Camomile or sometimes spelled with an 'h", Chamomile is wonderful to water your seeds and seedlings with. "Damping Off" is a wilting disease that can often affect seedlings. Unfortunately, by the time you see the organism that is causing the wilting it is too late and the seedlings have succumbed. In order to prevent this we water with a strong batch of Camomile tea, the same herb they gave Peter Rabbit, that naughty bunny when he came in out of the cabbage patch. Boil 3 T of Camomile flowers in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes, strain and keep handy to water newly emerging seedings. It is a powerful fungicide.Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Seed Starting Tip - Use Camomile
Camomile or sometimes spelled with an 'h", Chamomile is wonderful to water your seeds and seedlings with. "Damping Off" is a wilting disease that can often affect seedlings. Unfortunately, by the time you see the organism that is causing the wilting it is too late and the seedlings have succumbed. In order to prevent this we water with a strong batch of Camomile tea, the same herb they gave Peter Rabbit, that naughty bunny when he came in out of the cabbage patch. Boil 3 T of Camomile flowers in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes, strain and keep handy to water newly emerging seedings. It is a powerful fungicide.
Oh, wow! that's great! I love the connection between the herbs and tea.
ReplyDeleteChamomile not only works with seedling but also transplanting. I had planted a number of larger perennials and annuals which was followed by 10 days of solid rain. The plants all looked great during the rain (I'm in Calgary and it's very dry normally) but a couple days after, they starting to wilt (starting from the top down). The garden centre I go to thought it was just transplant shock, but after some research I tried chamomile tea.
ReplyDeleteWorked like a charm. The next morning th wilting was gone, and despite the damaged leave which had to be removed, the plants appear to be healthy.