I consider myself an organic gardener, so the only fungicide or insecticide I have used in my garden is Schultz Garden Safe brand which is made from extract of neem oil. Is there any reason I shouldn’t use this product to treat my seeds to prevent damping off or other molds & bacteria?
Yes, I have not had good experiences with Neem on seeds. It did not prevent the mold, and the seeds never germinated.
Do you have an aversion to ordinary peroxide? That’s the simplest & cheapest product to use.
Hi Lydia,
I’m very new here, and to hybridizing. Matter of fact; I’m just getting started. =)
Could you please give a little more detail on how to use the peroxide?
Thanks!
Hi Mary
Actually this is something that’s been discussed many times & its a product in common use. I think Henry Kuska has reference to it on his website. Plus you can do a search on this site on H2O2.
Typically a 5% solution of ordinary 3% hydrogen peroxide is used to water seeds and new seedlings, as well as moistening & re-moistening seeding medium. I use it to soak the seeds (for about 2 days) after they’ve been cleaned. I soak seeds in prescription bottles & add a splash of peroxide to it. You know when you’ve used too much when it blows off the caps. Peroxide itself won’t harm the seeds. The peroxide in the water causes the extraneous material around the seeds to rot off (I really need a better synonym here) thereby leaving less material for various fungi to attach to.
I also use the 5% solution for re-moistening the coir or peat moss in the baggies where I stratify the seeds. But typically coir or peat moss that isn’t overly wet won’t cause fungus on seeds.
Use of hydrogen peroxide will not prevent the ordinary mildew that attacks some seedlings, or some rotting of sprouted seeds after planting. That has to do with drainage in your planting medium, I think. I’ve had seedlings rot & fail to come up, but I haven’t lost anything to damp off this year. Hope this helps.
Milk and other dairy products can be as effective as some conventional fungicides in controlling powdery mildew in vineyards: results of a research project from Peter Crisp from the Department of Applied and Molecular Ecology from the University of Adelaide.
Milk is diluted with water to 1/10th of its normal strenght and this solution sprayed onto the leaves.
I will try it out on my seedlings.
See full info on the link.