Propagation chambers are growing mold.

I'm starting (learning how) to propagate nursery stock for shrubs and other plants and vines. My tabletop propagation chambers are working very well. All cuttings are starting to root. However, I'm starting to find a bit of mold on top of the soil. I'm using a mix of garden soil, sand, and vermiculite. As for the mold I found out, too late, that I should have sterilized the garden soil before combining it with the other store-purchased products.

Question: Now that the cuttings are already planted and starting to root...what is the best way to stop the mold--- along with releasing humidity from the chambers each day?

Can a solution of water with a few dropd of bleach be used? I read on another forum website to sprinkle ground cinnamon around the cuttings. Has anyone a suggestion and have you heard about the cinnamon before?

Thanks so much for your help in eliminating the mold on my cuttings.

To start with, garden soil is not the best thing to use even if you sterilize it. It tends to be too heavy and will greatly increase the chances that your cuttings will rot. You should use soil-less potting mix instead. Given that you started with garden soil which probably has billions of fungal spores in it, I'm not sure there's really much you can do, you can temporarily kill off some of the mold but I think it's going to keep coming back and it will be a neverending battle for you. But if you want to try, I'd use hydrogen peroxide instead of bleach. Bleach can be a bit on the strong side, plus it breaks down to salt and water so if you have to use it frequently you can get too much salt in your soil (and I suspect whatever you do, you're going to have to keep repeating since I think the fungus is going to keep coming back). Chamomile tea could also help. Just be careful in the process of using these you don't overwater, this is a special concern because of having the garden soil in there.

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to start a frest batch in vermiculite and just watch 'em grow. I started a forest of forsythia cuttings 3 weeks ago in perlite and they're doing great. I don't know, yet, which is better...perlite or vermiculite...but I darned sure won't use garden soil again. Thanks again.

At the garden center, look out for a brand name of Chestnut Compound, if you get fungus starting to cause damping off in seedlings, then you mix this compound in water into a hand held mister and spray it onto the soil, it may help kill off the fungus but you may have to repeat this say once per week, it wont harm the plants but it is a purple colored powder so watch your table top. Also when your growing cuttings/seedlings in a small confined and heated place like a propagator, you really have to be very vigilant as the closed humid conditions they produce are the places most fungal diseases like to grow in, so make sure you have ample ventilation, less water and as soon as I see my cuttings/seeds start to form roots, I am inclined to remove the top or the case during the day and replace it for cooler night time, it is more the bottom heat your plants need for rooting than the humidity caused by the box being closed, I find the best mixture for my use in my prop frame is, one flower pot of good quality compost from the store, half pot of sand (make sure you use horticultural sand as it has been washed and any salts or stuff has been removed) and add quarter pot of vermiculite or perlite as both do the same job, that is they keep plenty air in the soil and help drainage too. mix all together and set your cuttings/seeds into this, then pot them on when rooted and keep them in the propagator for about a week gradually hardening them off by placing the pots onto a seed tray by day until they are well rooted and growing well, then you can place them outdoors in the warm spring days and take back inside at night, do this gradual hardening off for a few weeks till they are acclimitised to these conditions, then early summer, put them into larger pots and outdoors for the summer, after that they should be large enough to leave outside till the following spring when they can be planted out into the garden. By the way, Ecrane is so right, you should never use garden soil rot the planting of seeds or cuttings especially indoors, but can be used for hardwood cuttings if the cuttings are taken in the warmer weather and rooted outside where plenty air can be sent around the cuttings. you will soon find your own preferred cutting mixture that you are happy with and works for you, just dont add any plant feed to the soil till the cuttings are well on their way to making new growth after the first year of the tender roots will be burned by the food. hope this helps you out and you go on to enjoy your new gardening skills, it is very satisfying to grow your own plants and cheaper by far. go to your library/book store for a book on propagation as what you are doing is only one way to increase your plants, there are many more ways that will encourage you to do more tricky types of plants. dont be put off by any set backs as you will have some failures as you go along, just do it again till you get it right, it ain't rocket science but patience and determination is your best gardening skill. good luck, have fun and enjoy. WeeNel.

Do you know what's in the Chestnut Compound? I don't think we have that brand here in the US.

Hi Ecrane, unfortunately I dont know what it contains, it is stored in my greenhouse and as it is 2:30 in the morning, I will have to wait till tomorrow to go find the can, it smells very like ammonia when mixed with water so dont ever inhale it as it will take your breath away, it is a fine powder and purple in colour, you only use such a small amount, say quarter of a teaspoon to about 1 pint of water and I mist it with a hand mister onto the foliage and the potting soil, next day, the mould has gone, as you are so good with plants Ecrane, you will know that once you get damping off with seedlings at the early stage, nothing will prevent then just flopping and dying, but you need to mist this compound onto them first sign of it before it spreads to the whole tray, it really is great stuff but used with care as I always wash out the mister soon as I have misted if I have any left over, I will get back to you tomorrow soon as I get out to the greenhouse, I have my Grand-kids hear for their autumn break from school and I try to keep them out from the greenhouse as I am always afraid they may touch plant food etc. speak to you then, WeeNel.

Hi Ecrane, getting back to you re Chestnut compound, I went get the tin and it is quite rusty, being in the greenhouse shelving did not help, anyway, the part of the name I could make out looked like (Bayers Garden) it is a small tin with flat lid that you need a spoon handle to open if you know what I mean, the ingredients that I could read are, made from 2 parts Copper Sulphate and 11 parts Ammonium Carbonate, it tells you to store for 2 days after you mix it in your spray/mister and you mix at the rate of 1 oz to 2 gallons of water. I dont mix and store mine Ecrane as I dont mix that quantity, I use a little hand held mister like the kind you would see in a hairdressers, and the amount I use for that will be say enough to cover the end of a teaspoon handle or a quarter of a teaspoon. the makers say for the cure or prevention of damping off on seedlings or mould on cuttings. As far as I am aware, it has nothing to do with the chestnut trees but who knows Eh, have you tried doing an ask jeeves search for chestnut compound, may help/ good luck, WeeNel.

Thanks WeeNel--before I start my winter seeds, I'll dig around and see if I can find any more info on it. I've had decent luck avoiding damping off by making sure to use sterile mix and watering with dilute hydrogen peroxide some of the time instead of plain water, but I still get it sometime so if there's something else out there that'll help prevent it I'd love to find it!

Allenbar I have worked in a couple of nurseries in my earlier years where we used a 50/50 mix of sand and peat moss to stick our cuttings. I have spent days on end sticking cuttings this way in a greenhouse without ever having damping off on the cuttings. Of course , we did use rootone. In my home garden these days I use the same mix for perhaps a 100 or so cuttings a year. This is just a little box next to the shed in my garden. I root all sorts of things in it including woody plants , perennials and even many annuals. I occassionally loose some cuttings this way because of neglect in watering them, but never from camping off.

I recently talked to a guy at the local rose society who sticks rose cuttings in garden soil in the shady part of his yard. These are covered with a mason jar (the way my grandmother did it 50 plus years ago). He claim an 88% success rate .
Like many rose people he has hundreds of bushes.

I hope this is some help.

John

I guess what we are saying here Ecrane, is there are so many different ways to do seeds and cuttings, but I guess we all have different temps, different light and different soil conditions, I dont have a huge problem with damping off disease, but when it hits, then I have seen it kill off a whole tray of seedlings over night if not treated, I think your treatment just might be so similar to the chestnut compound solution that I use that it works fine for you, I dont know any gardeners, novice or professional who dont get this problem from time to time, mine seems to happen more if I have just watered my seedlings and the temp really drops over night like the tiny plants are damp and cold, however, I also had it sometimes when using my bottom heated and covered propagation box, so maybe luck had a lot to do with it also, Good luck with your search, sure you will find the stuff, just maybe under a different brand name, but the search for chestnut compound should throw up something for manufacturers, happy hunting Ecrane, WeeNel.

I have several AV also and lately have been having problems with mold. I bought the plants already potted and have not repotted them at the present time. I live in SW Florida (Cape Coral) and would like to know about the peroxide solution. How do you mix it? I have also seen the fungus gnats that were discussed on another forum and they were talking about sticky yellow strips. What are these and where can I get them? Thanks for all the help!!!

The sticky traps are sold in most garden centers for trapping green fly etc, they are about six inch long by 4 inch wide and you hang them up about 4 inches above the infected plants, then when breeze etc disturbs the plants, there is a puff of these tiny little flies and they are attracted to the sticky traps for cover, the traps are normally yellow as it is said the green fly are more attracted to that colour. But the little flies you have are different as they dont eat the sap from the plants foliage, but rather live and eat dead things like vegetation etc, natural in the compost, I always find that when I do get these flies, then I have the compost too wet for too long, or my compost in the pot has turned a bit sour and needs changed or fix the drainage, but maybe I am talking about another kind of gnat thing, we also get them where fruit is beginning to go off (over ripe) and this attracts them also, good luck. WeeNel.

I use half vermiculite and half spaghnum peat moss. I am having a problem with mold on a tray that I started two weeks ago that still hasn't germinated. Should I toss the good part of the tray also? What about cuttings in different pots using the same vermiculite and spaghnum peat mixture? Does this mean that pots in close proximity that don't show mold should be tossed out also?

Also I have heard of homogenizing the mixture before using. What is this all about? Was I supposed to have done this before planting? Will this help the mold problem?

Thanks,

Chuck

Did you sterilize your materials before you used them? I'm not sure if nasty stuff would live in vermiculite, but peat for sure ought to be sterilized before you use it, otherwise there's a good chance of getting mold. As far as things in other pots that aren't showing mold--the worst case scenario is they do get mold and you have to throw them away eventually anyway, but there's a chance some of them may not develop the problem so personally I'd probably keep them around and see what happens. When you water them, you might consider adding in a bit of hydrogen peroxide to the water or else water them with chamomile tea, that may help kill any little bits of fungus that are in the soil before it has a chance to get going.

Thanks, ecrane,

I really appreciate your feedback. I have googled 'homogenizing planting mixtures' and I didn't get what I wanted. How do you sterilize the planting mixture (sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite)? What I mean is do you just put it in the oven and how high temp for how long?

Thanks again,

Chuck

Over the many years I have been gardening, outdoor, in greenhouse, using heated propagation chambers etc, I have tried so many different soils, composts, and mixtures, but for me, the safest, cost wise and benefits to my success has been when I buy the compost form the garden centers, this is already mixed for various types of propagation from seeds to cutting, what I use is a multi purpose mix of compost and that can be used for seeds, pots, summer baskets or tubs and also added to planting holes, IF, I run out of home made compost for the latter, however, for seeds and cuttings, I add four parts bought compost to one part sand, this gives the seeds plenty air and drainage, after germination and time to separate the seeds/cuttings into either trays or pots etc, that next mix will have vermiculite added as by then, the seedlings need ever more air and water around the roots and vermiculite will help with this the white per lite adds more drainage and a bit more heat due to it's construction, within a growing box or propagation chamber, you need to water less
ventilate well especially if it is indoors where there is heating and lots of fluctuation in lite, and make sure the trays or pots dont sit with too much water around the roots, there are various ways to help with the mould that can be a problem in the soil in confined space like a frame,
but I would not use household bleach as one of them, perhaps if the cuttings have started to take root, you could lift the lid from the frame during the day, and replace it for the cooler evenings, this will help circulate air around the cuttings. I would not recommend garden soil for indoor plants or rooting material as there will be soil born diseases within this and in a garden situation then this is better, but indoors and within a chamber, these diseases are being encouraged to multiply. hope by now you have found a solution, but for future, then try a manufactured compost that has already been sterilised and mixed to a good formula for home/garden use. it works out cheaper in the long run and offers more guarantee as a growing medium, as for sterilising your own soil, I find this a tricky subject as you need the right temp, the right containers to do it and the time to give it your full attention, so for me, the easy way is to buy the mix from the garden center, I buy it in large bags of about 75 Litre's and after adding my sand etc, I do get a good load of nice airy light seed/cutting compost. hope you have good luck with your new found hobby as it is great fun and saves a lot of money with plants. WeeNel.

If you google "sterilize potting mix" you should get lots of hits on that, I would think you could use the same technique for peat or for potting soil. Either that or try the propagation forum, I know this has been discussed over there in the past so you should find some old threads on it.

Thanks WeeNel, appreciate your help with the gnat problem. I understand the fruit fly problem and they're not fruit flies. To get rid of the fruit flies all you need to do is pour some apple cider vinegar in a small bowl and add about a quarter size spot of joy dishwashing liquid in the middle. It attracts the fruit flies and they will drown. Works great, I use it all the time. By the way, do you know how to mix the perioxide solution for the mold on the potting soil?

Sorry, but I dont know how or what the ratio is for mixing the peroxide mixture, but Ecrane uses this mix and I feel sure she will come back in to help you with that, good luck. WeeNel.

Assuming you have the 3% concentration which is the one that's commonly found at drugstores, I usually use about a tablespoon or two per gallon of water. I've heard of other people using more than that, I think someone even said they used it straight out of the bottle, so I don't think you have to be too careful (I'd be nervous to use it straight out of the bottle, but anything less than that you ought to be fine!)

Thanks Ecrane, I was hoping you were about on the forum as I remembered you saying earlier that you used this mix, WeeNel.