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market-farming - [Market-farming] Fungal growth on top of greenhouse flats

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  • From: "Christine & Marlin" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Fungal growth on top of greenhouse flats
  • Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 21:02:55 -0500

 

 

On Saturday afternoon, Jan 14, I wetted up some planting medium and filled some flats in preparation for seeding some onions and other things I normally start this time of year and stacked them on the floor in my basement plant room.  I seeded several yesterday and a few more this afternoon.  I noticed a little yesterday and more this afternoon of a fuzzy fungal growth that begins growing on the surface of the medium within a few days of prepping the medium.  One can see concentrated spots of cottony mycelium that sort of radiate outward from an apparent spore that landed on the media surface.  Since I don’t see the fungus growing beneath the surface, I assume that the spores are probably coming from the air or perhaps from the bottom of the tray that sat on top of a filled flat.  I have seen this other years, and have never been certain whether this has caused any significant harm to the germinating plants, but it always scares me somewhat when I see it as I am mold sensitive and have to be a little careful about working in moldy environments.

 

I used a common commercial planting medium (Sunshine Mix #1) which I had carried over from last fall but had been kept covered and dry in the original container.  I confess that I am not particularly fastidious about washing my hands or wearing gloves when I am mixing or handling planting medium and I haven’t bothered with scrubbing up my planting trays beyond hosing them off good with high water pressure and letting them air out in the sun for a few hours.  I usually use new inserts in the trays in order to reduce the risk of container surface to plant root contamination.  I would like to know what this fungus is, whether or not I should be concerned about it, and what I could use to either get rid of it or prevent it.  I would like to hear from some of you folks who have posted in the last week or so that you have gotten along well starting plants without cleaning up or sterilizing your equipment.

 

Marlin Burkholder

Virginia




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