I have been battling a particularly resilient type of white, cottony, almost spider-web like mold for a while now. I first got it when I received some gemmae and my first utric in the mail. I ended up potting these in some pots which had been on the back porch. There did not appear to be anything growing in or on the pots, so I rinsed them off and used them. I have since lost all the gemmae to the killer mold and had to throw the utric out. Before I did, it contaminated almost all the other utricularia I got thereafter (which are now living in quarantine in the kitchen).
I thought I was in the clear...until a few weeks ago when I got my first heliamphora. I did everything I normally do, except I included a single strand of live sphagnum which had been in my sarracenia pot on the back porch. I had to bring the sarracenia in due to cold weather, and I didn't want the moss to die, so I put it with the Heliamphora. There was no visible mold on the moss or in the pot, so I had no way of knowing the nightmare which would ensue.
A few weeks later I noticed the Satan mold had infiltrated my Heliamphora pot. I sprayed it with Green Light Neem II and a sulfur based fungicide. The problem is, the mold seems to live deep down in the media. The visible mold might die back for a while, but in a few days it would just come back up again.
I was starting to really worry that it would infect the other nearby plants, so today I decided to declare war. I removed the heli and all the media. I noticed several little fibers in the media at the bottom of the pot. Then I sprayed down the empty pot with bleach and rinsed it thoroughly, and carefully rinsed off all the loose media from the heli's roots and sprayed it with fungicide. Then I got some new media and re-potted it. Hopefully I did not disturb the heli's roots too much...and hopefully no spores or traces of the mold survived. But then Satan is immortal after all.
Which brings me to my point: if it comes back, is there some kind of heli-safe fungicide I can use which will permeate the entire pot? Also, does anyone have any idea what kind of mold this was? I'll try to get a picture when it grows back on the utrics.
I thought I was in the clear...until a few weeks ago when I got my first heliamphora. I did everything I normally do, except I included a single strand of live sphagnum which had been in my sarracenia pot on the back porch. I had to bring the sarracenia in due to cold weather, and I didn't want the moss to die, so I put it with the Heliamphora. There was no visible mold on the moss or in the pot, so I had no way of knowing the nightmare which would ensue.
A few weeks later I noticed the Satan mold had infiltrated my Heliamphora pot. I sprayed it with Green Light Neem II and a sulfur based fungicide. The problem is, the mold seems to live deep down in the media. The visible mold might die back for a while, but in a few days it would just come back up again.
I was starting to really worry that it would infect the other nearby plants, so today I decided to declare war. I removed the heli and all the media. I noticed several little fibers in the media at the bottom of the pot. Then I sprayed down the empty pot with bleach and rinsed it thoroughly, and carefully rinsed off all the loose media from the heli's roots and sprayed it with fungicide. Then I got some new media and re-potted it. Hopefully I did not disturb the heli's roots too much...and hopefully no spores or traces of the mold survived. But then Satan is immortal after all.
Which brings me to my point: if it comes back, is there some kind of heli-safe fungicide I can use which will permeate the entire pot? Also, does anyone have any idea what kind of mold this was? I'll try to get a picture when it grows back on the utrics.