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Wednesday, January 27, 2021 Little Ketchup Grittyville, WA

Entry 25 of 283  
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Edit to previous post: "Closer inspection shows they have both been chewed on by bug(s)."

Its difficult to see here but there was a lot of "dampening off" of the sprouts in this tray. I've always believed dampening off was caused by a fungus but THIS dampening off I am pretty sure was caused almost exclusively by soil invertebrates. When the plants are this young, it takes only one bug bite out of their taproot to doom them because they pretty much have only one root at this stage. I didnt freeze-sterilize this soil. I usually get great results with freeze sterilization.

After this picture was taken I dug the dirt out of this tray and I did all the usual suspects crawling around. About 5 species of dirt dwellers. I am not sure which ones do the most damage but they all got tossed outside and replaced by a deep-frozen tray. Starting over! I dont know what temperature my freezer is set at but it works... The soil critters dont survive.
 



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