RE: [gardeners] Mold

Terry King (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 7 Apr 2001 13:34:34 -0700 

I've had mold similar to what you describe grow on bone and blood meal
sprinkled on the surface of the soil of my house plants.  I've solved the
problem by repotting and mixing this kind of fertilizer in with the new soil
instead of sprinkling the surface. I've also had success scratching the
fertilizer down into the soil instead of leaving it exposed on the surface.

Molds are one type of organism that naturally help breakdown blood and bone
meal before the plants can utilize these nutrient.  We just don't normally
see the mold growing because the particles the molds are growing on are
dispersed with other soil particles.

Another thought that occurred to me is that such a mold over growth could
indicate a soil depleted in other organisms so repotting would be a good
idea adding some well made compost.

Terry
taeking@endlesshealth.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardeners@globalgarden.com
[mailto:owner-gardeners@globalgarden.com]On Behalf Of Craig Watts
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 6:49 PM
To: gardeners
Subject: [gardeners] Mold


Yuk! Mold on all my indoor plants. It's located on the soil, has spread to
all plants. Looks like bread mold. Not powdery black mold, its growing on
the soil.

History:

Had my habanero plants wintering w/ me indoors. Had an attack of white
flies. Got some insecticidial soap and clean them off. Flies dropped by
90%, retreated 2 weeks later. Treated a glad outdoors for black mold,
applied a full service fertilizer to them. Thought if it was good for them,
I'd do the plants indoors (Peace Lilly). It contained a very low fertilizer
along with bone meal, dried blood, iron, etc.

Thoughts:

Could it be the droppings of the white flies are molding?
Could it be the bone meal and dried blood molding?

Cindy does like to water them till it spills all over my nice hardwood
floors, but that only happens every other week. And because it has been
warm here the windows are more open now allowing plenty of sun into the
room.

I put the habaneros out on the front brick stairs in full sun w/ no water
and the mold has not decreased (been out there for 6 days).

Suggestions?  ..............  bleach??????   Throw 'em out?????

Craig Watts
kingdomm@worldnet.att.net