Friday, April 3, 2015

Damping-off disease on Potato seed and broccoli

 This year I had to deal with damping-off disease on both my true potato seeds (TPS) and broccoli. I was upset to find my organic seed starter mix contained chicken manure and feather meal. This lead to the soil born pathogens attacking my seedlings. This year I have been so disappointed in what I have locally to choose from.
 Explanation of Dampening off syndrome
Stems of seedlings become thin, and the fall over.

The two fungi that are most often associated with damping-off are Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium species.Most pathogens that cause damping-off diseases can also cause disease as the plant grows to maturity. Root rot, crown rot, stem lesions, basal rot, crater rot, bottom rot, and stem girdling diseases may all be associated with damping-off fungi attacking mature plants
TPS Potato seeds
On March 20, 2015 I found my potato seed had sprouted and look like this.  I had them covered with plastic. But did not have them under a grow light.

In these photo you can see the plans are wet with a 2 to 1 solution of peroxide. I also sprinkled some cinnamon on the soil.  Then added cocoa coir. I lost many of them. 
This is what they look like on March 27, 2015
TPS True potato seeds


These are blue doll TPS Potato seedlings
 The last photo they were started in a grow bag I made myself. The have Happy frog potting soil on the bottom, and cocoa coir mixed with vermiculite and peat on the top 2 inches of the soil. They came out with no issue.
Broccoli that survived the dampening off
Broccoli on 3-3-2015
You can see how I hilled up the plants with coir in the first photo. I also used peroxide and cinnamon on them too.
Here are links to more info on this issue
 http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8041.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_off#Prevention

Note,  The ancestry of Blue Doll is from (Nordic October) a red skin white flesh line and (Azul Toro)...a blue skin blue flesh line

No comments: