my 7 year old is doing a science fair project on capillary
action. he's doing the usual dye a celery & a white flower
thing, but he's also trying to grow seedlings in different
colors.
he's using white stemed swiss chard as his vict^^ test
subjects. he put the seeds in Jiffy pellets & waters them with
food coloring. he has one control plant & one each yellow, red
& blue. he's doing this at school & there seems to be a
problem with damping off and/or mold growing on the Jiffy
pellets. i was suspicious that the mold might be growing on
the food coloring, but the control is also getting 'fuzz' on
the peat pellet. anyway, if the plants keep damping off, he
can't really prove anything with his experiment.
the peat pellets are in an 8" x 8" tray, so they are not
touching. the tray is not covered. the pellets were watered to
expand, & are now only given one drop of food color (or water
for the control) per day.
any suggestions to get the poor things past seed leaf stage
gratefully accepted.
also, has anyone ever tried starting seeds in that polymer
gel crystal stuff that is sold as Soil Moist? i was thinking
of trying some white radishes in dyed crystals...
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

In article ,
enigma wrote:

my 7 year old is doing a science fair project on capillary
action. he's doing the usual dye a celery & a white flower
thing, but he's also trying to grow seedlings in different
colors.
he's using white stemed swiss chard as his vict^^ test
subjects. he put the seeds in Jiffy pellets & waters them with
food coloring. he has one control plant & one each yellow, red
& blue. he's doing this at school & there seems to be a
problem with damping off and/or mold growing on the Jiffy
pellets. i was suspicious that the mold might be growing on
the food coloring, but the control is also getting 'fuzz' on
the peat pellet. anyway, if the plants keep damping off, he
can't really prove anything with his experiment.
the peat pellets are in an 8" x 8" tray, so they are not
touching. the tray is not covered. the pellets were watered to
expand, & are now only given one drop of food color (or water
for the control) per day.
any suggestions to get the poor things past seed leaf stage
gratefully accepted.
also, has anyone ever tried starting seeds in that polymer
gel crystal stuff that is sold as Soil Moist? i was thinking
of trying some white radishes in dyed crystals...
lee

Try again but keep the tray covered. If you are using the same tray that
had mold before, then clean tray and then soak in 5% chlorine
(bleach)(if you can smell the chlorine in the water, it is strong
enough). Soak for 20 minutes. Rinse tray throughly. Re-plant and cover.
Only remove cover to water.
--

Billy

Bush, Cheney & Pelosi, Behind Bars
http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/site/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movemen...George_W._Bush

Billy wrote in

ct.net.au:

Try again but keep the tray covered. If you are using the
same tray that had mold before, then clean tray and then
soak in 5% chlorine (bleach)(if you can smell the chlorine
in the water, it is strong enough). Soak for 20 minutes.
Rinse tray throughly. Re-plant and cover. Only remove cover
to water.

well, they took the cover off because it was getting mold &
the teacher thought it might be too humid. they apparently are
trying to start the new seeds in the same peat pellets, which
is not a good idea. i'll make sure he has extra pellets for
new starts now.
also, each peat pellet in in it's own disposable cup in the
tray & yes, i'll have him clean those with the bleach solution
(it's the usual table cleaning solution in his classroom, so i
know that they have bleach solution available).
i was informed this morning that he was allowed to cut the
babies off the class spider plant to work with also. will they
be ok in cups of water for a few weeks or should i send in
pots & a bag of compost?
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

On 2/13/08 7:02 AM, in article ,
"enigma" wrote:

Billy wrote in

ct.net.au:

Try again but keep the tray covered. If you are using the
same tray that had mold before, then clean tray and then
soak in 5% chlorine (bleach)(if you can smell the chlorine
in the water, it is strong enough). Soak for 20 minutes.
Rinse tray throughly. Re-plant and cover. Only remove cover
to water.

well, they took the cover off because it was getting mold &
the teacher thought it might be too humid. they apparently are
trying to start the new seeds in the same peat pellets, which
is not a good idea. i'll make sure he has extra pellets for
new starts now.
also, each peat pellet in in it's own disposable cup in the
tray & yes, i'll have him clean those with the bleach solution
(it's the usual table cleaning solution in his classroom, so i
know that they have bleach solution available).
i was informed this morning that he was allowed to cut the
babies off the class spider plant to work with also. will they
be ok in cups of water for a few weeks or should i send in
pots & a bag of compost?
lee


Spider babies will thrive in water and you can watch them grow too!

C

Cheryl Isaak wrote in
:

Spider babies will thrive in water and you can watch them
grow too!

i'm hoping he gets to bring them home when he's done i want
to put hangers on the dining room windows next winter.

lee with plants taking over the floorspace
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

On 2/13/08 8:40 AM, in article ,
"enigma" wrote:

Cheryl Isaak wrote in
:

Spider babies will thrive in water and you can watch them
grow too!

i'm hoping he gets to bring them home when he's done i want
to put hangers on the dining room windows next winter.

lee with plants taking over the floorspace

I'll give you some next time we can get together

"enigma" wrote in message
. ..
there seems to be a
problem with damping off and/or mold growing on the Jiffy
pellets. i was suspicious that the mold might be growing on
the food coloring, but the control is also getting 'fuzz' on
the peat pellet. anyway, if the plants keep damping off, he
can't really prove anything with his experiment.

For years I've used a light dusting of cinnamon over my seed trays to
prevent damping off. Cinnamon is anti-fungal, non toxic, works great.

Val

as is milled sphagnum moss.... Ingrid

On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:24:06 -0800, "Val" wrote:


"enigma" wrote in message
...
there seems to be a
problem with damping off and/or mold growing on the Jiffy
pellets. i was suspicious that the mold might be growing on
the food coloring, but the control is also getting 'fuzz' on
the peat pellet. anyway, if the plants keep damping off, he
can't really prove anything with his experiment.

For years I've used a light dusting of cinnamon over my seed trays to
prevent damping off. Cinnamon is anti-fungal, non toxic, works great.

Val