: results of Google search on cinnamon as a damping off control.
Kimmsr
16 years ago
Damping Off is caused by numerous soil fungi that can only grow well in soils that are too moist, so the first step in controlling Damping Off is the be sure that the soil is just moist enough and not too wet. Applying a weak solution of Chamomile tea has also been shown to be effective as well as the cinnimon which may be effective more by sopping up some of the moisture than anything else. I'm not sure why it takes most places such as UCONN so long to get to the concept of a too wet soil, but it does.

Here is a link that might be useful: Damping Off
dchall_san_antonio
16 years ago
Waaaay back when ordinary corn meal was introduced as having antifungal properties, Nandina did a lot of testing. One of the tests was on damping off. You might see if you can track Nandina down and ask what was learned from that experiment.
peter_6
16 years ago
queuetue: the solution to damping off without a single doubt is a fan. This is based on many decades of raising seeds in my basement. The fan keeps the seedlings in constant gentle movement, which does the trick. By the way, organic fungicides are still fungicides. My maxim is beware the product. Regards, Peter.
trancegemini_wa
16 years ago
it sounds like overwatering for sure. you want to keep the soil moist until germination takes place but then once they start coming up, you can let the soil start drying out quite a bit in between watering, seedlings are tougher than many people realise and they dont need constant moistening or watering. You're killing them with kindness, and all of that excess water causes damping off and rotten roots very easily in seedlings
paulns
16 years ago
I visited a college horticulture school a while back and they used no fungicides in thier greenhouses, only big fans to keep the air moving, and had no problem with damping off, so I think you're right Peter. That's our main strategy now - a small fan in the seedling room - with diluted chamomile tea in the water as backup, because it seems harmless.
nandina
16 years ago
In answer to dchall's remarks re my cornmeal experiments and 'damping-off'.

I found a sprinkle of cornmeal on soil surface AFTER seeds have sprouted does control mold on the soil surface, but not damping-off. Note: regular cornmeal appears to somewhat inhibit seed sprouting, but not completely. This is why I wait until the majority of seeds have sprouted before applying cornmeal as a mold/mildew inhibitor.

All of the suggestions above; fan to circulate air, cinnamon, chamomile tea, etc. are valid suggestions. To these I would add several more learned from the school of hard knocks to prevent damping-off.

1. Always water seedlings and new young transplants from the bottom.

2. When growing tender plants such as cucumber, melon, tomato and pepper from seed always sterilize both the seed STARTING and TRANSPLANT soil. Sure...it is a pain in the neck job but it does prevent damping-off and soil fungus problems. My method is to place soil in the pots I plan to use, set these in a big roasting pan and pour boiling water over all, cover and let stand until cool. Then sow seeds or pot up small transplants. I find that seeds quickly sprout or transplants grow well when placed in this super water saturated sterile environment. There are, of course, other methods to sterilize soil but this is my preferred method which works well for the average home gardener.
dchall_san_antonio
16 years ago
Thanks Nandina. I always learn something new from you.

Organic fungicide for damping-off?

Comments (10)

madmagic

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

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