Selfsufficientish.com

Nice.
All but two of my aubergine plants have succumbed. Thankfully the chilis, sweet peppers, the basil and the tomatoes (all susceptible by all accounts) are fine but I'm annoyed.
I understand grey mould is caused by an airborne fungus. Would burning one of those sulphur candles help to erradicate it? Is there a green approach to this problem? I need to deal with this urgently as it poses a real threat to my plans to overwinter.

I had a light furry grey coating on my seed trays (due to being too lazy to disinfect properly ). I sprayed with water with a few drops of tea tree oil in it - seems to have helped. I've also sprayed it later when the seedlings were out, and the plants have (mostly) survived that, too.

tea tree oil? I'll bear that in mind. I've rolled up tightly the affected plants in newspaper, bound it with string and placed it in a sealed bag. Once the weather's picked up I'm going to burn them to make sure the spores don't spread.
I'm disinfecting the pots as I write -they're in a bucket of dettol solution. Everything crossed!

On a gardening forum a few years ago I was advised to use weak cammomile tea to water seedlings as it contains a mild fungicide. Before I started using it I lost a number to damp off (that's the grey furry mould), after...I've not lost a single one...to damp off anyway!

I use a single Sainsbury's cammomile teabag (it's what I have in the cupboard) in a pint of boiling water, let that go cold and use that tea as I would use water (to water or to spray). Works wonders and is completely natural. Doesn't store for too long though before it gets scummy and nasty, but you use it up pretty quickly.

If you're really selfsufficient you can grow your own cammomile and harvest it for just such an occasion :)

Good ventilation is also important: lift the lid off your propagators for 10 mins every day at least.

Alcina

Thanks, Alcina. I've usually got some camomile tea kicking about -will need to remember that for the winter.