Star San and Gardening

[Ward Chillington]

So I have about some 70 Tomato and Pepper plants that I started from seed that I took from last years crops and I am looking at transplanting into some larger pots so they can start rooting and get prepped for outside life. I have a few gallons of mix left from my last brew session and the cheap bastard that I am, I was considering a reuse for my gardening.

The question is has anyone used or know of using Star San as a sanitizer for the plastic pots that I am going to transfer the seedlings to?

Here's the little guys.

 

[thunderwagn]

Never heard of using Star San in gardening. I'm curious why you would need to sanitize containers for transplanting? Have you had problems with disease such as wilt?

 

[BOB357]

Never heard of sanitizing pots for seedlings. Also, if any of the tomatoes are hybrids, don't expect them to produce the same fruit as they did last year. Most of the time they revert to one of the varieties they were bred from. Some peppers may do the same, but I've had good luck with seeding from the previous years fruit.

 

[Head First]

Off the top of my head, starsan won't do corona so wont sanitize from any virus? Just a guess. Some wilts or dry rots, maybe. If i felt the need to sanitize i would use bleach(chlorine). Soak and rinse well. Never messed with it simply because if you have a problem with a wilt or virus in your garden it remains in your soil for a certain period of time(up to 10yrs). If you have a problem with certain wilts or blights look for disease resistant varieties. Hopefully you are using a heirloom variety or as said hybrids wont stay true to your desired breed.

 

[Ward Chillington]

I'm curious why you would need to sanitize containers for transplanting? Have you had problems with disease such as wilt?

Sure have and since I have gone to sterilizing my growing media for seedlings, I have had a better outcome in getting things off to a much better start. Keeping things clean as I move the seedlings into larger pots which have been sitting around since last year picking up who knows what sorta spore and bugs, giving the used pots a good soak makes sense to me! Kinda the same reason you clean your secondary fermenter! Come to think of it, I did use bleach last year but with bleach in short supply right now, I wondered if Star San would be an acceptable substitute.

This year was the first that I have had any success with peppers since I got a heating pad for them...its too cold in my basement to start them. My seedling loss this round was contained to my Poblano (sp?) peppers which was 100% but my Sweet Bananas, Bells and Jalapenos has been great with the small loss only tied to uneven watering. And yes Bob, I do Heirlooms for my tomatoes. This year though I have to get my Roma type from the gal in town who turned me on to a Polish variety called Olpalka, they are a big and meaty tomato that is great for sauce and I think they are the best for eating as is since they are not a mouthful of tomato juice! I have used seed harvested from these guys for the last 3 years and for some dumb reason, I did not save seed last year!

So bleach it is! Thanks guys!

 

[Head First]

Sure have and since I have gone to sterilizing my growing media for seedlings, I have had a better outcome in getting things off to a much better start. Keeping things clean as I move the seedlings into larger pots which have been sitting around since last year picking up who knows what sorta spore and bugs, giving the used pots a good soak makes sense to me! Kinda the same reason you clean your secondary fermenter! Come to think of it, I did use bleach last year but with bleach in short supply right now, I wondered if Star San would be an acceptable substitute.

This year was the first that I have had any success with peppers since I got a heating pad for them...its too cold in my basement to start them. My seedling loss this round was contained to my Poblano (sp?) peppers which was 100% but my Sweet Bananas, Bells and Jalapenos has been great with the small loss only tied to uneven watering. And yes Bob, I do Heirlooms for my tomatoes. This year though I have to get my Roma type from the gal in town who turned me on to a Polish variety called Olpalka, they are a big and meaty tomato that is great for sauce and I think they are the best for eating as is since they are not a mouthful of tomato juice! I have used seed harvested from these guys for the last 3 years and for some dumb reason, I did not save seed last year!

So bleach it is! Thanks guys!

Make up a small batch and put in a spray bottle. A tbls will mix with 5gal and sanitize. So very little in a spray bottle then a quick rinse.

 

[Ward Chillington]

Make up a small batch and put in a spray bottle. A tbls will mix with 5gal and sanitize. So very little in a spray bottle then a quick rinse.

Thanks Head...I'm a dunker so into the 5Gal pale and let it dry!

Howz everyone else's garden coming along...any of you Texans getting things in the ground yet??