"Lawrence Akutagawa" wrote in message
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"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
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"Lawrence Akutagawa" wrote in message
et...
This spring I tried - as usual - to start the veggies indoors. Not as
usual, I had little to no luck with the eggplants, cucumbers, and
tomatoes. Only the pole beans sprouted well. Some that sprouted soon
died as though from what looked like dampingoff...even though I had
placed the containers with soil in the microwave a good ten minutes to
sterilize the mix. I never had this problem in prior years. I just
didn't know what was going on.

But then I noticed some volunteer tomato seedlings in the ground
outside. So when we had an unexpected rainstorm some weeks ago, I
captured and kept about three 5 gallon buckets of rain water. I used
that on the containers...now moved outdoors...and lo and behold -
sprouts.

The conclusion is that the city water has something that the rain water
does not. The big difference is that the water company started
fluorinating the water last November. Could this have been the
difference between last year's success indoors and this year's failure?
Anyone out there have similar experiences?

Chlorine is more likely to be the culprit. The chemical will dissipate
over 24-48 hours if you fill up a bucket and just let it sit, uncovered.
However, damping off can be minimized by providing some moving air, and
higher temperatures. Did you provide any kind of heat under the pots?

The containers were sitting atop my computer monitor & stereo amp. No
chlorine per se used here...rather, chloramine was introduced in Feb 2004.
But in 2004 and 2005 seeds germinated with no problem. Fluoride was
introduced Nov 2005 and the problems encountered earlier this year.


In 35+ years of gardening, I've never heard of fluoride affecting plants.
There aren't that many other variables:

1) Age & quality of seeds. How old? What brand? How were they stored before
planting and for how long?
2) Moisture. I can't tell you how to judge that. It's a matter of
experience.
3) Temperatu You seem to have that covered, although it *is* possible to
get too hot. Baby bottle temp is about right.