On Mar 26, 11:50*am, Billy wrote:

What really surprises me is that no one caught this gaff.

http://www.gardenersnet.com/atoz/dampingoff.htm
Did you know? Nitrogen in your fertilizer can promote rapid growth of
Damping Off Disease.

(snip)
At least the plants were about ready for larger quarters. I gotta go
re-pot.

- Show quoted text -

From what I've read, it is excessive fertilizing at fault,
particularly but not only nitrogen. I find this interesting because
from what I recall of NPK, all excess nitrogen gets washed out of the
soil anyway. Does this perhaps mean that the nitrogen gets bound up
by microorganisms which use it for their own nefarious growth
agendas?

I use fish emulsion, but usually after the plants are well
established. I don't usually use it or any other fertilizers when
they're small, and I wish I could say it was because I knew what I was
doing, but it's actually because I don't like the house to smell of
fish. Usually by the time I've potted up it is time to start moving
them outside on warm days so they're in less danger of damping off by
that time.

The problem with moving them outside to prevent damping off is that it
is usually still too cold outside. I have moved them into better light
and reduced humidity but that usually only results in stopping the
spread of the microorganism. Any plants that were previously infected
usually die. Repotting your plants at this time is probably a good
thing, since any microorganisms in the soil will be removed.

Knucklehead #2
Dora