Gardening: Damping off can be a problem for seedlings

Damping off is a very disheartening disease. Just as you’re getting excited about all the new little plants emerging in your planting trays or pots, they begin to keel over and die. Not just the odd one or two seedlings, but a significant patch will collapse. Sometimes all will be blighted.
If you look at the seedlings closely you’ll notice that at the point where the root and stem join at soil level, there is a pinched-in area that has turned brown or black. As well, the roots of af