fuzzy white mold growing in my soil

ThorGanjason

ThorGanjason

Well-Known Member
A few days ago I noticed that my soil in one or two of my smart pots was smelling pretty rank. I saw a post about plants smelling like shit, but it wasn't my plant, just my soil. That plant also has some leaf discoloration, probably caused by unhealthy roots.

I watered yesterday with a weak feeding, and today one of the pots has this white fuzzy mold; it almost looks like cob webs in the soil. How can I get rid of it? Peroxide and water?
 
intenseneal

intenseneal

Well-Known Member
Stop over watering. Very common for new growers to over water I know I did my first time around. It is pretty hard to over water in smart pots so you must be over watering a lot. Also poor air ventilation and circulation can be contributing as well. IME it is better for me at least to water in smaller amounts daily then 2-3 times a week heavily. To give you an idea on how much I water I have 8 plants in 3 gallon smart pots (about 12" plants) and I split 1 gallon of water evenly between them all every morning when the lights come on. When I flush I do 2 gallons between them all.
To help fix the issue you need to let the soil dry out and you will need to get an anti fungal power to put on the soil. I used Green Cure Fungicide when I had moldy soil, it killed the mold/fungus but the damage to the plant was already done. Most likley you will have a lower yield now and the plant may die worst case possible from root rot.
 
ThorGanjason

ThorGanjason

Well-Known Member
That's the thing, not only do I have smart pots but I have like 60% perlite in there. They dry out every other day, but I let my nutrient solution sit for 24 hours (for the pH to buffer) so a lot of times it winds up being 2 to 3 days. I figured it came from over watering, but the top was bone dry and the pot was really light.

Plus the one that is molding is my small 2 gallon pot; the 5 gallons are all fine. It always dries out the quickest, it just doesn't make sense. Its been really humid lately but they've still been drying out. I had a big problem with over watering, too, early on in my grow but got it under control. I mean it couldn't have formed without water, its just so strange that my small pot that dries the quickest has it and the other ones don't even smell.

So no ideas how to fix it?
 
intenseneal

intenseneal

Well-Known Member
Oooowww dont let your nutes sit like that. Use it right away. I was doing that early on and the nute water would have a odd almost fermented smell to it. Still though mold and fungus need a moist area to grow so you must be watering too much or dont have enough air flow and the humidity is too high. Just because the mold or fungus is only in certain pots means nothing just that those are the easiest places for it to grow, I bet if you dug down a little in your other pots you wll find mold. I already told you how to fix it you just need to read my first post but I will make it easy for you. Water less but more frequently, better air ventilation and fungicide.
 
fir3dragon

fir3dragon

Well-Known Member
Is possible from the nutes sitting.. I keep my excess water n gallon jugs so I don't make 50 trips up and down stairs because my grow is on second floor, and it smells like shit when I open it up the next day. It's possible your nutes are molding/going bad from sitting out. A fan at the ground level tilted up blowing from the bottom, up should keep moisture moving instead of sitting becoming stagnat
 
ThorGanjason

ThorGanjason

Well-Known Member
Well, I don't use synthetic, chelated nutes I'm using Aurora's roots organics line, which actually suggests to mix 24 hours ahead of time to allow the pH to buffer. I was having all kinds of problems trying to adjust The pH BC I have hard water anyways, and to get it to the correct level I had to add crazy amounts of the base (just cheap aquarium buffer) way higher than the directions, and it really started fucking my plants up. In the book that came with my master pack it says to let them sit 24 hours, which ive done for a month or so with no problems, and it buffers perfectly. I have a decent air pump and I called and they told me as long as the aeration was good that I should def let it sit.

But! There was one time where I let it sit for like 3 days and it got really stagnant and rank. I noticed the smell right before watering and dumped it out and mixed new stuff and let it sit for a few hours, but it didn't buffer much. So now when I water I always smell first before feeding, but usually its fine after only 24 hours.

But, the fact that my grow is all (or mostly) organic probably makes it a lot more susceptible to mold and stuff. My ventilation is pretty good; I have an ac blowing cold air for the intake and a 435 cfm inline fan pulling through my hood and a carbon scrubber For exhaust, plus I have a 12 inch box fan and 6 inch clip fan blowing air inside of the tent, which is 4 feet by 2 feet (closer to almost 3 by almost 5). I might try unzipping the tent and setting the box fan on the floor pointing up and see if that helps. Somehow I lost my temperature/hygrometer reader and so I have no idea what my RH has been lately (it has been somewhat rainy and humid, but there was way more rain early in the grow and my humidity was fine)...

Thanks a bunch for your help guys. I'm gonna try and find some of the powder, and see what else I can do for my humidity and moisture; I saw a gnat in there the other day which I'm sure is a fungus gnat.
 
greenlikemoney

greenlikemoney

Well-Known Member
ThorGanjason said:
That's the thing, not only do I have smart pots but I have like 60% perlite in there. They dry out every other day, but I let my nutrient solution sit for 24 hours (for the pH to buffer) so a lot of times it winds up being 2 to 3 days. I figured it came from over watering, but the top was bone dry and the pot was really light.

Plus the one that is molding is my small 2 gallon pot; the 5 gallons are all fine. It always dries out the quickest, it just doesn't make sense. Its been really humid lately but they've still been drying out. I had a big problem with over watering, too, early on in my grow but got it under control. I mean it couldn't have formed without water, its just so strange that my small pot that dries the quickest has it and the other ones don't even smell.

So no ideas how to fix it?
Click to expand...
Wait, you do what with your nutrient solution? Stop that !!!!!

Let your h2o sit for 24 hrs to dechlorinate, add your nutes, adjust your pH, then feed immediately. you can't leave nute solutions sitting around like that.
 
G

grorite

Well-Known Member
greenlikemoney said:
Wait, you do what with your nutrient solution? Stop that !!!!!

Let your h2o sit for 24 hrs to dechlorinate, add your nutes, adjust your pH, then feed immediately. you can't leave nute solutions sitting around like that.
Click to expand...
not true what I run suggest mixing 24 hours in advance
 
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