Market Farming

[Alex McGregor <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>]

Lee,

I don't sterilize anything and have no problems. I start most of my 30+ kinds 
of
vegetables and herbs in a mixture of 1/2 good garden soil (balanced mineral 
content) and
1/2 sifted compost we make on the farm. (The rest are direct seeded.) I go 
heavy on the
compost for moisture retention in cells and flats because we have fine sand 
and silt soil
with very little clay.

I've had a problem with damping off disease (a fungus) in the past. I solved 
this by
watering only in the morning and putting the plants to bed in a dry or almost 
dry
environment. I start plants in cold frames, but a friend with a greenhouse 
solved his
severe damping off problem by raising the temp at night, altering his 
watering to let the
soil moisture and humidity go down towards the end of the day and adding 2 
big fans
inside the greenhouse to move the air around- air circulation is important to 
keep
damping off at bay. This air movement also moves the stems of seedlings and 
promotes
strong stem growth. In the past (before fungicides) they used spaghnum moss 
as a mulch on
flats to help suppress damping off in greenhouse. There are other things like 
chamomile
tea. But use these as preventatives, since the plants won't recover if they 
get it.

I'm pretty much a heretic when it comes to "sterile" mediums. They don't stay 
sterile
long and, besides, there's lots of beneficial life in my soil and compost mix 
to both
cycle nutrients for the young plants and suppress the "bad" life forms. And I 
don't have
to feed them costly fertilizer or waste the time mixing and feeding. However, 
if you're
selling plants, you have to have a state inspection here (TN) and use all 
sterile stuff
to pass.

What Lawrence said about chlorine is true- it's dangerous. Dangerous to you 
immediately-
it's unstable as a liquid and the chlorine gas coming off mixes readily with 
moisture in
your nose lungs and throat to form HCl- a strong acid. It also combines with 
other things
in the water to form dioxin.

If you have to sterilize, I would suggest using hydrogen peroxide. But be 
careful with
it. The medical grade (concentrated form) must be shipped as a hazardous 
material and is
unstable (that means it will go boom if not handled properly). Read up on it 
before
using.

Happy Growing!

Alex McGregor
Walden Ridge, TN

Lee Lawton wrote:

> For those of you who grow from seed, I'm wondering about the necessity of
> sterilizing plug flats and other materials before reusing them. I've been
> dipping my used plug flats in a big bucket with a bit of bleach and lots of
> water in it, and I do the same with 6-packs and other pots I've gotten back
> to reuse. It is a bit of a pain to do this....I don't even like to wash
> dishes, let alone hundreds of pots, so I'm wondering if it is really
> necessary.
>
> Any opinions out there?