@bogman
Thanks a lot for your explanation, learn a lot!
Do you have pro tips to test if the grains are still of any good without the need to wait 2 weeks?
I have to confirm that I have 3 black plastic trays similar to yours, I have never trouble in growing any type of seedlings. I never used Styrofoam, no comment there.
I don’t reuse potting mix anymore, as I learned it in the hard way, at times it can be really problematic. I had seeds not germinating and young plants died which I suspected it was the cause.
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First, the best way to keep seed alive is dry and cold. Airtight glass jars, in the fridge work well.
The fastest way to check viability is to soak a sample of the seeds overnight in water that’s close to germination temperature. Then, rinse the seeds off in a fine sieve, drain, and wrap/fold in damp paper towels. Put the seed, paper towels in a jar and record the date. For cool growing crops like peas, fava beans, keep the sprouting seeds about 60-65 F (16-18 C); for tomato, beans peppers, keep the container about 78-84 degrees (25-29 C). Usually, seeds germinate better in the dark, but some seeds, like celery, need light. For those requiring light, you’ll want to use a cool fluorescent or LED light, about 4 hours or so for the first 4-6 days. Sunlight may overheat the jar (mini solar oven).
Start checking the seeds after a few days, and again every couple days for a week or two. Once you see root tips growing out of the seed, you know it’s alive. Usually, you can see results from the above method faster than by sowing in soil, where you can’t see the root tip and must wait for the stem to form and break the soil surface.
It’s useful to count the seeds before you begin and use numbers like 10, 20, 50, 100, so you can get a germination percentage. This can be recorded on the seed container. If germination is 50% and you want 12 tomato plants, you know that at least 24 seeds will be needed.
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“Reusing potting mix is definitely a bad idea”
Yes, I know, but I have 15 or so Earthboxes, each with about two cubic feet of promix, and the Earthbox folks say it can be reused for years. I do mix it with fresh, and dump some of the old on my yard as mulch each season ( I do two or three rotations a year) . I can’t fathom dumping it all and starting fresh every year. I would be dumping about 13 bales of Promix! Seems so wasteful, and that doesn’t fit with my idea of gardening. I’d probably just try to limit my gardening to a fraction of the plants. I’m sure that’s what it will eventually come to, same as I had to eventually limit my vegetable gardening to containers. Lately I’ve been experimenting with “deep water culture” for my smaller pepper plants, and skipping the soil altogether.
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"If the styrofoam performs better, it may be the heat mat is running without a controller. Styrofoam does not transfer heat well; most of the heat is wasted, goes into the air, around the trays. "
That makes sense. I only start my tomatoes and peppers indoors and on mats ( I start peas and beans outside) , and generally think of the mat as heating the environment ( a closet and after germination a light stand draped with a frost protection cover in my unheated garage) because the trays are more than an inch away, on top of reservoirs. I keep thermometers in the closet, in the garage, and where I move the plants for hardening off, and they seem to make enough of a difference. I’m not trying to do anything too ambitious. I mostly just try to take advantage of an already good situation.
I did buy a new heating mat this year, no controller, and I didn’t get around to using it.
“RELIABLE RESULTS: VIVOSUN’s professional heat mat maintains temperatures in the sweet spot of around 10℉-20℉ above ambient air temperature - perfect for seed starting and cutting propagation!”
“Yes, I know, but I have 15 or so Earthboxes, each with about two cubic feet of promix, and the Earthbox folks say it can be reused for years. I do mix it with fresh, and dump some of the old on my yard as mulch each season ( I do two or three rotations a year) . I can’t fathom dumping it all and starting fresh every year. I would be dumping about 13 bales of Promix! Seems so wasteful, and that doesn’t fit with my idea of gardening.”
Ah, now I have a better picture of what you are doing. I managed a large number of big to huge pots for a large estate and reused the soil in those pots, but there are tricks to this and there are times when the soil has to be composted.
Pro Mix, or any mix will break down, get mucky, lose nutrients and become acidic over time. The latter may not happen if your water is alkaline. Mixing in some aged compost annually can help with the nutrients. Seaweed extract and Plant or Garden Tone (Espoma) can also add broad-range nutrient boosts. Perlite can aerate and prevent/correct mucky soil whose particle size is too small. Dolomitic lime can correct acid soil. For the latter, you’ll need pH paper or a good meter. Don’t waste your money on those cheap meters with two metal probes that go in the ground; I’ve never seen one that worked.
Small plants may have trouble going into used soil that has no resting period. Before replanting, it’s best to let large containers sit empty for at least a week or two and approach drying out; this creates an unfavorable soil environment for pathogens. The pathogens starve (no food) and get stressed, creating an environment favoring microbes that eat pathogens. During this time, the plants to be put into the large containers are staged in smaller containers, usually up to 4 inch (10 cm). It’s best if each growing season has an unrelated plant type=rotation. However, the soil can become infected despite the best practices. In these cases, it must be discarded, ideally deeply buried and/or sanitized.
Signs of pathogen contamination are usually obvious. Sclerotium fungus makes tiny, mustard-seed like growths near the soil-plant stem line. Many blights, like early blight or late blight cause quick yellowing of foliage, followed by stem collapse. If you see these things, keep in mind the stuff can spread, on your hands, by water. Carefully bag the soil and bleach the pots, far from other containers. The soil can be sanitized if one has hot sun and a solar oven, but that’s not a common thing. We built one which melted a compost thermometer! An oven thermometer read over 180 F (82 C) for over four hours.
Your goal, aside from keeping soil chemistry good, is to keep the bad guys out. To this end, it may be helpful to use Actinovate on a regular basis. This is a biological, Streptomyces lydicus, which can help protect plants from diseases. It’s not cheap, but it can help. New biologicals are being developed all the time. Search “organic fungicides” or “biological fungicides”. Always follow product labels. Most of these are listed as organic.
Much of the other successful practices are obvious: don’t leave dying plants in containers, remove as much of the root ball as possible, don’t overwater, insure good air flow, manicure plants to remove dead/dying leaves or stems, etc.
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Is there ways to save the plants if there is attack from fungus? Or it doesn’t worth the effort?
I am not familiar with that fungu, and in general don’t strugglipe with fungus problems, but last year been oil was my friend. I don’t recall right now exactly what was going on, but t seemed been I’ll kept popping up as a potential solution. I’m sure it’s no miracle, but I recall thinking it was great to have around.
Can you explain more on this oil? I try googling, couldn’t find any information.
@naf; I’m sorry. That was supposed to be NEEM oil.
SO many typos. I hope the reast of it was understandable.
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An update on my citrus plants, finger lime finally shows some life. Although I have to confirm the other 2 didn’t make it.
The plant last spring when I got it.
I hope the new growth is of finger lime, I have read that it could be the lower part of the graft plant. Let’s keep the fingers crossed.
The Yuzu was not affected at all with the frost. A lot of new leaves.
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Fungi are difficult to eradicate, once established, unless you have access to fungicides. Organic controls, like Neem can help with some leaf fungi. Potassium salts and even milk sprays can work with Powdery Mildew, Downy Mildew. Copper-based sprays work on some fungi. Powdered Sulfur is used in some cases, such as preventing Brown Rot on immature peaches. To halt Brown Rot (Monilinia) in harvested peaches, they can be submerged in hot water, 130 degrees F (54 C) for about 4 minutes. Google the problem fungus for more info.
Fungicides are regulated by states and country. In the US, Captan and Daconil are available to consumers, registered for use on food plants. Always read and follow label instructions. For ornamental plants that are not eaten, there are systemic fungicides which work better, since the plant absorbs the chemical. Some fungicides are “Restricted Use” and one must be licensed to purchase or apply them. Often, this is because the product is sold as a concentrate. Some are available without a license, if sold diluted with water or other carrier.
The subject is too vast for a simple blog! There are so many types of fungi, growing on different plants. Here, in Virginia, we have a lot of fungus issues, some recently imported and others “native”. Humidity, rain and stress favor fungi, but some are designed to attack even the healthiest of plants. So, the myth that healthy plants will not get diseased is not entirely true. I can quickly list a lot of fungi which can attack perfectly healthy plants.
Aside from good sanitation. You can also avoid getting leaves and plant crowns wet. Use soaker hoses, drip emitters, etc. Water a few inches away from the plants’ stems, near the drip line. Avoid deep mulch near stems. Water during the morning. Allow plants to approach dryness once in awhile, not to the point of wilting.
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I remember reading Neem oil might be better for preventing and controlling fungus on tomatoes and peppers, but it won’t cure them. The first time I saw mildew on a pepper plant I couldn’t believe it! . As soon as I realized what it was, I treated/sprayed my pepper plants pretty regularly. I think my big problems are usually related to heat and dryness. Mites and thrips especially.
I have used Daconil on my fruit trees during our rainy/dormant season. I keep some around, but don’t recall praying on veg.
So far, the roses are black spot free this year, when it starts to rain a lot, back to the milk treatment.
My biggest problem are peacock spots of olive tree and leaf curl of peach tree. Both have several copper treatment each year. Olive tree is kind of stable now, peach plant doesn’t look optimistic. Here the biggest problem is continuous rain, sometimes it can last 3 weeks non-stop.
This is about ere-using pottting mix in sub-irrigation planters. To hear everyone’s thoughts!
From http://albopepper.com/index.php
I’d especially like some help with thinking about " perched water tables."
And this…
“However, I don’t recommend treating your SIP like a hydroponic system”.
I do both, and for some, I’m not sure I see the difference. For example, I’m growing Creole garlic in a sip, where the soil is only a few inches thick, and I can see the majority of the roots in the resevoir. Last year the ones I grew in the sip did better than some I did in pots, and a six inch soil, two inch resevoir did better than a thee inch soil, two inch resevoir.
“I’m growing Creole garlic in a sip, where the soil is only a few inches thick, and I can see the majority of the roots in the resevoir. Last year the ones I grew in the sip did better than some I did in pots, and a six inch soil, two inch resevoir did better than a thee inch soil, two inch resevoir.”
For safe keeping, but I suppose I should move this to the container sub-forum.
SIPs » The All-Important Overflow Drain Hole Revisited
"If you position the overflow drain hole at 3”, you will have a 3” water level when full and a 1” layer of air inside each of the reservoir chambers. I would not do this but mention it only for illustration purposes. "
“If you live in a very hot climate, you might want to experiment and expand the water holding capacity of the SIP by positioning the overflow drain hole at 5”. This could extend the period between refills.”
"You should definitely product test this before converting multiple planters. You want to be sure that the extra high overflow is not causing over watering. "
"When you fill the planter, you will have a 5” high water level, 4” of it in the reservoir and 1” of wet soil above. In a hot climate, this is probably of little consequence since the rate of photosynthesis and transpiration is very high. The 1” of very wet soil will dry down in a short time and there will be no root rot.&
3 inch soil
6 inch soil
Reading through this thread makes me feel that gardening is fraught with danger and pestilence.
Here is a photo of my happy potato plants and my happy onion plants. To cheer things up a a bit. 
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Bookwich, your veggies are infested with Gnomes! I suggest beer traps to lure them away, lest they combine all your onions and potatoes into the classic “Gnomish Hot Pot”.
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