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Black jelly slime killing baby plants?
Louise 15
Posts: 3
In July I bought, via a reputable website, lots of tiny plug plants - Echinacea, Salvia blue queen and Achillea. I potted them all on in good quality compost into 9cm pots and put them on my patio table with lots of other baby plants. All of the salvias have disappeared which I thought might be slugs but nothing else is damaged and every single salvia pot has a patch of thick black slime next to where the plant was. You can actually lift it off (it's about 3-4mm thick) but it's spread out and smooth (not like water gel crystals, say). Is it a fungus? In some cases the jelly is covering a quarter of the surface of the pot but it isn't present on the other plant pots.
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I tried a photo but it just looks like wet compost. I didn't think they were big enough to plant out (they really were the tiniest plugs imaginable and the instructions said to pot them on) and was hoping to plant some out in spring and swap spare plants. They're not sitting in water. It's the black jelly stuff that is bothering me - I usually tip old compost into the flower beds but I'm reluctant to tip out something that may spread (I can't tell if the jelly has killed the plant or whether the dead plant has attracted the jelly). It's just so odd, especially as the plants have completely disappeared.
Next question Edd ,
how is it avoided ?