Dampen off - Grey Mold Questions.

[Micah2oo4]

I know a lot about dampen off and the Grey mold massacring my seedlings. However I don't know if my surviving ones are at risk. I used un sterile dirt resulting in about 70-75% of my seedlings dampening off. What I'd like to know is seeing how I used the same dirt in all my pots are the others infected as well? I just got some fresh dirt and was thinking I could re pot the healthy looking ones(of course after I clean all the pots that was infected). So I'm mainly wondering if the plants seem to not be infected, (roots/stems show no sign and they are doing fine) are safe. They where all sitting right next to each other.

Also some of my sage are growing on the ground in stead of standing straight up, is this a sign of dampen off? I looked at the stem/roots and it don't seem to be infected from what I can tell. The roots of the non infected are a white-ish tan color which I think is healthy, hard to tell do to them being dirty. And my Best catnip that just grew its 4th true leaf is falling over. I can't tell if its infected or if I didn't transplant it deep enough in the ground. It looks like dampening off but it could just be the root poking out a bit higher due to not putting it in deep enough, I cannot tell.

Also I hear you can clean with very diluted soap water them and re pot them but I'm not too sure if that's true, or if I read that about the Grey mold.

Some answers would be greatly appreciated sorry if its all thrown together randomly.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know... Your safest plan of course would be to pitch the whole mess and start over clean. But I understand how much that would hurt! If you want to try rescuing some, I don't think I'd worry about trying to wash the plants. You didn't say what size seedlings you are talking about, but baby plants are delicate. I'd gently pull them, shake what soil you can off them and then repot in clean pots and sterile potting soil. Incidentally, the damping off fungus is usually a result of your soil staying too moist with not enough air circulation. You didn't say what kind of pots you are using, but don't use peat pots. Put your rescuees in plastic pots or dixie cups with holes in the bottom, leave air space around them. Bottom water only and only when dry. Hope you can save some!

Sage should stand up when it's a little seedling. Later on the big plant will get a bit sprawly.

[!potatoes!]

just a thought, but being outside (maybe with partial shade, you're starting under lights, right?) will pretty quickly kill off the mold. the fungi that make damping off happen like it relatively still, and a dry-ish breeze will work wonders.

[Micah2oo4]

I'm using sunlight in a window facing where the sun sets.

My catnip is doing a lot better outside getting full Sun.

A lot of the rescued ones died but some are just fine.

5 of my coriander have 1 true leaf and 3 are looking healthy. I lost about 4 sage seedlings but in place of that 3 others look very healthy.
However I do have a odd problem. I decided to germinate more sage seeds in papertowel ziplock bag and all the seeds have white hairs coming out of each one and the ones with roots forming are hairy as well on the roots. Is this mold or it's natural hair? I do not recall them having hairs on the last batch.

Also another plant I forgot which that is germinating (forgot to label ;_;) has yellow blotches on the paper towel around the seeds and are not germinating. Fungus perhaps?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Likely but don't panic yet; some good fungii might actually help germination, and as you don't know the crop it might be a long germination period, so I'd wait a bit before chucking it...

HG

[rainbowgardener]

sage seedlings aren't hairy. I expect it's mold. I don't think the ziplock/wet paper towel thing was the right way to try to sprout them. Sage is a desert plant. I know this may be feeling tough right now, but you need to think about plants individually... they have different requirements. In general though, way more seedlings are killed by too much water than too little.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Agreed.

[Micah2oo4]

The black mold got into another zippy bag growing other plants and grew around seeds and they didn't germinate either D:. Rosemary/Lavender/Cilantro didn't germinate in over 3 weeks with the black mold on it. However 1 Lavender which was in same paper towel was not molded and is growing fine, And 2 Cilantro popped up and was not molded as well. The rest I just chunked this evening. Black Hairy Mold. Left a stain on the paper towel.


The 3 sage that had the white fuzz on it seems to be doing fine as well.

[The Helpful Gardener]

White fuzz is likely mycorrhizae; good fungii that help the seeds and the plants they grow into... not all fungii are badguys...

HG

[Micah2oo4]

so I am guessing the black mold was the bad guy then right?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Black molds are always bad guys, mycorrhizae are usually white. You would think this was a western and they were wearing appropriate hats

HG