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Preventing Mold

spicymeatball

spicymeatball

I'm using tomato tone in my pot mixture as a fertilizer. I usually also use Neptunes Harvest fish and seaweed. I stopped using that to prevent white mold from growing on the top of the soil. Even with using tomato tone after two days there is mold growing on the soil. Is there anyway to prevent this? I don't overwater and let the soil dry out before rewatering, but the mold seems to grow anyway.
 
You can lightly scrape off the top layer of mold and then lightly sprinkle cinnamon on the soil. A thin even layer. The active ingredient is a natural fungicide. You can also try bottom watering. Like moruga welder said a fan might help as well. You can use a hydrogen peroxide/water mix but I'm unsure of the mix ratio.
 
I had the fan off for a couple days. Just put it back on. Would it be better to not use organics like tomato tone? It's dried chicken manure so mold growth is no surprise.
 
Is there any reason to think this mold is harmful to the plants?  Just asking.  I cover my potting soil with perlite, and I always get some brown/rust colored algae from the indoor lighting hitting wet surface. 
 
It may not be mold. If you have tomato tone on top of the soil, it may be the developing microbial colonies and it appears to look like mold.

I use tomato tone and I have experienced this.
 
Roguejim said:
Is there any reason to think this mold is harmful to the plants?  Just asking.  I cover my potting soil with perlite, and I always get some brown/rust colored algae from the indoor lighting hitting wet surface. 
Click to expand...
 
No. But generally when mold grows, the environment is suitable to other fungus, which may be bad. I've always wondered if organic is the best way to fertilize starts. I try to stick to organic for seedlings but at that point in growing what are the benefits to it? They're not producing fruit so why not just do a light dose of miracle gro? On the other hand when producing fruit in the garden, I will always stick to organics.
 
I'd go with the cinnamon, just bothers me using peroxide even though it breaks down before going too deep. I'd rather keep everything living below the surface alive and well unless there is ant problem. I did use it when growing in containers when I used miracle grow and it seemed more beneficial than anything. Probably more from getting air into the soil. And it drove the ant infestation out faster than water and faster than ant spray I used on a test plant....
 
I wouldn't worry about mold unless you see it growing on the plant. Almost all vermicompost has mold in it and it's one of the best things you can add to your soil. 
 
I always leave the mold be on the soil...plants do not mind it at all. Since I started adding a top dressing of sand I never see it or fungal gnats :) 
 
I had the SAME problem with neptune's harvest crab shell for calcium. Fix - stopped using it, added plain old bone meal instead and love it.
 
for fertilizer, I use a few handfuls of FFOF in the my mix. There is enough fert in the FFOF to last a qhile before needing to add anything else. And when I do, I use guanos and worm castings, pretty much only.
 
What is FFOF? A search brought up loads of weed info.lol
 
I dump a bag of the crab shell mix in the garden. But I figured the tomato tone had enough calcium in it. idk
 
Transplanted the remainder of the peppers. Just went with the tomato tone mixture but I'll keep the fan on it.
 
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