I Am The Seedling Slayer (or What NOT to do When Starting Seeds Indoors)

So I've had this problem for years now.  I'm an over-nurturer.  Just ask any of my friends that come to visit.  I tend to over feed them.  Well I also do the same for my plants.  While I've always had a pretty good green thumb, I tend to over nurture my plants, so of course I did that with my seedlings.

I started seeds in my house this year.  So nervous was I about direct sowing outdoors after the last frost, that I just had to start all my seeds indoors.  *eyeroll*  I'm such a nut.  Anyways, I've had a pretty good return on my efforts thus far except that I killed all my first attempts at tomatoes.  I started with 9 each of Roma, Cherry and Big Boy tomatoes in a big tray seeder.  In the rest of the slots, I planted wildflower seeds.  72 Slots in all were planted.   My seedlings came up nice and strong and I was sooo pleased with myself.

Things were great until we had some great weather one day and I thought "my babies could use some fresh air and sunshine!".  Wrong wrong wrong!  See, what I didn't know was that the sun can burn seedlings.  Yeah, it made no sense to me, either.  It seems that you have to do what they call "hardening" your seedlings before they can tolerate long periods of direct sunlight.  And before you can do that, your seedlings have to have "true leaves".   True leaves are the next set of leaves that grow after a seed germinates.  When a seed germinates, it comes up out of the ground with these round, lumps of leaves.  Those are not "true leaves".  The next set that they grow is the "true leaves" set.  Once you see those, you can start to harden your plants.  

To harden them, you take them outside for a short period each day successively.  So, for instance, on Saturday you take them outside for a half hour.  Sunday for an hour.  Monday for an hour and a half.  Tuesday for two.  etc.  You do this for about a week.  Well, I didn't harden my seedlings at all before taking them outside for 5 hours that day.  After I brought them back in, the plants were in such a state of shock and burn that they just died back.  See what I mean?  Over nurturing.  

So I sewed all the slots with seeds again, this time choosing very hearty wildflowers, some of the tomatoes and some beans.  I also broke out another of my seeding trays and planted my peppers (4 different kinds) and two kinds of green beans.  I knew better than to just take them outside this time, but I just had to do my over nurturing thing again.  This time I over watered my little seedlings.  It started when they looked droopy.  I thought "awww!  you guys need some water!" and broke out my little watering can.  They just got droopier.  They would get thin at the base of their stems and fall over and die.  I watched with dismay as I lost about 40% of my first tray (tomatoes/wildflowers) and about 10% of my second (peppers/beans).  I didn't know what to do.

Then this week I noticed that I had a full-blown infestation of fungus gnats.  You may have seen these little guys before.  Tiny black gnats that you'll see flitting about the soil in your plants.  I had them last summer in some wildflowers I tried to sew in one of my containers outdoors.  Lost the whole pot to the gnats before I learned what had gone wrong.  And what I'd done to nearly kill every one of my seedlings this year. 

See, what happened here is called "Damping Off".  It happens when a yahoo like myself gets crazy with the watering can or when tainted soil is used.  Since I knew I'd used soil I'd mixed myself from perfectly sterile components, I knew it had to be the water.  Luckily I had that episode with the wildflowers last year, because I knew just what to do to stop the problem in it's tracks.  Dampening Off happens when fungus attacks the seedlings at the soil line.  Causing the seedlings' stems to thin and the top of the seedling to fall over and die.  The fungus gnats were just the harbingers of doom - like vultures circling over my seed trays.  (albeit very tiny vultures in a very large flock).  The solution?  Well you know me - it has to be organic.  And there was an organic solution right in my spice cabinet.  I sprinkled the soil of each seed tray lightly with cinnamon.  Cinnamon is a natural antifungal.  The flies took off and my seedlings are looking healthier.  In a few days the fungus gnats should be completely gone - their main food source (the fungus causing the Damping Off) having been eradicated.  

 So the short story is - when planting your seedlings - don't take them for a day in the park and if you over water them like a doofus - use cinnamon.  The lives you save may be your own plants.   You may make some enemies of the fungus gnats, though.  They'll just have to get over it.