2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
I often read the diaries of gardeners on the site. Lately everyone has been shouting "SOS" almost with one voice. Seedlings die, and massively. And there is very little time for reseeding. Some crops will no longer have time to give a good harvest. And it is not a fact that the next game will not suffer the same fate. What is the reason and, most importantly, what to do with this now? How to get out of the situation with the least losses? I really want to help people avoid mistakes through which I have already been able to go through
The reason for the mass death of seedlings is trivial and easy to determine - it is a black leg. The disease affects any crop from germination to 3-4 true leaves. It is widely distributed among tomatoes, eggplants, cabbage, peppers, other vegetables, flowers. Let's take a closer look at the entire infection cycle from start to finish.
Emergence
Spores of the fungus causing the black leg overwinter in the soil and on plant debris. Once in favorable conditions, they sprout, giving life to a new generation. Using garden soil or humus to plant seeds at home leads to the spread of the disease. Permanent crop rotation in greenhouses and hotbeds leads to the accumulation of infection, an increase in the number of affected plants.
Harmful spores of fungi can be in the ground, but they begin to develop only under certain conditions:
• high humidity of air and soil;
• acidic environment of the substrate;
• sharp changes in temperature;
• low illumination;
• poor air circulation.
In the presence of one or two factors at the same time, the disease will develop poorly. The appearance of all at once will lead to a focus of mass destruction.
External signs
Sick plants initially lag behind their peers in growth. Then the stem tissue softens at the surface-to-air interface. The pathogen penetrates inside, affecting the conducting vessels. The influx of nutrients from the root to the leaves stops. A constriction is formed. First, the lateral roots die off, then the main root dries out, becoming covered with blackness. The sprouts fall and dry out.
The defeat at a later stage of development of 3-4 true leaves, causes less harm. Although the plant lags behind in growth, it does not die completely. If planted flush with the cotyledon leaves, then it forms additional roots, restoring growth energy.
Prevention
It is better to prevent disease than to save already diseased seedlings. To do this, perform the following activities:
1. Purchase ready-made soils based on high-moor peat. It has a low acidity, a looser structure, free from pathogen spores. The humus obtained from garbage processing does not guarantee the absence of disease.
2. Use potassium permanganate solutions for watering seedlings only of medium consistency. Exclude watering with clean water. To begin with, prepare a mother liquor of potassium permanganate. Pour a small amount of powder into warm water. Stir until the grains disappear completely. When watering, add a little to the water, bringing it to the desired color. If you apply the powder immediately, then undissolved particles can get on the leaves of plants, causing a burn.
3. Liming the seedling mixture with dolomite flour. Adding 1 glass of wood ash to 10 liters of soil.
4. Eliminate the pick phase. Sow seeds one at a time in separate cups. In case of non-germination of individual specimens, plants from an additional small container with rare seedlings are used for repair.
5. Before use, wash all the cups in a 5% solution of potassium permanganate, soaking them for a day.
6. Exclude nitrogen fertilizers from top dressing. Complex mixtures or phosphorus-potassium mixtures are used, which contribute to the rapid "aging" of seedlings.
7. The temperature in the room is kept constant at 18-21 degrees.
8. Water when the topsoil dries up in small doses, no more than 2 times a week. After the procedure, the soil is carefully loosened with a toothpick.
9. Growing seedlings according to the Mitlider method on neutral media (fine sawdust) and fertilizer solutions.
The approximate color of the finished solution of potassium permanganate for irrigation
Control measures
If the disease has entered an active phase, mass lesions have formed, then more radical measures are used:
• limit watering, ventilate the room, reducing humidity;
• scatter ash or sand over the soil surface with a layer of 2 cm;
• remove without sparing all diseased specimens together with the roots;
• increase lighting, reduce the density of plants, by transplanting them into more spacious containers (by deepening the cotyledon leaves);
• cut off the seedlings to a healthy place, rooting them in water or immediately in the ground under the film;
• the soil is treated with one of the biological preparations (gamair, glyocladin, phytosporin) or chemical precursor.
All of these activities will help grow healthy seedlings. In case of damage, localize the focus and save the remaining plants before transplanting to a new place. In the future, they will warn against repeating such mistakes.
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