I want to grow some chillies and tomatoes this year. I’m not great at gardening, am trying to learn. We live in Canberra, so I bought some heat mats, grow lights and a couple of the small indoor greenhouses to get a head start.
I used half ready made compost/half fruit & veg mix potting soil. (I also had some left over seedling soil mix I had from last year I chucked in). I spritzed some water on to the seedlings, definitely did not overwater. Put the lids on and shut the vents. Set the soil temp to 25C.
I planted the seedlings up this past weekend and they’ve already gone mouldy.
Where did I go wrong? How can I fix it? Should I bin this batch of seeds and start again? Or are these salvageable?
by No_Radio8806
6 Comments
Not enough air movement, circulate frsh air in old air out
Way too much humidity. Remove the lids during the day.
You’ve just created a mould breeding ground. That’s just too much moisture with zero circulation.
Seeds need heat to grow but they also need some fresh air.
You may have the disease in the soil. Scrap the lot. Bury the soil or put it in green waste bin so the spores are contained.
You don’t really need the lids if you’ve got grow lights. You’re only needing to protect from harsh cold. They don’t even need sun, just heat.
This setup is very similar to what we use to germinate palm seeds in our Victorian business. The only issue is the seed cover, remove it and reduce the temperature to around 18 °C next time.
Lesson learned lol THOSE CONTAINERS for tomato? been there and the path is noble 👍
You don’t need to put those lids on the trays inside a plastic greenhouse. 20C would be fine. I live in Sydney I have my trays with no heating pad outside we are having 17C to 20C days mine have all sprouted, my tomatoes are 3cms after 2 weeks in my greenhouse same fabric as yours. You have mini greenhouse inside a greenhouse and a heating pad. start again no lids on the trays and you should be fine.