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phughes asked me to come over and take a look at her seeds in a 40 (big) sponge BioDome. Here is the problem: The vines are up and looking good about almost 2" high, but she mixed all kinds of seeds and the other seeds have not germinated...she has also left the seeds in the house with the dome on...now she has a fungus of some kind on some of the sponges. I am tempted to tell her when she gets home from work that I would move those healthy vines out of there and then: could she spray alcohol on the other which haven't germinated but the sponges are getting moldy?? Please dmail her, phughes, if you know what to do...
she and I both will thank you...
I don't think alcohol would be a good idea, but hydrogen peroxide can help against fungus (1 Tbsp of 3% over the counter stuff per quart of water is a standard ratio). If this is a dome with vents, opening them to provide more air circulation could also help. Moving the larger, healthy seedlings elsewhere (or removing the moldy sponges) sounds like a good idea... it should be possible to improvise some sort of covering for higher humidity for the ones that have been removed until the situation is resolved (just remember not to let plastic or glass actually touch the leaves of the enclosed plants... condensation on the inner surface of the plastic can lead to mold or rotting on the plants).
Thanks, in desperation, I left her an extra tray and dome. (tall bio dome)...told her to take all the good seedling sponges out and put in solo cups, but use my extra dome for them until they are bigger...leave out during the day with vents open and bring in at night (night still very cool)
On the others that haven't germinated yet, I started to tell her to water from the bottom with a hydrogen peroxide mix but was afraid to tell her to do that. One of the sponges that has the fungus is a datura which she wants badly. I will dmail her now and give her your thoughts.
thanks,
gail
Thanks critter. I moved the germinated seedlings (3 corkscrew vines, 3 hibiscus, & two Pride of Barbados seedlings--all ranging about 1 to 2" tall) into small pots. They are inside the house on a heat mat (mat is off) & I have a dome over them--no part of the dome is touching the leaves. In the morning, I will take them outside with the dome off so that they get more light and circulation. We are in the 70's during the day now--nights are probably in the 50's. Do I want the heat mat on at night for the ungerminated seeds or these small seedlings? Please advise. Any help is greatly appreciated. This is my first time to germinate seeds with a heat mat or domes.
Without knowing which seeds you're germinating, it's hard to advise you about the heat mat... Tom Clothier's site has some information about what sort of temperatures various seeds prefer for germination, check out his database at http://tomclothier.hort.net/
Sounds like you've done what you can to improve things. Good luck!
