I'm done with organic ferts for seedlings

Cole_Robbie · April 5, 2014

Damping off is just killing me. I have been using Alaskan Fish and Fertilome fish emulsion on a peat-based pro mix. Last year I had a little compost in the mix, and that definitely made it worse. A little bit of that compost made it into a few cell trays this year and those plants got damping off the worst. Cold, wet weather makes it worse.

My media mix is still turning mucky and green on the top with algae. Vermiculite seems to make it worse by holding more moisture. Perlite I think makes the problem better by increasing aeration. I have been mixing more perlite into the pro mix.

From what I read, composting organic matter feeds all organisms, both good and bad. I seem to have plenty of bad around. I am using mycogrow and it does not seem to help. The greenhouse was well below freezing for days at a time last winter; I don't know how much that helped.

I am going to switch to a some generic miracle grow I have and use it in very tiny amounts to see if that makes any difference.

April 5, 2014	#1
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	I'm done with organic ferts for seedlings Damping off is just killing me. I have been using Alaskan Fish and Fertilome fish emulsion on a peat-based pro mix. Last year I had a little compost in the mix, and that definitely made it worse. A little bit of that compost made it into a few cell trays this year and those plants got damping off the worst. Cold, wet weather makes it worse. My media mix is still turning mucky and green on the top with algae. Vermiculite seems to make it worse by holding more moisture. Perlite I think makes the problem better by increasing aeration. I have been mixing more perlite into the pro mix. From what I read, composting organic matter feeds all organisms, both good and bad. I seem to have plenty of bad around. I am using mycogrow and it does not seem to help. The greenhouse was well below freezing for days at a time last winter; I don't know how much that helped. I am going to switch to a some generic miracle grow I have and use it in very tiny amounts to see if that makes any difference.