![]() Of course, microgreens are grown unnaturally with very dense seeding so there is always a higher chance of mold/fungus anyway, but here is the amazing thing that I have finally discovered (and am VERY excited about): When I spray the top of the soil and then the seeds after pushing them down onto the soil a bit with the diluted EM1 solution, there is no fungus/mold at all. ![]() One of the types I grow has a tendency to fungus and mold when the air gets warmer which causes the whole affected tray to do poorly and all the plants in it to die. I grow them to sell so they are going 365 days/ year. Anyway, I have been growing microgreens in relatively large amounts for about 4 years now. I happen to have used EM1 from TeraGanix, but am currently experimenting with a batch I am cultivating on my own. One thing I wanted to share, however, is my experience with using microorganisms to ward off fungus/mold. I am interested to hear what other people on here with more experience have to say about the fungal issue. I'm not sure it's a good idea to add manure from those situations into one's food garden. It isn't OMRI certified, at least the one I have seen at Lowe's, and I have a strong feeling is comes from factory raised cows who are being given all kinds of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals to try to keep them alive until slaughter. It likely is coming from either the garden soil or the compost, yes? I have wondered if the cow compost from Home Depot (I think Lowe's carries it as well) is safe. It must be frustrating to have such poor germination as well as the struggling plants after putting so much time and effort into planting them. Has anyone run into this problem and identified what needed to be done to prevent this from happening? Is there something in the fertilizer mix that may have caused this, such as fish emulsion or vermicompost? ![]() I've had some success using chamomile, cinnamon and peroxide to combat the fungus, but often its too late. *For seedlings, immediately transplant into the soil and put back under grow lights. *For seeds, planted and then put on temperature controlled heat mats on the floor (~75 degrees). *The soil blocks are just wet enough to hold together. *For soil blocks, I tried using chamomile tea to wet the soil to make the blocks, hoping to prevent the fungus from starting. Containers were washed with soap + water in advance. Within 12 hours, I had an incredibly thick white fuzzy fungus, which looks like saprophytic fungus, but resulted in severe and immediate dampening off for alot of the transplants. * Seedlings transplanted into the 2 inch blocks from the 3/4 inch died within 24 hours. I had better initial germination rates by not covering them as I did before, but they seem to fail to establish properly and grew very slow. * Seeds planted in the 3/4 inch blocks sprouted well and hand no fungus, but seemed to have a hard time rooting properly and have sort of "languished" on the surface. For squash I left these uncovered in the 2 inch, and had great germination, but still fungus I controlled immediately. I switched to using the 3/4 uncovered method. I had about a 10% germination rate on cauliflower, collards, peppers. * Seeds planted directly in the 2-inch blocks, but covered, failed to germinate. The 3/4 blocks I used his recipe with mostly filtered peat and no fertilizer mix. I did not sterilize the soil have never had to before. * Fertilizer mix, comprised of equal parts vermicompost, bone meal (as above), blood meal, fish emulsion, garden limeĪll were fresh bags opened right before I mixed them. This year, I used something closer to Coleman's recipe for the 2-inch blocks: * sprinkle of homemade bone meal, which was boiled, cooked/dried and blended down to a powder. * 1 part compost (the one with a cow on the front from Home Depot) ![]() Last year, my recipe looked roughly like this: The previous two seasons I was utilizing a slightly different recipe, but ran across Eliot Coleman's official one from his book and figured it would be more beneficial. Those that did make it have grown very very slowly and are way behind. This year, luck seems to be against me and I've lost a good share of the seedlings I've started. easily the best starts and best garden I've had, thanks to permies! So this is my third season using soil blocks, and last year I had a stellar year utilizing them. ![]()
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