Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Rethinking my soil

Well apparently I still won't be getting my veggies in ground yet.  Since I was making holes in my ground for the poles to hold up the shade cloth, fence, and bird netting,  I think my soil still has a little too much clay.  Even after getting the 3 truck loads of horse manure with the 20  3 cu. ft. bags of garden soil, and 2 trucks loads this year.  I realize I need to go ahead and add the garden soil this year too.  After all I did have the soil dug deeper this year.

This week I want to talk about the seedlings.  I have been using those Jiffy seed starting disks, and have never had a problem using them till this year.  I have been having a problem with seedlings failing.  There sometimes is a white mold that grows at the top of the disk that has been killing the seedling.  I have actually never had this happen before till this year.  What I finally realized I was doing differently was three things.  One, that I was over watering the discs after the seeds have sprouted, two, that I had actually purchased a few of Jiffy's seeding trays, and started the seeds in them, and three, that I didn't have any moving air around them.

Lets start with the first issue.  That white mold eats away at the base of the plant.  It's that simple.

Second issue.  The seedling trays are set up so the disks sit side by side impeding air flow which will stop the growth of the mold.  In the past I have always used a large plastic tray.  The one you put under potted plants.  The disks have always been placed apart from each other.

Third, The moving air is necessary to help stop the growth of the mold.

When you do use these types of seed starters.  Once the seeds have sprouted pull back on the watering.  They only need to be kept wet while waiting for the seeds to sprout.  For me once they sprouted I watered a little every two days.

Have a good week.

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