Content
- Potting soil molds - what helps?
- First aid for plants in case of mold spores
- Good earth, bad earth?
- Twelve months later: slight vs. heavy earth
- Alternatives to potting soil?
Mold on potting soil is not normal and should be treated
Potting soil molds - what helps?
Unfortunately, it is probably every gardener occasionally happened that on just just potted plants after a few days on and in the potting mold is discovered. Whether the white clouds actually belong to the genus of fungal spores or only dissolved minerals from the irrigation water can be checked reliably with a wooden stick. If the deposits are solid and fine-grained, it is lime that just needs to be removed.
Soft, bright hairs would be a sure indication of the onset of mildew, which attacks the entire pot after a short time. However, mold spores are also not entirely safe for human health. There is no cosmetic treatment here, the plants need to get out of here quickly and into the open.
First aid for plants in case of mold spores
First, carefully remove the affected pots with them, empty them completely and remove the adhering remains of the soil from the roots (with vinyl gloves!). In case of heavy infestation, the root bales can be rinsed with lukewarm water before your houseplants are allowed to move again into new, highest-quality potting soil and thoroughly cleaned pots. In principle, there are only two reasons for the incipient rot in the planters:
With cheap soil (usually with even cheaper composition) is added that it gets out of biological balance due to their poor ventilation and tends to mold, as soon as their airtight film packaging was opened. So presumably the purchase of branded earth would have prevented the rottening up to date?
Good earth, bad earth?
This was the title of a very representative potting soil comparison published by the Stiftung Warentest in 2019, which immediately concluded that the quality differences between the individual varieties are enormous. Soils were evaluated with and without peat, both from trademarks of the famous DIY stores and garden centers (eg Kölle, Dehner, Toom, and Obi), as well as branded goods (from Compo, Floragard and Neundorff). Of the 19 products (price per 20 kg between just under 1.50 to 10.00 euros) just one variety has achieved a "very good", five were "satisfactory", two "sufficient", one variety (with just under 6 , 00 Euro) even poor, the rest "good".
Twelve months later: slight vs. heavy earth
Potting soil with high peat and coconut content means less hauling and, due to the high proportion of regrowth of raw materials (between 70 and 100 percent), sounds good initially. Nevertheless, one year later, this time the reviewers of "Ökotest" headline that even the light potting soil does not convince. The comparison in shorthand:
Alternatives to potting soil?
Surely you have guessed it, it is the own compost as an optimal means of soil improvement but also for the natural cultivation of plants of all kinds. Ökotest and BUND even urgently advise against peat, as part of potting soil in general. The reasoning is actually understandable and not only because peat-free gardeners protect our climate. In order to understand all connections a little better, you can download a very informative fact sheet for free on the portal of the BUND.