Fungus in houseplant soil

10 years ago

Hi everyone,

I have eight houseplants in my apartment. Five of them keep getting this creeping white fuzz across the soil. It looks like small round beads strung together with thick spider webs. I normally just scrape it off, but upon moving my Elephant Ear today, this chunk (photo provided) fell off the drainage hole.

Anyone have any ideas? Is it harmful or just unsightly? Any tips on how to annihilate it?

Thank you very much!

Comments (6)

plantomaniac08
10 years ago
mielwade,
What soil are you using? I used to find this same stuff in with my plants that were potted in Miracle Gro soil. I don't know what it is, I can't help you there. I don't know if it's harmful or just unsightly, as you are asking, I ended up cleaning off all the soil from the plants' roots and repotting them in another brand of soil (as soon as I noticed the "stuff" coming out of drainage holes).

I'm looking forward to seeing what it's identified as, I've always wanted to know what that stuff was.

Planto

This post was edited by plantomaniac08 on Tue, Jan 7, 14 at 22:45
michael1846
10 years ago
Use cinnamon
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mielwade
Original Author
10 years ago
plantomaniac08

This is an organic potting soil from Gardner & Bloome, supplemented with weekly feedings of Plant & House "Plant Nutrient". I can't attest to what soil the nursery was using, which is still partially in there as well.

I don't think I overwater (once a week, misting with a spray bottle in the interim). And my apartment is southern-facing with loads of light in Los Angeles...

It's all so strange...
plantomaniac08
10 years ago
mielwade,
Hmm... does sound pretty strange. I hope someone else will chime in and let us both know what it is and what causes it, as I'm still intrigued. Wish I could be of more help, but as I said in my last post, I never did find out what it was. When you smell your soil, does it have an odor at all? I'm speaking of an odor other than the smell you'd expect from potting soil. I've noticed when I used the MG soil (I know you're not using MG soil), it would have an almost sour/fungi smell to it.

Planto
muddeprived
10 years ago
I had that problem a year ago and turned to my trusty GSE (grapefruit seed extract). I put about 20 drops of GSE in a spray bottle, filled it up, and sprayed down the soil. Two days later the fungus/mold was dead and it never returned.

GSE has been great for this issue.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
10 years ago
Check out pics of 'root mealybug' and 'root aphid' to see if your issue matches. That doesn't look like decomposition of organic material in the potting soil, which I've never seen at drain holes anyway, but really hard to tell from just a couple pics. You may want to pull the EE out of its' pot to see the roots.

FWIW, I always had terrible luck trying to keep those growing over winter. Have you considered storing it dormant (if you have a place to do so) until the weather improves?