Cinnamon/chammomile tea

[kgall]

Rainbowgardner...How are you preparing this to water you're seedlings? I am about to plant and I am curious about this.
Thanks!

[rainbowgardener]

I just drop a chamomile tea bag and half a stick of cinnamon in the pitcher I use to water from and fill it with hot tap water and let it sit over night. In the AM I use the cinnamon/chamomile flavored water to water the seedlings with, leaving the tea and cinnamon in the pitcher, and fill it up again. Once a week I add more herbs. It has worked like a charm, I have had zero fungus gnats and zero damping off.

[RyanDe680]

I'm confused, what is this for?

[applestar]

I have had zero fungus gnats and zero damping off.

[RyanDe680]

So then it's used to water plants while dampening off?

[rainbowgardener]

No. Damping off is the name of a fungal condition that kills seedlings.

Little seedlings are very vulnerable and you can't let them dry out or they die, but keeping them moist all the time (especially indoors with limited air circulation) sets them up for fungus. Last year I had a bad infestation of fungus gnats (which feed on fungus, but then their larvae in the soil eat the plant roots) and lost some seedlings to damping off.

The cinnamon and chamomile are natural anti-fungals and have worked very well for me. Works better preventatively - last year after I already had the bad infestation I tried putting powdered cinnamon on my soil. It reduced the levels somewhat but didn't really get rid of all of them.

[kgall]

Thank you! I am going to try it!

[garden5]

Wow, RG, I didn't know that you were supposed to let it soak overnight. I just fillet my watering container with hot tap water and threw a chammomile tea bag in it. I would steep it and squeeze it with my fingers until the water had a yellowish hue and smelled sweet; then it goes onto the plants.

I will admit that your method is probably much more effective than mine. Although, I haven't had any damping off so far (unless you count that one pepper and the tomato, which I did manage to save ).

[rainbowgardener]

your way works fine too! There's no rules about this! The idea is just to get some of the chamomile essence into the water. I'm just being frugal with the tea bags, making them last a week or so...

[garden5]

your way works fine too! There's no rules about this! The idea is just to get some of the chamomile essence into the water. I'm just being frugal with the tea bags, making them last a week or so...

Yeah....I'm drying mine out in between uses , too.

[Decado]

Can the anti-fungal effects of this kill beneficial fungi like mycorrhizae? I plan on inoculating all my plants with mycorrhizae and don't want to kill it with this stuff.

[applestar]

I don't think you'll have dampening off problem with inoculated soil because the mycorrhizae will out compete the responsible fungus. Fungus gnats is another story.

[rainbowgardener]

Can the anti-fungal effects of this kill beneficial fungi like mycorrhizae? I plan on inoculating all my plants with mycorrhizae and don't want to kill it with this stuff.

I don't know, but it does seem like working in opposite directions!

[garden5]

I agree with Apps; if you are inoculating, you will have good microbes fighting off the bad ones. You probably don't want interfere with that.

[RyanDe680]

What if you were to mix some cinnamon in with your potting soil?

[garden5]

What if you were to mix some cinnamon in with your potting soil?

Hmmm....I'm no expert, but I would say that if your goal is to prevent damping off, which is a fungal condition that occurs at the base of the plant, it would be more effective to apply this at the soil's surface.