Making the Hard Decision.

[Nan_PA_6b]

I started a few micros about a month ago, then started all my tomatoes last week. Over half of the tomatoes have sprouted. Yesterday, I noticed the micros had some kind of disease. Goodbye micros.

They were all on the same table, same set of lights. What now?

Do I just clean the table & wipe down the lights, or do I ditch all the tomato seedlings & start over, to ensure healthy plants? I have the time to start over, if I do it now. Thoughts?

Nan

[TexasTomat0]

Try to disinfect AND start new seeds in a different area? Is that possible? Could you just spray everything down that is existing with a light bleach or H202 spray? Or do you think it is in the soil

[ginger2778]

Try copper fungicide and don't ditch yet, unless they are too far gone.,lysol off equipment.

[Labradors2]

Oh no! No advice from me, just some sympathy

Linda

[mobiledynamics]

Eeeks. You guys are some hard core plant starters. I've never started this early but decided I wanted better productivity this year. What would be root cause of said issues ?

I don't use old mix and am pretty diligent about not watering too frequently.

[Hatgirl]

Oh no what kind of disease?

[Nan_PA_6b]

I can disinfect and I can start new seeds, but there is only one table with the lights over it, so starting in a new area is not feasible,

The seedlings just have cotyledons as of now. They don't look sick at all. Would copper fungicide kill all disease on the seedlings? If it would just knock the disease back without eliminating it, I don't want that. Does it hurt new sprouts?

Thanks

Nan

[Nan_PA_6b]

Hatgirl, something where he leaflets get dead patches, and it works its way along leaves. It got all 6 in the row.

Nan

[oakley]

Grrr, been there.

I had a tray go south that I started in January. Salvaged only a dozen peppers from the whole tray.
Enough for me but none for friends and family.

My first dwarf project tray was odd. Slow to germinate, then slow to advance. I may have given it my
micro green Fert by accident.

All my trays are now 1010, 10x10 inches, 36 cell. Easy to move around and spin. Last two trays with
different fresh start mix have come up in three-4 days. Same seeds that took forever in another start
mix. Go figure nothing is consistent. And why I start trays a week apart and cross fingers.


So many seeds and most are my own saved so I pack them in dense planting and cull.

Start more in another fresh starting mix and bleach your starting area.

I swear I have an eyeball cornea fungus gnat that haunts me after last year this time,

My humidity levels downstairs are all over the charts with snow melting....

[greenthumbomaha]

I'm sorry to hear of this, Nan. It's my first year that I was successful starting micros, and they took months to bloom. I now know to start much earlier. I was targeting having a few fruit by now.

I hope Carolyn can chime in here. It is a bit complicated (for me) to fully understand the mechanism of diseases spreading indoors.

Bleaching the area is where I would start. Cleaning all wall/window space too. Carpets and floors nearby just to be on the safe side in my mind.

It was my understanding that bacteria and viruses need living tissue to survive.
If you took the existing plants out of the area would that suffice? Is it necessary at all?

If you moved visually healthy plants (that may be infected) to a different area (not that you can given your set up, but lets say they were under quarantine across the room for a while) would the culprit spread from them in the air , or are we back to the question that it needs direct contact to infect.

Our homes are like mini greenhouses at this time of year,. I wish we could hose them down with cleaning solutions and open the windows (though it's 29 degrees outside) to keep the work area clean.

I would mentally plan to replant. but not just yet.

- Lisa

[Nan_PA_6b]

I don't know how this disease spreads. Since the minis and the seedlings overlapped, I feel like I ought to dump the seedlings and re-clean and re-plant. Tomorrow my mother is coming over; we can do it together. I don't think I dare wait to see if the seedlings show disease.

Nan

[MissS]

That is a very HARD decision Nan. I am sorry that you even have to think about doing this. It happened to me one year too. I just tossed them all and started over. I was very late to the gate but I still had plenty of tomatoes.

Good Luck!

[Nan_PA_6b]

LOVE the new avatar, MissS!

There is some comfort knowing I'm not the only one.

The only thing that might be late will be the pepper. Luckily those pepper seeds germinated very quickly.

Nan

[Gardeneer]

What kind of diseas ?
Most indoor plants get affected by insects than bacterial disease.
I would suggest spraying with a NEEM oil spray that is triple action :
Miticide , fungicide and insecticide.

[Nan_PA_6b]

I don't know what type of disease it is. But that's a good idea for the new seedlings I will be seeding today. Can you hurt very young sprouts by spraying?

Nan