Viewing post #728738 by RickCorey

You are viewing a single post made by RickCorey in the thread called Uhoh ... white mildew or mold on my herbs??? What do I do ?.
Image
Nov 6, 2014 1:13 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
Another anti-fungus spray is diluted hydrogen peroxide. You can water with it or just mist the surface, and/or spray leaves with it.

I don't know about spraying with peroxide and baking soda very close together. It might be OK, might not be, or might nullify the effect of either or both.

I think that there would be no downside to alternating chamomile tea and peroxide. Or just pick one and use it until it seems less effective, then try the other for a while.

0.2% hydrogen peroxide:
dilute "drugstore" hydrogen peroxide by 1:16 -
1 tablespoon per cup of water
2 ounces per quart
1 cup per gallon

Preventing fungus, no matter how hard, is probably easier than curing it once established.

P.S.
You should get some improvement just by keeping the soil surface drier. Less frequent, heavier watering helps with that. Air movement (a fan) or lower humidity would help dry the soil surface somewhat. Bottom-watering (if convenient) should help.

I think the best way to get a dry soil surface is to top-dress each pot with relatively coarse bark nuggets. Gravel or pebbles ought to work too. Very coarse Perlite should stay a little drier than straight potting mix.

Besides being drier and therefore less fungus-friendly, top-dressing can make the exposed surface less "organic" in the sense of less digestible fungus-food exposed to spores in the air. If you have compost in your potting mix, that feeds fungus like candy. If you use organic fertilizer like fish emulsion, that also provides fungus with easily digestible food.

If you ever re-pot the herbs, using a faster-draining and less-water-retaining soilless mix helps.

Probably any soilless potting mix is less fungus-friendly than any kind of potting soil, or any mix with any garden soil in it.

« Return to the thread "Uhoh ... white mildew or mold on my herbs??? What do I do ?"
« Return to Herbs forum
« Return to the Garden.org homepage

Member Login:

( No account? Join now! )

Today's site banner is by RootedInDirt and is called "Botanical Gardens"

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.