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Sowing is an experience that is always very satisfying and educational. We can learn a lot from the whole process, from the first day we take a seed and put it in a pot, since there are usually no problems. Now, the ones that are … they can kill our plants in a matter of days.
Perhaps it has ever happened to you, that you had healthy and growing seedlings, and that suddenly they have started to wither. You haven’t seen any signs of plague, so it was almost certainly the damping-off. But what exactly is this? Can it be prevented?
What is damping-off?
Damping-off is an English term that refers to the fungal wilt of seedlings. It is also known as seedling rot or seedling drop. This disease is caused by fungi, mainly by those of the genus Phytophthora, Rizoctonia and Pythium.
The problem with these organisms is that they reproduce so quickly that they kill the plant in a matter of very little time. So sadly the best cure is preventionsince until now no really effective fungicides have been found that can eliminate them.
How to prevent it?
Although the seedling mortality rate is very high once the fungus has started to harm it, in reality it is very easy to prevent. To do this, I recommend you follow these tips:
- Use whenever you can new and / or clean substrate and seedbeds.
- Treat the seeds with fungicide (for example, copper or sulfur) before sowing them, and the seedbed once a month with broad spectrum liquid fungicide.
- Put the seedbeds in full sununless it is a shade species.
- Evita excess watering.
- put a maximum of 2 seeds in each alveolus.
- If there are any seedlings that start to decline, take it off and do a fungus treatment.
In this way, you will surely be able to grow a large number of seedlings .
