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  • From: "Shawnee Flowerfarmer" <farmingflowers AT hotmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Fungal growth on top of greenhouse flats
  • Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 21:03:53 -0600

Hey Marlin

I have  started  thousands of seeds and cuttings over the years, some seasons with utmost care and cleanliness 'by the book' and some seaons a bit more cavalier ignoring 'the book'.  Just this morning, I saw what I think is the same fuzzy fungus that you observed on my flats of catalpa seeds.  I don't know the name of it--and I hope someone responds to your message who does because I would like to know also--but it always grows on organic matter in the growing mix, not on the seeds/cuttings and doesn't seem to affect germination or rooting. 

Usually, I fill a container with a 10% bleach/ water solution and dip flats/inserts before filling with germinating mix.  If the budget allows, I prefer to use a food sanitation product for sterilzation which uses  iodine rather than chlorine because it's easier on me and my blue jeans.

 I have used Sunshine products and like them; this fungus appears on every product that I've ever tried and hasn't been a problem to germination.  Currently, I am using a custom mix, sterlized, from a horticultural company that supplies many growers in this area whose products are superb.  And yet there is the fuzzy fungus.  I do  carefully control water-an economic necessity-- and humidity as much as possible  in the greenhouse, but life finds a way. 

I am also pondering the economics of using soil mixes than incorporate beneficial bacteria /fungi as a way to head the bad guys off at the pass.  Given the increasing costs of seed...but perhaps next year.

Most often, I find that temperature is   important in germination.  Germination heat mats can go a long way to forgiving the gardener's sins in the greenhouse or in your basement under lights.  Germinating at too cool a temperature and too high a humidity can require a frustrating reseeding of flats, and seed is murderously expensive these days...not to mention the time lost to do so.  Sometimes, you can start out as sterile as if you were doing open heart surgery, but too cold and damp, and lose the patient entirely. 

-Shawnee, zone 5

 


From: "Christine & Marlin" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>
Reply-To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
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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