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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] clean starting trays

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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] clean starting trays
  • Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 18:47:10 -0500


On Jan 9, 2006, at 11:53 AM, Andrew R. King wrote:

My starting mix is 40% compost. You can see the life in it. Is there any reason to use bleach to clean starting trays when your starting mix is full of life?

I never do; I just rinse them out with plain water between uses. I've been doing this for probably twenty years and never had any problems. It's possible I've just been lucky; but that seems like an awful long run of luck. (I did once, many years ago, think I had a problem with damping off lettuce; but then decided I hadn't been hardening them off right and they'd actually died of too much sun and wind delivered too suddenly at the wrong growth stage.)

I also use a compost based mix. I suspect that the beneficials in the compost take care of any pathogens that try to move in. I think that people using sterile mixes generally sterilize everything.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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