The best medium for seed germination in zip lock bags
I'm sure many other people have struggled with germinating seeds especially with the seeds that take much longer for germination because the mold becomes a major problem.
I did an experiment with tree peony seeds which are very slow to germinate and are especially prone to growing mold. I had test seeds in paper towels, vermiculate, seed starting mix, nothing, perlite, and vermiculate. All of them had barely enough water to keep the seeds plump since too much water can kill the seeds.
After about a month or so I found that the perlite was probably the worst as far as fungal problems as there was the green and yellow mold forming. The seed starting mix was horrible too. It looked like the paper towels as well as empty bags had mold problems too however the mold didn't grow nearly as fast. Once a seed gets moldy, it is pretty much infected. The vermicuate was the only medium where I didn't see any fungal activity, and after doing a bit of research online, I found that vermiculate does have anti bacterial properties which perhaps makes it the best medium. Once these guys germinate, then they'll be set.
I used to resort to germinating everything outside in gardening beds because for some reason, they never seem to have mold problems when they are planted out. Even moldy seeds lose their mold after being in the soil for a few days. This bacteria free environment makes it much easier to germinate a plant like the tree peony or any other slow germinating seeds that are prone to mold.
Has anyone ever had mold problems when growing with vermiculate before?
Now I might be able to try banana seeds or much harder to germinate seeds since I finally found something that doesn't promote fungi.
|