I often wondered what would make water work better for seedlings or small plants or even the seeds alone! Sugar water salt water compost tea or what! Even a aspirin or some over the counter product to change the water to a base or a acid. Who has tried this?
I enjoy fishing ,gardening and a solar greenhouse! carpet installation repair and sales for over 45 years! I am the inventor of the Bobber With A Brain - Fishing Bobber!
I put a chamomile tea bag and a little bit of cinnamon in the water I use for my indoors seedlings. They are natural anti-fungals and make sure you don't get fungus gnats or damping off.
Last year was my first year of doing that. Every year previous I had trouble with fungus gnats, a bad infestation of them two years ago. Last year with the chamomile/cinnamon water, I had not one gnat and zero seedlings lost to damping off. (I'm also very careful not to over-water.)
I mix a little lemon juice in with my water. I live in an area underlain with limestone/dolomite so our tap water pH is relatively high, 7.5-8. You might want to correct your pH, if needed.
Definitely, just add a bit to the pitcher of water I always have sitting there outgassing to use on the seedlings. I think I could use something like a turkey baster just to suck some up from the tray under the worm bin and add it to the pitcher.
rainbowgardener wrote:I put a chamomile tea bag and a little bit of cinnamon in the water I use for my indoors seedlings. They are natural anti-fungals and make sure you don't get fungus gnats or damping off.
Last year was my first year of doing that. Every year previous I had trouble with fungus gnats, a bad infestation of them two years ago. Last year with the chamomile/cinnamon water, I had not one gnat and zero seedlings lost to damping off. (I'm also very careful not to over-water.)
Could one do that with regular grown up plants too? If so, how often? Every time watering?
...Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed...
I did an experiment last year where I kept the seeds in little viles on top of cotton just to see this exact thing. I used compost tea, coffee, water, and about 10 other things if I remember correctly. The end result? in sterile conditions, nothing made a difference as the the germination rate. They were all about the same.
However, if there is something in your soil that is hindering germination, then an additive may help. But to make this effective for you, you'd have to isolate the culprit and find out what type of additive would neutralize it.