Fungicide advice

hi all, can i ask what the gurus are using for fungicide in their mist bottles for raising seeds. i have a goodly number of namibian desert plants to put up and the time has arrived. tia

I can't remember what its called, but look a t my Ant Infestation thread, IXOXI (i think) suggested a good Fungorid(?) expensive but effecive apparently, but available at good ol' Bunnings..

I had the cobweb fungus problem

Fungorid, IXOXI suggests. Just looked back through it.

Fongarid, and you can get it at Bunnings.

thx. is it at full strength?

Yep, use it like it says on the label.

great thx. hopefully i have some seedlings in a couple of weeks.

Yep Its Fongarid for me. I just spray it on to the surface after the seeds are in, poured it on em too - seems to work either way. I had some seeds sealed in bags for two years - and not a hint of fungus. I cant say that it was entirely due to the Fongarid, because I tried to keep stuff pretty sterile anyway - but it didnt hurt.

yeh i have bought a fresh bag of cactus mix and one of seed raising mix. all sterile and i even bleached my trays. will plant as soon as this hot spell passes. i will be posting a list when i start. fyi

If you are planting seeds I would really advise against using any normal cactus mix. I get best results with a 50 / 50 mix of coarse river sand and seed propagation soil. The normal generic cactus soils have things in them that are often bad for seedlings or very fungus prone. Other then that, some species I will mix in an equal amount of perlite. Many in the british cactus society don't even bother with the soil bit and germinate their seeds in 100% sand.

ok, will go for sand and seed mix.

I have grown seed in pure sand and brick "dust" (about 1-2mm). Both seemed to work fine.

Once I tied an experiment and grew L. williamsii seed in 4 different mixtures. Straight sand, straight brick dust, 50/50 sand and peat and 50/50 sand and sifted cactus soil (Debco). ( There were a couple of other combos as well.) But it didn't seem to make any difference. The seedlings germinated and grew in all of them.

I had thought that the nutrients in the soil mix would have encouraged more growth in the seedlings than the inorganic substrate did. But that didn't seem to happen

Charlie
Did you apply any fertilizer after the seedlings have germinated?

No I didn't. I used plain bottled water. I cant remember the brand, but it claimed to be 'pure'. The analysis on the bottle said zero for all the listed 'minerals'. I used the same water in all of the cups.

Basically the procedure went like this: I'd put the mixture in a cup. Put that into a ziplock bag, then dampen it, and then put the whole thing into the microwave. Allow a small gap tp let steam escape, and then thoroughly zap it. After several minutes they're really hot and a fair bit of steam is escaping. As soon as possible I zip them up and let them cool. Obviously you can do a few at once - it just takes longer.

Then its in with the seed, a spray with fongarid and then they're zipped up again.

Its not my method. More a grab bag of stuff I've read. I'm not experienced with growing cactus seed, but the above method seems to work.

I'm sure there's room for improvement. Adding very weak fertiliser is sometimes suggested. It sounds reasonable. But then the soil based mix in my effort didnt make a difference. I guess the only way to find out is with another 'experiment'!

Charlie wrote:

I have grown seed in pure sand and brick "dust" (about 1-2mm). Both seemed to work fine.

Once I tied an experiment and grew L. williamsii seed in 4 different mixtures. Straight sand, straight brick dust, 50/50 sand and peat and 50/50 sand and sifted cactus soil (Debco). ( There were a couple of other combos as well.) But it didn't seem to make any difference. The seedlings germinated and grew in all of them.

I had thought that the nutrients in the soil mix would have encouraged more growth in the seedlings than the inorganic substrate did. But that didn't seem to happen

Yep same here I grow all slow growers I.E Ario,Astro, Lophs etc in plain old river sand and nothing else. To avoid bacteria I do a pre-soak of the seeds in a mild solution of white spirits which cleans them up and kills an existing bacteria. I find most bacteria is due to the seeds themselves having residue left on them from the fruit and this causes the issue. So long as you don't use a soil rich in organic matter this should fix most issues.

Additionally, I think it is good to try and match the types of soil medium they would grow in nature.

I apply fungicide at the time of sowing seeds. Does anyone apply fungicide after the seeds has germinated and how often?

i read to use fungicide in the general misting water right through to germination?

White spirit! I have to admit that Ive never heard of that one before. (When you say white spirit do you mean that stuff sold in hardware shops? Its a bit like turps.)

It seems like a good idea to try and recreate something of the original environment (soil, climate etc). They are the conditions that the plant evolved to survive in after all. And I guess, for seed germination favourable weather has got to be in the mix as well. Rain, the right temperature, light and maybe some shelter, would I suppose, all act as triggers for germination. I've read that some opuntioids have to pass through an animal gut in order to stimulate germination. There''s possibly other things.

Yeah I would love to know something more about the soil they originally grew in. If I ever get to a place where cacti come from I am going to look very carefully at the dirt they're growing in!

As for me I only spray fungicide on the seeds when i plant them. No more after that. Only cos I havent needed to... if they started damping off, or getting furry, or something I'd spray them pronto!

Charlie, I was juts being lazy, all I'm using is a little Methylated Spirits and sometimes detergent to clean the seeds up a bit.

metho... great for mealy bug. douse plant liberally and thats them all gone!

I think Ive heard of metho being called white spirit before. Either way alcohol is good disinfectant.

Hellonasty Wrote:

Quote :

Charlie, I was juts being lazy, all I'm using is a little Methylated
Spirits and sometimes detergent to clean the seeds up a bit.

How do you use the meth spirits to clean the seeds?
When you use it to get rid of mealies, how do you apply it?

with mealy, first ensure you do not have ants about as they farm mealy like they do scale. then you can literally completely wet till dripping any succulents/cacti with straight metho. mealy is dead and no residue on the plant. can be used whenever you see mealy, but prolly wait until the cooler part of the day. i just have a cheap squirty bottle sprayer. metho doesnt ruin spray bottles like some other spirits.

if you get a bad infestation and the plant is expendable, then chuck it as most likely, in your conditions, it will be subject to repeat attacks. i have found that certain echeverias are prone to attack under glass, and dont bother with them any more.

Unfortunately, virtually none of my plants are expendable. I am working on certain genetic lines and if at all possible need to conserve each of these.