Lupin seedlings - damping off?

I have Lupin seeds germinating in 2/3 of a windowsill propagator - the other 1/3 has ox-eye daisies in.

I've noticed this morning some fluffy miniature candyfloss around some of the Lupin seeds, but none around the daisies.

Is this damping off? have I over-watered? Will taking the lids off for the day help? Do I need to start again and sow some more?

 

I am not sure whether this is exactly damping off - as I don't think you can see that. But it is mould and not good. I get it sometimes. It can either come from the compost or be mould spores from the outside of the seeds. However I have had this and still had seeds germinate and seedlings thrive.

What you need to do is spray with Cheshunt compound. Its a copper compound sold at all garden centres. Don't buy a tin, as it starts to go off once opened. Buy a packet which contains individual sachets. Make up one sachet as instructed, and it will last all season. But use another sachet next year. Copper kills mould.

Rather than water my seedlings in the early days, I give them a light spray with a dilute solution of this almost every day. This replaces the moisture lost from the propogator, without getting the compost too wet, and also keeps the mould at bay. Obviously later on you have to water normally. If your compost is very wet I would spray with this but leave the top off till it dries out a bit.

 

"Will taking the lids off for the day help?"

Definitely. Have they got 4 leaves yet (original two "seed leaves" and at least another pair of "true leaves")? If so they probably don't need the lids on at all. Either way, as soon as they have germinated open any little port-hole ventilations in the propagator, and once they are "well up" take the lids off during the day - maybe put them back on at night to keep them a bit warmer.

But Lupins and Daises are tough as old boots, so don't mollycoddle them too much

 

Thank you so much - The lid's off now and I've moved the propagator to the windowsill that's over our storage heater, hopefully it'll dry out a bit. I'll get some cheshunt compound and give them a spray.

Kristen - there're no leaves at all yet, the Lupins started 'erupting' (I'm sure that's not a technical term) in the last two days. I came down this morning to hoping to find any seedling leaves, but found this fluff instead. The daisies have their first pairs of leaves - I'm not looking forward to pricking them out though, they're tiny!

I'm glad to hear I don't have to replace yet. I'm so proud of my seeds! This is my first season of growing from seed and it's so exciting.

 

"there're no leaves at all yet"

Ah, OK. Sounds like the compost wasn't properly sterilised then, or the seeds themselves had some "mould spores" on them. It was a wet time last year to harvest seed ...

I sow all my seed on the surface of the compost and then cover with a very light layer of Vermiculite. It seems to held prevent most rubbish growing on the top - usually green slime, in my case, which used to grow on the top of the soil on seeds that took weeks or more to germinate. I've got some covered with vermiculite which are only just starting to go green, and they were sown a year ago - dunno fi the seeds are going to sprout though!