Expert: C.L. Fornari - 3/4/2009

Question
i planted celosia seeds 2/17/09 and today some are doing good and some are not. the ones that are not are thining,  wilting and shriving up in the same growing area. the place that there growing in are the seed starter containers. they have a sunny greenhouse and water every 4 to 6 hrs. i started with every 4 hrs of watering and move to 6 hrs of watering today i was wondering if it was because of over watering or something else. they look finicky and fragile. the same with the kingfisher daisy.
thank you for your time and hope to hear from you.

Jason

Answer
Jason,
You are describing "damping off" you can see an article about it here:
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/IPM/greenhs/htms/dampofgh.htm

In short, it is a fungal problem that happens when seedlings are kept too wet.  When the plants are so young there is a fine line between too wet and drying out. You want to keep the soil damp enough to keep the plants alive but not so wet that fungi can grow.  

I've found that good ventilation can help - I have a fan on my seedlings.  Throw out the ones that are sick or dying so that the fungi won't spread. Only water when the soil is really getting dry. The good news is that once the seedlings have two or more sets of leaves they are not prone to this - only very young seedlings get damping off.

Next time you start seeds, use clean, sterile containers and new soil (dump the soil from the sick plants outdoors where older plants grow) and watch the watering.

I hope this helps!
C.L.