bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Bald Cypress & Chinese Elm seed propagation

A few more thoughts on this.

My experience is that if the surface of the medium stays wet, the danger is very high. Lately, I used a layer of small-sized bark mulch on top, about 2 cm deep. Between watering I always let the surface of the bark dry out to about 1cm deep, only then water again.

Vermiculite has never worked for me, it retains too much moisture. By the way, if you don't know what damp-off is, the stem of the seedling becomes brown at the soil level, and all of a suddent the seedling topples over, falls onto the soil. This happens very fast, from one day to the next. It's very frustrating.

8-Oct-2004	#3
Attila Attila Soos Join Date: Jan-2002 Location: Los Angeles, California Country: USA Posts: 1,986	A few more thoughts on this. My experience is that if the surface of the medium stays wet, the danger is very high. Lately, I used a layer of small-sized bark mulch on top, about 2 cm deep. Between watering I always let the surface of the bark dry out to about 1cm deep, only then water again. Vermiculite has never worked for me, it retains too much moisture. By the way, if you don't know what damp-off is, the stem of the seedling becomes brown at the soil level, and all of a suddent the seedling topples over, falls onto the soil. This happens very fast, from one day to the next. It's very frustrating.