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Safer branded fungicide?

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Hi to everyone. It looks from the posts I've seen (lurking for a few hours now) that there is definitely a wealth of vft knowledge here. To that end, I'm hoping some of you can give me some advice on fungicide and mildew.

Let me offer some background: I've recently acquired (rescued?) some vft's from a Home Depot and I'm trying to acclimate them to indoor humidity and temperature. That said, they are still beneath their "domes" for the moment. I am working on opening the domes a bit at a time and will eventually remove them completely. At the moment, I've put pretty large holes into the top of the domes (they're nothing more than cheap plastic cups upside down, of course) but there's still quite a bit of moisture collecting.

One of the plants appears to have white specks on it that are surely spreading. I believe this is 'powdery mildew' based on what I have read. So far the only fungicide I have found readily available, which I have seen mention on CP sites and forums previously, is "Safer" brand. I was only able to find the 3-in-1 kind that also kills insects, but I am not certain whether this is 100% safe to use on the plants.

I did generously douse the affected plant and it cleaned off all the mildew I could find inside the 'dome' but I'm not sure if I need to do more or prune the affected portions of the plant. It doesn't have many leaves and I'm hesitant about taking off anything that isn't dead yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions on treatment? Also, as per my subject line, does anyone know about this brand of fungicide and whether or not I should use it versus something else? How serious of a problem is the mildew anyway?

Thanks much for any feedback. I'm sorry if this got a bit long winded.
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I have found Safer "Defender" fungicide works well on my Ceph so s/b good for you VFT. Gets rid of powdery mildew.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (curlingguy @ Oct. 15 2006,2:16)]I have found Safer "Defender" fungicide works well on my Ceph so s/b good for you VFT. Gets rid of powdery mildew.
So far so good. It doesn't look like it is spreading anymore so I think the fungicide has done it.
 
There is a much "safer" way to get rid of this problem - raise light levels, decrease humidity a little more, wipe off all traces of the mildew and give the plant some air circulation at least a couple times a day. Get that cup off of there as soon as you can, and repot it with a good media mix while you're at it. I don't know why so many people are so hung up on their fungicides. I think it's of the utmost importance to not rely on these products but on proper culture - materials and techniques - to grow healthy strong plants. Okay, there's my Mr. Natural bit--
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (throckmoron @ Oct. 15 2006,12:57)]There is a much "safer" way to get rid of this problem - raise light levels, decrease humidity a little more, wipe off all traces of the mildew and give the plant some air circulation at least a couple times a day. Get that cup off of there as soon as you can, and repot it with a good media mix while you're at it. I don't know why so many people are so hung up on their fungicides. I think it's of the utmost importance to not rely on these products but on proper culture - materials and techniques - to grow healthy strong plants. Okay, there's my Mr. Natural bit--
Oh I agree with you, I was very hesitant to use chemicals at all on my vft's, but at the rate it was spreading I didn't see I had much choice. As I said, I doing my best to get them out of those domes and into the open air. It's Arizona though and humidity is a myth out here, so I want to make it gradual and not just yank the dome off and drop the humidity from dripping wet to -nill- in one shot.
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I do hope that with the low humidity we have here that, if nothing else, I can stop worrying so much about mildew/fungus type problems once I get them out of the domes.

Does anyone else have experience with growing in the open air in Arizona?
 
Welcome to TerraForums! As Throckmoron says, more light and more aur circulation / less humidity. I laud your efforts to slowly acclimate your plants. I am also one who would rather try natural and oragnic approaches to dealing with these plants. Another idea for mold is to sprinkle some cinnamon on the affected areas.
 
I have used Schultz Garden Safe Fungicide 3 on my VFTs for aphids (It's a fungicide/insecticide/miticide) with no problems. It's active ingredient is Neem oil.

If you are still getting condensation inside the dome, enlarge the hole a bit more or add another hole or two.

Don't know how low your humidity gets, but mine (I live in the middle of Colorado) can get down to 20%, especially during the winter. It hasn't affected any of my carnivorous plants.
 
Thanks to all for the helpful replies. I am ramping up the amount of circulation I give the plants and that with the fungicide seems to have helped a bit. We'll see through the week how things improve, but I appreciate all the advice. Thanks!
 
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