Preventing mould when sowing seeds

Hello!

I sowed some cactus seeds about a week ago, and so far I have a shoot, which doesn't look very cactussy (and plus it seems too soon) but not so concerned about that...I noticed a tiny spot of mould on the surface of the soil yesterday and was wondering how to prevent more developing without harming the seeds. Would sprinkling cinnamon on the top of the soil work?

The seeds are in the airing cupboard covered with cling-film.

The other thing I thought might help is if I took off the cling-film (so the soil got more air) and just made sure i dunked the seed tray in water every day (or however often is required to keep the soil moist)?

Thanks:)

 

You can cinnamon it, sure. Normally, I treat my soil with Lamisil before I plant anything, as a preventative measure.

 

A very thin layer of sand works well too

 

Did you sterilize the potting soil and the container that you are using before planting? - Millet

 

Thanks for your suggestions....I did sow the seeds under sand but I didn't cover the entire surface with sand so I'll try that.

Lamisil? When I searched that I got athlete's foot medicine! Is there a plant version too?

No......i didn't Millet, will that seriously spoil their chances of germination? I have more seeds so I can always try again with the soil sterilised if these don't germinate

 

Lamisil is sold here as a liquid broad-spectrum fungicide, both at the Chemist's for human fungal afflictions and at plant growers as a mold-preventative. It works brilliantly with my papayas, which are prone to damping off - since I started using it as a seed and soil treatment, my germination and survival rate has gone from about 55% to almost 100% so long as I have mature seeds.

Sterilization doesn't impede germination, it just prevents spores from surviving. But once the seeds are planted, you can't sterilize the soil they're in, you have to do a whole different batch.

 

You need to be very careful with fungicides.They are nonselecive.They kill good fungi along with the bad.

 

Which is why I nomally just treat the seeds, and then sterilize the soil in the oven. The papayas are a special case, because for me at least they don't respond at all in soils where the natural bacteria have been killed off, but they will catch fungus like a fruit fly on bananas. For this, I use the fungicide in the soil as well, which just kills the fungi and not the bacteria and other microorganisms.