Gill, I worked in my gardens and greenhouse all day yesterday. It was so wonderful. While I was out there I took a few photos of various seedlings so that you could see the differences. I changed from my shutterfly account which I could not post several pictures in a row to another acct. NOW...lets see if I can post several photos in a row. This one is Arabicum Dwarf Black Knight http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5474/10503849694_f0af8af274_b.jpg This is Thai Socotranum http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/10503832356_2049a60b68_b.jpg This is Somalense http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7292/10503827184_10568dd8c6_b.jpg I have a few other varieties withing these species but wanted to hurry and get back to work as it is supposed to get cold and snowy again and I want to have all my gardens cleaned up. Ok, It must be me...I will place them individually as I don't think the above is working. Here is Arabicum Dwarf Black Knight

I've sure learned a lot from this post, you folks are wonderful..... I tried putting cuttings directly in the ground and they died... it works great with other stuff in the garden, but not roses... our soil here is different from up north, we have a 'live' soil, full of nematodes and wire-worms and virus and other nasties, also it never gets cold enough to kill off anything, they just proliferate.... but I am going to try some of the suggestions, and do it with several different roses.... I'll try the bleach method, diluted, also peroxide diluted, also Lysol diluted, and honey... but I'm not sure if the honey is diluted or used full-strength.... maybe someone will chime-in with more detailed information ? I'm going to use straight Perlite and the pop-bottle method and if anything works I will post it here.... especially for Fla. rose-folks because some did chime-in and our soil and climate is so different..... Thanks again for all the information, wish me luck !! sally

What I do if (when) this happen to me depends on the size of the seedlings and the severity of the infection: First, I always water them with a fungicide. If they are very small and only a few have died I decrease watering and hope that most of the seedlings will survive until they get bigger. If they are bigger and/or the disease is spreading I separate the seedlings and plant them in individual pots (I have very small pots that dry out fast enough).

You are lucky if you have started seeds indoors and have not experienced damping off. Keep doing the same thing. Damping off is caused by any one of several microscopic fungi which grow on the surface of the soil. Young seedlings are attacked and their stems shrivel at the soil line. They topple over. This usually happens within the first few days after they emerge. It is fatal. My thinking is that prevention is easier than a cure. Seed starting medium that is infected with spores of the fungus will cause problems. I normally make my own soilless mix. I think my bale of peat moss had become contaminated. This year that mix caused damping off, which I treated with partial success with chamomile tea. I had much greater success by starting over using fresh commercial mix (ProMix BX). The instructions with this mix warn against leaving it open to contamination, so I store it in a sealed container (plastic garbage can) and only moisten enough to use immediately. This sort of mix (Jiffy, Miracle Gro and other brands) has many advantages. I recommend it. Jim