Damp-off of very young seedlings has never been that much of a problem for me, but I think the reason for that may be how I germinate them to begin with. It's a cue I took from my mother, which is basically to put the seeds in the same pot (around the edges of the pot) with an adult plant then water the adult plant the way I normally would. It means I don't use bottom heat and whatnot, so things sprout when it naturally becomes warm enough for them, but pretty much I don't worry as much about damp-off because there are older roots using the same water in the same pot. It's when I take the babies out that I experience problems. As I mentioned, I actually put some young Calamondins back with their Rangpur Lime host plant to recover after this winter. The other thing I practice quite a lot is the theory that it's not dead until it's dead and even if I'm sure its dead, it's worth a shot. You wouldn't believe the number of citrus seedlings and cutting grown figs I had come back to life after the moving issue the spring before last. I actually use the much maligned self watering pots, but not as self watering pots. The designers would say I'm using them totally backwards. I'll go down my line of trees and tip them to dump the water if I notice water actually standing in any of the reservoirs. (I can't imagine using them to "self water" because what that really does is create a high water table for root rot.) If you've ever taken a moment to look at one of those things empty, the bottom of the pot that sits inside the reservoir is like a pasta strainer. So long as the reservoir is always empty, drainage isn't a problem.

I don't know what others will think about them, Lizzy, but I don't recommend using any sort of permeable pots out here with our low humidity. Watering for some plants can be hard enough, and when the moisture can evaporate up, down, and every-which-way-possible, keeping the plants wet enough without overwatering can be very difficult. I even stopped using clay pots a long time ago because watering was too hard when I was using them. At one of our swaps a couple years ago somebody (have no idea who it was) brought some seedlings in paper pots, they were very small (don’t know when they had been seeded), and, to me they looked like they were really struggling to grow . I noticed that the paper looked like it was mostly dry, but when somebody picked one up and looked closely at it they commented that the soil was saturated. I wasn’t interested in the particular plants in the pots, so I didn’t look at them any more closely, but based on the appearance of the plants I didn’t think it looked like a good idea. A few years ago at a swap I gave away what I had left of some VERY old peat pots and pellets I had. They just don’t work out here in my opinion, and I gave fair warning to the person who took them. I don’t know what happened with them after that! I recommend (and use) plastic pots. Square ones are the most “efficient” since they fit closely together , and if you get the right size to fit into the “segmented flats” like the ones used at garden centers, it will make using, growing, and moving your plants around very easy. The flats have holes in the bottom so water retention is no problem. With plastic the soil will dry from the top down (rather than from "all sides") so you can help promote good root growth by letting the soil dry deeper and deeper in the pot before watering them again. Long ago I used to always wash my pots before reusing them, and then I soaked them in a mild bleach solution to be sure they were all the way clean. Then I ran out of time and started just reusing them “as is,” and, having never had any sort of a major disease problem, I never noticed any problems with doing that. I do still occasionally wash a few for a “special project” if there’s something I want to be absolutely sure about, but I find myself doing that less and less often too now--VERY few things get a “clean” pot with me! (I do still use clean pots if I'm rooting cuttings I think I might have a problem with.) I don’t now what “cow pots” are (made out of cow pies???) but I’m thinkin’ they’re something very close to peat/paper pots. If you do decide to try the paper pots, be sure you remove as much of the pot as possible before putting your plants in the ground or I’m pretty sure you’ll continue to have the same problems you did with the “cow pots.” I’ve always kind of wondered how well the peat--and similar--pots decompose even when they’re planted in the Midwest or some other humid place, but out here it just doesn’t work. Any “pot” left above the soil line will just wick moisture away from the roots, and even “pot” left in the ground will interfere with moisture moving from in or out of “the pot” to the surrounding soil. There was a thread about paper pots around here a couple years ago, and if you go to the search box on the BOTTOM of the main RMG page (by “birthdays”) you can search just this forum to look for it if you want to. Don’t really remember what all was said! If you do decide to try some of them, come back and give us a report after you’ve had time to decide what you think of them. Skybird This post was edited by skybird on Thu, Jan 9, 14 at 15:23

Well, I don't hold out much hope for the remaining three, so that's 50% this try. Plenty more left if I need to try again. I notice that the germs of these three are quite dark. I wonder if a fungus got inside the seed cases. The first two are above ground already. If they live then two plants would be more than enough for me.

I use plastic trays and either cell packs or larger molded trays and square pots that fit inside. HERE'S the type of molded trays and pots that I use. I don't even remember where I bought them. This is what I use for tomatoes, peppers, and other plants that I grow to a larger size. They are perfect for my purposes....sturdy, portable, and highly reusable. For all other bedding plants (I grow a lot of flowering plants), I use traditional #1020 trays and plastic cell pack inserts. I prefer 24 and 32 cells to the pack. I bought them by the partial case many years ago and am able to reuse them from year to year. HERE'S how the inserts are sold. They can be purchased in any configuration as well as any amount....I've seen them sold individually in garden centers. I have nothing whatsoever against reusing egg cartons or yogurt cups, but I grow several hundred plants and they need to be extremely portable, easy and efficient to move around.