damping off debacle!!

 hello,
firstly by "damping off", i have understood this to be the situation where
the stalk of the seedling withers away at the base, & then it falls over &
dies. (if this ISN'T damping off, can someone let me know what it is? ;-)

while i am used to this happening very occasionally (the odd seedling here &
there amongst unaffected seedlings), in the last few days i have lost
punnets & punnets of veg & flower babies, all at once.

i understand it's a fungal infection, & i freely admit my garden hygiene is
virtually non-existent <g>. i sometimes wash my punnets out, but not often.
i'm not sure if the affected punnets were washed or not of course (my
garden-organisation-capabilities are equally non-existent).

the weather has been unusually hot in the last few days, after a week of
pointless drizzle, & before that, a few days of actual proper lovely wet
weather.

have i done something wrong to have caused mass death on this scale, or is
it just bad weather or bad luck?

thank you my friends for any tips to hopefully prevent such a wipe-out in
future!!!
kylie

 g'day kylie,

this fromn a gooooogle.

"What is it?

Damping-off is a common problem in tomato plants where the soil is too
wet or has a high nitrogen level. This can be due to the watering
conditions you have imposed on your tomato plants in the vegetable
garden, or factors of weather such as damp days with many clouds.

What does it look like?

Tomato plants which are experiencing damping-off tend to have tomato
seeds which do not sprout at all, or tomato seedlings which develop
poorly and fall over soon after they have emerged from the soil. The
stems of the tomato plants will appear water-soaked at the soil line
and may be discolored in yellows, browns or blacks. Usually, a tomato
plant which is affected by damping-off with have a soft, thin stem
which is limp like a noodle which allows the plant to fall over
easily. "

from this link:

http://ga.essortment.com/tomatoesproblem_rckk.htm


snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

 hm, thank you len.

kylie (who is now blaming the weather ;-)

 
well, no, but thanks anyway :-)
kylie

 Didn't see your earlier post on this Otter, but I seem to recall that using
Chamomile tea was supposed to be a help in preventing damping off.