Viewing post #1077528 by sooby

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Mar 10, 2016 6:02 AM CST
Name: Sue
Ontario, Canada (Zone 4b)
Annuals Native Plants and Wildflowers Keeps Horses Dog Lover Daylilies Region: Canadian
Butterflies Birds Enjoys or suffers cold winters Garden Sages Plant Identifier
I've never heard of perlite having antifungal properties, I assume if it would do anything it would be to keep the media surface drier (same idea as sand). If you have a bad case of damping off you may want to use a fungicide. There are all kinds of "home remedies" also such as cinnamon and chamomile tea but I've never looked into them as far as effectiveness is concerned as I've managed to avoid getting damping off in seedlings in the first place by other measures.

Excessive water is one major factor that contributes to damping off. Bottom watering could help, and letting the media surface get dry between waterings. You can't do much about the medium at this point but I wonder if it is too dense? The temperature needs to be optimum for the seedlings so that they grow to get past the damping off stage more quickly, avoid temp extremes. A small fan blowing gently on the seedlings is another thing that may help as it increases air circulation and dries up the media surface. Don't mist the seedlings, and don't keep them covered with a dome or anything like that once the first one is up. What else......oh, try not to give them too much fertilizer as well. You probably don't need to fertilize new daylily seedlings for their first month or so.

You may already be doing much or all of this but just tossing out the things that help since I don't know how you're currently managing them.

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