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Western PA

Well I found something rather disturbing while helping one of my seedlings seed coats off today.

The seeding was pushing dirt and looked to be a bit hung up so I dug down a bit and seen the seed coat was stuck on pretty good, so I pried the coat apart and removed it. I seen what appeared at first to be fine root hairs in between the two cots, after further inspection there was atleast a dozen very tiny thread like translucent to white worm like creatures. I also found the center of the cot to be damaged.

I went a head and isolated this plant from the rest.

My questions are:

What are these?

Could they have came with the seed (since they were clearly in the seed coat)?

I hope they came with the seed although I find that hard to rationalize since the seed coat is sealed.

IF they came with my potting mix that means I have to act very fast or I am screwed. I used a 50/50 mix this year of promix & and FoxFarms Happy frog potting soil.

Could some help identify the culprit?

THank you

4/30/2012 10:36:05 PM

Muddy Waters

were the bags (promix & happy frog)sealed or damaged?

5/1/2012 6:47:08 AM

East Jordan, MI

Without pictures we cna only speculate, pictures are worth a thousand words when trying to get help.

Are there any flys in your hoops?

They could be wireworms or seed corn maggots (seems like several people having probs with them this year.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/msgboard/ViewThread.asp?b=3&p=437822

It might be too late, but water with some merit (Imidacloprid) and spray something like eight (the new sevin) or bifenthrin on the soil in your starting area.

Good luck.

5/1/2012 8:16:45 AM

Burt NY

check out 15 posts below this post

5/1/2012 8:53:53 AM

Cedar Lake, IN.

Pumpkin Picker, I just removed the seed coat off and find these little white worms 1/8 0f an inch long. However,I transplanted this seedling a couple of days ago with soil from the garden. I've never seen this before. I will be using something with Imidacloprid or Bifenthrin in it. In the pots and the whole garden.

5/1/2012 5:50:13 PM

Ohio

I have heard of this before when using potting soils as a starting medium.

Have used staight Pro-Mix with no issues ever here.

5/1/2012 6:16:36 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

Always use a sterile starting medium

5/1/2012 9:46:18 PM

Western PA

Update: Well that seed appeared to be an isolated incident. I currently have 17 plants up and de-shelled right now, Of these 17 seedlings I did not find anything out of the ordinary what so ever.

I will remove all of the soil away from the base and roots of the effected seedling to see if it was corn seed maggots or not. from all of the pictures I have seen it appears not to be seed corn maggots. I have read that it is possible for eggs to be layed either inside or on a seed and these tiny thread like worms will be inside or on the seed coats just waiting for the right conditions to hatch and attack.

I think the seed corn maggot has a different MO, does anybody have any other ideas on what this thread like tiny worm could be inside the seed coat.

Just as a note: I started my seeds with the moist paper towel method, they germinated at around 40 hrs then where transplanted to pots with half pro-mix/Half fox farms Happy frog potting soil. Kept indoors at all times (did not see any flies in the house).

5/1/2012 10:40:10 PM

Western PA

I have started over 100 AG seedlings in my day and have used potting soil on every single one of them, never had an issue with it. My seedlings always look healthy and get off to a strong start every year. I like using potting soil, no doubt this could of been the culprit, but if it was it seems I would of seen some other sign of the worm like creature with the other 17 plants, I still have about a dozen or so to come up so we will see how those go.

Kurty, could you please go into more detail about the exact setup you used, and what seed it was?
If it was one of your own seeds, I would find it interesting to start about 20 or so of them to see if you have the worm like creatures in any of those seed cases.

5/1/2012 10:48:58 PM

Western PA

Thanks everybody for the replies and input

5/1/2012 10:50:00 PM

Cedar Lake, IN.

Pumpkin Picker, this is the 1495 Stelts seed. I used Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix in 3" peat pots. After the seed shell popped thru the mix I transplanted into a 5 gal. with soil from the garden. I think they came from the soil.

5/2/2012 7:44:58 AM

Portsmouth, RI

It really sounds like your describing pot worms. I get these white worms in my vericompost bins and they seem to congrigate together. When they are young, they look almost thread like and translucent.
If this is what you have they are harmless. Cornseed maggots are more oval pill shaped.

5/2/2012 6:01:53 PM

South East

might have been either a potworm or a fungus gnat larvea.

5/2/2012 6:51:28 PM

swan lake NY

I put my transplant in on 5/1 in three days plant went from healthy and growing to laying on its side base of stem had turned tan in color upon investigation found small white maggots inside stem dusted them with seven hoping other plants have no problems

5/6/2012 9:32:22 AM