New Seedling Diseases

On Tuesday I told the food production class that a serious disease of indoor-grown seedlings is Damping Off. I told them the signs to watch for, among them, toppled stems and a brown, pinched appearance in the stem at the soil line.

Today in the quiz I asked for the name of the seedling disease. Two creative answers were "Damping ON," and "Pinch Off."

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I had also talked about the process of gradually acclimating seedlings to the outdoor environment. This is called "hardening off." When I asked for that term, one enterprising student suggested "dancing with the stars" as the name for the acclimation process.

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Today each student in the food production class planted some lettuce seeds, according to my directions on labeling, seed spacing, and lightly covering the seeds. I provided a stick-on label, but showed them some small stake-type markers I sometimes use after the seedlings have been transplanted into individual cells. Showing them the stake markers proved to be a mistake.

I pointed out that the stakes sometimes interfere with the plastic cover I use to keep the moisture high till the seeds have germinated, and they poke up too high to fit comfortably under the lights. All that explantion seems to have been lost on some of the students. When I checked on their progress late in the day, I saw about five jaunty stakes protruding out of the seedling packs, and, contrary to my warning, they fit neatly under the clear plastic dome cover. Some of them were appropriately labeled with the lettuce variety name. But JoJo? That one was not among the lettuce varieties planted today. And there is no student by that name.

I might have to assess charges for unauthorized use of plastic stakes. At the very least, I'll have to keep them hidden away.