Quote:
Originally Posted by Lindalana
Any suggestions what to do with pythium? Somehow I got in trouble after heaping my own bottom pile compost onto tomato roots.
I had to take cuttings on some of plants and am not sure how many will get sick.
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For the cuttings, they say to use a clean soilless mix because pythium is associated with soil and sand - although as we know it can be sometimes in the commercial mixes, along with fungus gnats which spread it.
The soil amendment approach could work for Pythium, here is a list of things that may help in the tables here:
http://extension.psu.edu/pests/plant...plant-diseases
Potassium silicate? I never heard of it but apparently both the potassium and the silicate helps. In the case of the 'pith necrosis' bacteria, amendment with potassium and calcium is recommended. For natural source, kelp has K as well as other benefits to the soil community, chitin or shrimp or crab shells encourages Trichoderma, and Horsetail (Equisetum) is a natural source of soluble silica could be applied as a tea. Just some examples, I'm sure there is something locally about everywhere that could be used to tweak the soil community. Mushrooms are chitin too, for example - if available instead of shell I would shred them up to feed the Trichoderma etc. even if you have a product like Actinovate, you could make the most of it by feeding the good guys. JMO.
