Gardening and Horticulture - white mold on new vegetable seedlings indoors
Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.View Full Version : white mold on new vegetable seedlings indoors
03-05-01, 06:32 PM
We have started tomatoes from seeds. They are up and apparently doing well, but the peat pots and the soiless mixture we used to grow them in are both beginning to show a white mold. We are watering them from the bottom and we have not yet fertilized them. We are growing them indoors, under a light. They are getting 18 hours of light per day. It is still too early to set them out. They are 3 weeks from germination and about 4 inches tall. We do not want to lose these tomatoes. What do we need to do about the mold?
03-06-01, 07:09 PM
That's odd... peat pots and soilless mixtures are usually used for seedlings because they are LESS fungus-prone than soil.
do you have a transparent cover on your seedlings? Many people cover the freshly seeded pots/flats, and many kits come with a little plastic cover. The cover should be opened when the seedlings start to germinate (sometimes can be left on, but open a crack to allow air flow). If yours is still on, take it off completely.
The only other thing I cant think of is that you might have hard water. If this is the case, you aren't seeing mold, but tiny crystals of the metals that are dissolved in your water. Often times people see this on the outside of clay pots, especially if they fertilize, as the fertilizer leaches outside the clay with the water, and then crystallizes as the water evaporates. If this is the problem, I don't think it will affect your seedlings as long as it isn't contacting the stem.
do you have a transparent cover on your seedlings? Many people cover the freshly seeded pots/flats, and many kits come with a little plastic cover. The cover should be opened when the seedlings start to germinate (sometimes can be left on, but open a crack to allow air flow). If yours is still on, take it off completely.
The only other thing I cant think of is that you might have hard water. If this is the case, you aren't seeing mold, but tiny crystals of the metals that are dissolved in your water. Often times people see this on the outside of clay pots, especially if they fertilize, as the fertilizer leaches outside the clay with the water, and then crystallizes as the water evaporates. If this is the problem, I don't think it will affect your seedlings as long as it isn't contacting the stem.