[Arid_gardener] Re: New Seedlings Dying or Disappearing.

[Olin Miller]

In addition to my previous comments as well as Genie's suggestions, I have
also had crickets and sow bugs, or pill bgs, eat small seedlings.  Both like
to hang around decaying material such as your manure and compost.  The
crickets are most active in the early evening right after dark.  Sow bugs
will usually eat only decaying material but I have also seen them feed on
green leaves when the bug population was high.

No need to give up on a winter garden.  Transplants for our cool crops can
be set out all winter long from now through mid February.  You can buy
transplants or grow your own..  Transplants from a nursery usually need to
be hardened off with gradual exposure to the full sun over a one-week
period.  Most of the cool season crops like leafy and roots, can be planted
throughout the winter months.  See
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1005.pdf
for a vegetable planting schedule.
Roots crops do not transplant well with the exception of beets which
transplant successfully for me.

I like prefer to grow my transplants from seed.  It's pretty easy and
doesn't take much space if you have room for a 4-foot shop light and a
couple of 1020 trays.  Home Depot has the trays complete with Jiffy
Seven pellets and clear plastic propagation domes.  Or you can get cell
packs with various cell pack sizes at nurseries and fill the cells with with
a sterile seed-starting mix - Scott's is widely available.  My favorite size
is eight 12-cell packs which works out to 96 plugs in each 1030 tray - two
trays fit nicely under the 4 foot shop lights.  .  With the smaller plugs it
helps to plant up once before setting out in the garden.  Or you can use the
standard 6-cell pony packs saved from nursery transplants.  They are usually
free from nurseries who discard them after potting up.  These larger cells
are 1.5" X 2.5" X 2.5" deep so the transplants can be germinated and grown
out to transplant size from these without potting up.  The packs measure 4"
X 8" so that up to 12 of these side by side (72 cells) fit nicely under a 4"
shop light.  Many people also grow transplants in nearly any type of
container, on top of a refrigerator, on window sills, etc.  but I prefer a
neater and more orderly setup - probably tend to over-engineer the process.
There is an article at
http://home.att.net/~millero/ValleyOfTheSunGardeners.htm/GrowingYourOwnTransplants.htm
that works well for me.  Its focus is growing out transplants for spring
plantings but it works as well for growing right now.

As to whether you should remove the amended soil, it's difficult tosay.
While growing the transplants, you could try watering your bed, wait a week
or so until it's dry enough to spade or till, then keep repeating until the
plants are large enough to set out 96-8 weeks).  When starting from scratch,
about 4 inches of compost tilled or spaded in is usually aeough.  After
that, reduce it to about two inches per year.

Good luck
Olin Miller, Master Gardener Volunteer, Maricopa County AZ
http://home.att.net/~millero/ValleyOfTheSunGardeners.htm
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry Harter" <jharter at cox.net>
To: "Olin Miller" <dergartenarzt at att.net>
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 6:00 PM
Subject: Re: New Seedlings Dying or Disappearing.


> Thanks for your response --- an update: I replanted and have pretty  much
> gotten the same results, most seeds do sprout, then disappear  within 24
> hours.  I have cut watering down to once every 2 days, and  then just
> wetting the top soil.  I am truly baffled on this one,  seems someone or
> something comes and eats the sprouts during the  night!!!!  Since I have
> about lost the winter garden, I am now  looking at what I can do for the
> spring garden, do I have to remove  all the compost/manure mixture?  It is
> at least 12 inches deep now  (and I also added some ammonium sulphate &
> phosphate as someone else  suggested earlier)  Still can't figure out why
> the beans (and  carrots) are not affected.


> On Oct 29, 2006, at 8:05 PM, Olin Miller wrote:
>
>> Sounds a lot like damping off - not uncommon if manure isn't well
>> composted.
>> Try making a dimple in the soil and fill it with a sterile seed  starting
>> potting mix, then plant the seeds in it and cover it up to 3 times the
>> seed's diameter with the sterile potting mix.  Substituting  vermiculite
>> for
>> the potting mix works pretty well too.  See also
>> http://cals.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/html/t-tips/diseases/damp-
>> off.htm
>> for U of A Cooperative Extension for recommendations.
>>
>> My new seedlings from direct sowing are doing okay but sometimes  too
>> much
>> direct sun from about 10am-2pm can also zap the new seedlings.
>>
>> Your problem is not uncommon and I believe many others on this  listserv
>> have
>> also had the problem and I hope they will share their methods for
>> dealing
>> with it.
>>
>> Olin Miller, Master Gardener Volunteer, Maricopa County AZ
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: <jharter at cox.net>
>> Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:21 PM
>>> > This fall I added several bags of compost to my raised garden as
>>> well as
>>> > one baq of manure.  I have planted seeds on several occasions
>>> and most
>>> > do not come up.  I have seen some plants come through the ground
>>> one
>>> > day, and disappear the next!!  I have checked and rechecked my seed
>>> > dates, to date only some bean seeds from 2005 have come up.  I have
>>> > tried to keep the soil moist, so don't think that watering is a
>>> problem.
>>> > This same garden produced very well for me last year.  Any idea
>>> of what
>>> > my problem is????