Fuzzy Fungus in my Ping

[TheFury]

Hey Y'all -

I have a P. Esseriana that I got a week or two ago. I got it bare root, and a few days after I potted it up, a fuzzy moldy-looking thing developed on the surface of the media. Mr. SDCPs tells me it's damping off fungus.

I took his advice and let the media dry up a little - I haven't watered it in a week. However, I peeked into my grow rack this morning and found the fungus to be worse than ever.

I already scooped out some fungus-ridden media but the fungus grew back. I've been careful to remove dead plant matter so it doesn't rot.

I have two questions:

1) is it time to try some fungicide? I have Safer brand sulfur-based fungicide.

2) I've read that a natural remedy for damping off fungus is to boil some cloves of garlic in water and spray it on the soil. I just prepared some (using RO water of course) and it's cooling right now. The oil in the garlic is supposed to act as a natural fungicide. Would you recommend I try that first?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Here's what the fungus looks like:

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I did check out other threads with a search, but they were years old and had few answers, so I figured I'd ask again.

 

[jimscott]

Cinnamon sprinkled is another thing. More light and less moisture also helps.

 

[TheFury]

Hey, nice. Loving these kitchen remedies. So you think I should go ahead and try it? Nothing about this garlic water will be offensive to my pings, right?

I'm afraid I'm stuck with the amount of light I have. But I can control the moisture, of course. I'm liking the cinnamon idea because I don't need to add water! So just put a light dusting on the soil? On the plants too? And should I water it in?

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Not a Number]

Garlic is high in sulfur so that's where the anti-fungal properties come from. Next time sterilize your mix with a 10% bleach solution. Let sit for 20-30 minutes, rinse well, and let it sit overnight before potting.

It's not unusual for peat moss or long fiber sphagnum to bloom with a white thready fuzz. Most of the times it clears up on its own after a week or so with no lingering effects.

 

[TheFury]

So I did a very light dusting of cinnamon and watered it in with some garlic water. All I need now is a little eye of newt, perhaps kidney of iguana, and I'll have an excellent anti-zombie potion lol.

Now I'm just going to let it dry up again and leave it alone!

Yeah, next time I repot or plant anything I'm definitely going to rinse and sterilize my media. I haven't done that ever before and all of my pots have at least a little algae in them--or worse, fungus in this case! Ah well, every n00b like myself must come to this realization eventually.

 

[jimscott]

I don't think ya need to water the cinnamon.

 

[TheFury]

You mean it won't sprout plantlets??

 

[Joseph Clemens]

I encourage that kind of fungus bloom with all my CP. I use Trichoderma harzianum Rifai strain KRL-AG2 (RootShield®). This fungus is awesome.

 

[TheFury]

I encourage that kind of fungus bloom with all my CP.

Wh-wh-whaaat? Please explain! Am I to understand that damping off fungus the same stuff that they sell as RootShield?

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Damping-off is actually caused by many different organizms, damping-off. Trichoderma harzianum Rifai strain KRL-AG2 (RootShield®). This fungus is awesome - it does a pretty good job protecting plants from organizms that would otherwise cause problems. You should read about how it works --> (RootShield®)

Just because you can see visible fungal hyphae, does not necessarily mean you have a pathological organizm, micro-flora are quite dynamic.