Why does the soil in the greenhouse become covered with a white coating? How to get rid of white plaque in flower pots. Maintaining cleanliness – preventing infectious diseases

The problem of mold in a greenhouse is not a very common phenomenon. Typically, such rooms are well ventilated, and the transparent walls and ceiling allow enough air to pass through. sunlight to prevent fungus from developing.

If we talk about what to do when such a problem arises, there are several options (from budget to expensive).

Why does mold appear in a greenhouse?

It develops due to several reasons:

There is no normal ventilation (air exchange is insufficient). Problems with ventilation can affect both the entire room and its individual sections (for example, some corner is not ventilated, and then mold can develop there).

Supported high humidity. This can occur due to stagnation of water on the ground and on plants. Stagnation occurs due to excessive watering or leakage through watering hoses (if there are cracks in it).

Eat a large number of wooden surfaces (and if they are not yet painted, this accelerates the appearance of mold).

Insufficient lighting. This is an unlikely factor, since there are usually no problems with lighting in greenhouses - otherwise the plants simply could not grow normally.

The main reason is the first reason - the lack of a normal ventilation system. If the air stagnates and other negative factors are present (humidity, lack of lighting), mold will appear sooner or later.

Where exactly does the fungus appear?

There are several “favorite” places where fungus appears in a greenhouse:

wooden structures: beams, furniture, racks, boxes;

on the soil and on the plants themselves (especially tomatoes, cucumbers);

areas with stagnant air and/or lack of lighting: usually these are corners on the floor, the space under the stands (if the greenhouse has stands on which boxes with plants stand).

In such a greenhouse, mold can appear under and between boxes, behind boxes and inside them.

If glass and polycarbonate become covered with mold, it is only after a serious infection, when the fungus has attacked wooden surfaces near.

Why is this dangerous?

It makes no difference what exactly the greenhouse is affected by: black, white or gray (sooty) mold. Any mold is dangerous for humans, plants, and the building itself.

Negative consequences:

Damage to the structure (building) itself, if it is made of wooden materials.

Damage wooden products inside the greenhouse (racks, boards, boxes).

Harm to plants (decrease in growth rate, decrease in metabolic processes in plant tissues, weakening from other diseases).

Harm to people who will work inside the greenhouse. Inhalation of mold spores may aggravate or cause problems such as bronchial asthma, dermatitis, cough, itchy skin. Allergic reactions may also occur.

At first, mold infection may not manifest itself in any way (while the concentration of spores in the air is still small).

What to do if mold appears in a greenhouse: ways to combat it (+ video)

To get rid of mold in a greenhouse, you need:

Remove the plaque itself.

Understand what caused the mold.

Eliminate the reasons for its occurrence. If favorable conditions remain for the development of the fungus, it will continue to appear.

How exactly can you remove plaque:

Folk remedies. The option is cheap and simple - many of the suitable substances can be found on the farm (you don’t have to go to the store). But these are not specialized tools. They are worth using if the fungus has not grown too much and has not become deeply embedded in the tree.

Purchased funds. More effective method fight - specialized drugs kill spores more reliably. They are sold in the form of a ready-to-use liquid (that is, there is no need to prepare or dilute anything).

Smoke bombs (sulfur or tobacco). They are used both for prevention and to combat mold that has already appeared. They are set on fire in the greenhouse. The smoke that is produced during combustion kills the spores. Compared to purchased liquids, this is a more effective (smoke will penetrate into every crack), but longer (after using the checker, the greenhouse will have to be ventilated for 2-3 days).

Optimal control scheme: to remove plaque - use purchased funds, and 1-2 times a season - fumigate the room with a saber.

Sequence of work: step-by-step plan

Action plan:

We find all areas affected by mold. To do this, you will have to turn everything inside the greenhouse over: move aside the racks, drawers, inspect every corner, look under the leaves of the plants and behind the plants that grow along the edges close to the walls.

We take out all the items that can be taken out. If the product is severely damaged, it is better to throw it away.

We open the windows and doors of the greenhouse.

We put on protective equipment (gloves, a respirator, and ideally also glasses to prevent mold spores from getting into your eyes).

We treat the greenhouse with the selected product. Since greenhouses usually have a small area, there are likely to be mold spores on all surfaces. Therefore, to be on the safe side, it is better to walk everywhere.

Let the room air out.

If there were large colonies of mold on the walls or ceiling of the greenhouse, the treatment can be repeated after 1-2 days.

If you decide to use a checker, it can be used instead liquid products, and in addition to them. In what order this should be done (first treatment with drugs, then saber, or vice versa) is not important.

If mold appears on the soil, special sorbent substances must be used to treat it. They increase the alkaline level in the soil, making it difficult for fungus to grow there.

To prevent mold from reoccurring:

Ensure normal air exchange in the greenhouse - the room must be ventilated constantly. This is also useful for plants that need Fresh air and which can be harmed by high humidity. Window windows are often used to ventilate greenhouses.

This problem is probably familiar to many who are interested in house plants. Sometimes it happens that the top layer in pots with your favorite flowers begins to slowly turn white. It doesn't look like mold. Then why is the earth covered with such a coating, and what is it missing?

Why does the soil in pots become covered with a white coating?

I think many people understand that most of these problems in home floriculture usually reflect our mistakes in caring for plants. This “white veil” is an ordinary crust of salt. She may be white, and sometimes white-yellowish. Such a crust occurs in pots simply when the physical evaporation of water from the soil significantly prevails over the evaporation of the same water from the plant itself. Again, as always, there are several reasons for this:

Perhaps the mechanical composition of the mixture that is in the flower pot is too heavy. This is why high (sometimes even excessive) capillarity occurs and because of such capillarity, water is more intensely drawn to the soil surface.

Again, mistakes cannot be ruled out when watering the plant. Perhaps you water immediately with water that was just poured from your tap. There is no need to do this, let it settle at least a little.

Drainage at the bottom of the pot may be difficult. If this is so, then again evaporation from the very surface of the soil in the pot will be the main way of consuming moisture.

Perhaps you simply over-fertilized the mixture or you already purchased such a mixture. After all, many manufacturers of such soil mixtures This is exactly what they are guilty of, especially if they make this mixture for vegetables.

We went too far with fertilizing.

And a simple reason that immediately comes to mind for many is the banal dryness of the air itself. It is because of the dryness that evaporation increases many times over and the salts are “pulled” to the surface.

In addition to all these points, white plaque can easily appear due to fungal microflora. Such microflora is again created by our efforts, which we show excessively when watering. Therefore, to get rid of such plaque, water your flowers correctly (read about it). That is, when the top layer of soil in the pot has already dried out.

What to do and how to get rid of it?

To reduce such white (and any other) deposits, you just need to cover the soil on top with expanded clay. Of course, such a coating may appear on expanded clay after some time. Then they simply remove it, wash it thoroughly and put it back in place.

Another option is to sprinkle soil in the pot. river sand. After this, the top layer along with the sand should be loosened. The very addition of sand and subsequent loosening of the soil is very beneficial for the roots of your plant. Also, you can remove the top layer itself and simply add good leaf soil or equally good humus in its place.

The easiest way is to remove all this “whiteness” along with the soil, and then add new soil.

If the water in your home is hard (and most of the time it is), then you should use filters. You can also soften the water for irrigation. To do this, simply put a rag bag into the jar, where you need to put a little peat.

One of the options for the appearance of such a plaque is dry air, which is not uncommon in our apartments in winter. Because of this, we begin to water the plants more often, and for this reason the soil becomes covered with such a coating. (How is everything interconnected!?) To avoid such mistakes, watch this video.

If you find mold on the ground or plants, begin treatment immediately. The fungus that causes moldy crust spreads quickly and can infect all plants in a few days.

Unfortunately, when it appears visually, it may mean that the spores have already spread throughout the greenhouse, and the harvest is in doubt. Nevertheless, it is important to do everything that depends on you on time.

What fungus can infect plants:

Gray mold - grows in buds and leaves, looks like white and gray dots.
Blackleg is a putrefactive mold that causes seeds to germinate poorly, leaves to turn yellow, and stems to turn black.
Powdery mildew is a white coating that affects flowers, leaves and fruits. A common disease in cucumbers.

Note: a white coating on the soil is not always mold. If you are planting seedlings in peat pots and noticed something similar, it could be salt deposits. In this case, remove it with a spoon and then water the plants with settled warm water.

Why does mold appear on soil and vegetables?

The greenhouse itself is a favorable environment for the development of fungus, since it is warm and humid by default.

The main causes of mold growth lie in the creation of improper conditions:

You do not ventilate the greenhouse well, so the air in it stagnates.
Stagnant air, in turn, becomes oversaturated with moisture - if you do not monitor the humidity level, the fungus will be grateful to you.
Poor regulation of temperature balance. Heat combined with humidity is the perfect formula for disease development.
Do not check the acidity of the soil - the higher it is, the more nutritious it is for the “pest”.

However, even if you do everything correctly, fungus can develop. To prevent crop infection as much as possible, take preventive measures.

Preventing mold in a greenhouse

The main and simplest method of prevention is proper care for plants and greenhouse. Ventilate the room well, do not create puddles during watering. To maintain sufficient humidity, you can place containers of water around the greenhouse.

Before planting vegetables, prepare the seeds and disinfect the soil and the greenhouse itself.

Advice on how to prevent mold from growing in garden beds:

Ways to combat mold in a polycarbonate greenhouse

How to deal with mold in a greenhouse?

If the plants are affected by gray mold and you notice it in the initial stages on the leaves, remove the affected areas with alcohol-soaked scissors.

If you find a black leg, remove the plant along with the substrate.

If there is white rot in the greenhouse, then you need to remove the damaged areas and spray the plant with phytosporin. In case of extensive damage, the plant must be completely removed.

If you have acidic soil, loosen the soil with wood ash, increasing its alkaline content.

If you find deposits on the ground, check to see if there is a leak from the irrigation pipes. Seal or replace a section of the pipe, spill the soil with the same phytosporin.

How else can you treat the soil and greenhouse against mold? Mulch with peat mixed with lime and copper sulfate.

Unfortunately, the fungus spreads very quickly from plant to plant, so you need to closely monitor the vegetables and not delay treatment. See how cucumbers affected by white rot are processed:

Remember: timely treatment will help get rid of mold in the greenhouse and preserve the harvest. Watch your vegetables carefully and pick only healthy fruits.

A greenhouse is a closed little world in which high humidity and heat. Such an environment is a true paradise for fungi, moss and mold. Microorganisms that have settled in the greenhouse soil begin to multiply so rapidly that the soil in the greenhouse is completely covered with a smoky green coating, and then vegetable growers have to urgently figure out why the greenhouse soil is turning green and what to do about it. There is no single means of control - in order to disinfect the substrate, it is necessary to study the problem.

Signs of soil contamination in a greenhouse

Due to the nature of the operation of greenhouses, the soil contained in them is subjected to loads much greater than the soil in open garden beds. Due to this highly intensive use, the soil in greenhouses is quickly depleted and colonized by virulent bacteria, pathogenic fungi, bryophytes and lower plants.

Flowering soil in a greenhouse

The importance of soil quality and purity

Complete replacement contaminated and depleted greenhouse soil is a labor-intensive and costly procedure. To avoid unnecessary costs, it is necessary to regularly monitor the quality and microbiological composition of the greenhouse substrate and carry out agrotechnical measures aimed at improving it.

If preventive disinfection turns out to be ineffective and a greenish or whitish coating still appears on the soil surface, all the soil in the structure should be disinfected with some powerful chemical preparation, the choice of which depends on the etiology of the layers.

Moss on a greenhouse bed

The soil turns green and moss appears

If the soil in the greenhouse is covered with a green coating, it is most likely that the surface of the beds is filled with mosses. The spores of these bryophytes are constantly present in nature and penetrate into the greenhouse structure through ventilation, are carried into it on the soles of shoes, or fall along with irrigation water. Finding themselves in comfortable greenhouse conditions, single moss spores quickly germinate and give rise to extensive colonies of bryophytes.

This is what moss looks like

The above reasons for the proliferation of mosses rarely act alone. Much more often, factors that provoke the growth of microflora are combined with each other in various options. Mostly unhealthy green color acquire those beds, the soil on which is strongly acidified, compacted, has completely lost its looseness, and, moreover, remains in constant dampness from too frequent and abundant watering.

Greening of greenhouse soil is sometimes caused not by mosses, but by microscopic algae. Contrary to popular belief, these lower plants can live not only at the bottom of reservoirs, but also on the surface of the earth. Having penetrated into a greenhouse with rain or blooming irrigation water, small green algae quickly “spread” along the ground and form a bright emerald carpet on it.

Where does the white coating come from?

In most cases, a dry white coating on the ground in a greenhouse is a concentrate of salts crystallized on the surface of the soil, contained in irrigation water or in liquid root fertilizers. This problem is often encountered by gardeners who use unfiltered very hard water for irrigation, coming from artesian wells, as well as vegetable growers who sin with excessive use. mineral fertilizers.

Contribute to the formation of such plaque:

very heavy mechanical composition, poor drainage and high capillarity of the soil (due to which the saline solution accumulates near the surface);
high temperature and dry air in the structure (both of these factors stimulate the evaporation of water, which leads to the removal of salts to the surface of the bed);
scanty frequent watering (with such irrigation, the water never washes the soil to a great depth, so all the salts remain in the surface layer).

White coating on the ground

Lime-salt deposits can cause a decrease in yield, but it does not pose an immediate threat to the life of vegetables. A much greater danger to plants is the white coating formed by the mycelium of proliferating molds.

It is very easy to distinguish the second from the first - if the mineral concentrate looks like a hard salt crust, then it is organic, mold deposits Upon closer inspection, it looks like a soft velvety cover, woven from thousands of thin whitish fibers.

Mold on the soil

Mold in a greenhouse and the reasons for its appearance

Mold is not only white, but also gray, green, black and even pink, and it can settle in any greenhouse or greenhouse, regardless of its design and material of manufacture. Having settled in a greenhouse structure, the mold actively multiplies and quickly spreads over the surface of the earth and frame parts, and then spreads to the plants. Mold is especially dangerous for immature young seedlings.

The reasons why mold grows in a greenhouse are similar to the factors that contribute to the proliferation of mosses, so there is no point in listing them again. In addition to the previously mentioned conditions, the growth of mold mycelium is favored by the high humus content in the greenhouse substrate.

Mold on the beds

Terms and rules of disinfection

Proper preparation soil for planting seedlings is not limited to just digging up and applying fertilizers - so that the vegetables growing in the greenhouse do not get sick, late autumn or in early spring greenhouse soil must be treated with some kind of disinfectant.

How to treat a greenhouse in spring

Main works on sanitization Greenhouses are usually carried out after harvesting. However, some part of the pathogenic soil microflora avoids death from autumn disinfection, successfully survives the winter and, as soon as the sun warms up, begins to multiply rapidly.

To prevent the germination of surviving spores, 15-20 days before planting the first vegetable crops carry out additional disinfection of the soil in the greenhouse. The choice of disinfectants approved for use in the spring is very small. Most chemical antifungal and antibacterial drugs, due to their high toxicity and long decomposition time into safe components, cannot be used immediately before planting seedlings.

Shortly before the start of operation of the greenhouse, it is permissible to disinfect the soil only with steam, boiling water, potassium permanganate, Carbation, Fitosporin, Trichodermin, Baktofit or preparations from the Baikal series.

"Fitosporin"

Spring pre-planting treatment of the greenhouse includes:

washing transparent parts laundry soap followed by wiping them with a sponge soaked in a thick purple solution of potassium permanganate;
whitewash wooden parts lime frame:
treatment of metal structural elements with a concentrated solution copper sulfate;
prolonged ventilation;
soil disinfection using one of the above-mentioned environmentally friendly means.

Ventilation of the greenhouse

If during the winter the soil in the greenhouse is completely covered with mold or last year there were outbreaks of fungal diseases, vegetable growers no longer have to think about environmental cleanliness and the preservation of beneficial soil microflora.

In such cases, we are talking about the very possibility of operating an infected structure. With such massive soil invasions, “heavy artillery” is forced to be used. No later than three weeks before planting, they spill the greenhouse soil with a formaldehyde solution or fumigate the entire greenhouse area with a sulfur bomb.

Fumigation with a sulfur bomb

Autumn disinfection activities

Preparation of the soil in the greenhouse in the fall begins with spring cleaning. After harvesting, remove completely from the greenhouse garden tools, all plant remains are collected in bags and burned outside personal plot. After that, the rope trellises are dismantled, and the tension cords themselves and the twine used to tie up the plants are disposed of.

The parts of the empty building are washed and treated in the same way as they are done in the spring. The earthen clods in the beds are carefully broken up with a rake and all the roots are removed from the soil. The substrate, cleared of organic residues, is loosened and leveled. Having finished cleaning, the greenhouse is well ventilated, after which the soil in it is disinfected.

When deciding how to disinfect the soil in a greenhouse in the fall, they proceed from the general condition of the soil and the degree of its contamination.

Cleaning up trash from the greenhouse

If the soil in the greenhouse is of high quality and the vegetables growing on it in the current season have not suffered from any disease, for preventive and disinfection purposes, the beds are generously spilled with boiling water three times (at three-day intervals) or treated once with a solution of potassium permanganate, and the room itself is fumigated with sulfur.

In the case when the soil is clearly acidic and there is a suspicion or certainty that it is infected with root-knot nematodes, clubroot cysts or late blight, it is disinfected (and at the same time deacidified) with freshly slaked lime, which is scattered over the soil at the rate of: 5-7 cups per 1 m², after which the beds are dug up.

To destroy nematodes, arthropod pests, fungi that cause fusarium, gray mold and verticillium, the greenhouse soil is etched with a 2% Carbation solution, watered generously (so that the drug penetrates into the depths) and after the beds dry, they are dug up deeply.

If the substrate is heavily contaminated with mold and whitefly larvae, a working solution of formalin is used to disinfect it, which, due to its very high toxicity and pungent odor, is rarely used in private households.

Important! Disinfection of beds with a formaldehyde solution is carried out using an industrial respirator! The solution is prepared by mixing 1 liter of a standard forty percent strength preparation with five buckets of water and adding it at the rate of 10-12 liters per square meter. After such treatment, the greenhouse is tightly closed, and after three days it is opened wide and ventilated for at least two weeks.

Soil liming

Maintaining cleanliness – preventing infectious diseases

It is easier to prevent any disease than to cure it, so in order not to rack your brains two or three years after the start of operating a greenhouse because of the fact that an infection has multiplied in the greenhouse, it is necessary to constantly maintain cleanliness, namely:

regularly weed the beds and dispose of weeds immediately after this operation;
promptly tear off and burn fungus-affected ovaries and leaves;
dig up and destroy plants that are sick with root rot, and fill the remaining holes with a solution of copper sulfate;
prevent the formation of puddles in passages and under bushes; to do this, adjust irrigation and eliminate leaks in watering taps and hoses;
When watering, do not splash water on the leaf blades of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers and promptly tear off those that touch the soil.

Greenhouse treatment

How to treat the soil

The soil in the greenhouse is used very intensively, which is why some preventive measures to maintain it in a healthy state is usually not enough. Therefore, vegetable growers inevitably have to resort to the help of chemical disinfectants. However, before disinfecting the soil in a greenhouse with formaldehyde, copper sulfate, bleach or potassium permanganate, you should try harmless environment ways to naturally heal the earth.

Disinfection of soil with copper sulfate

Treatment with copper sulfate is justified in cases where the soil in the greenhouse is contaminated with pathogens of late blight, peronosporosis or bacteriosis.

Copper is a microelement necessary for the normal development of any plant, but it has the characteristic ability to accumulate in the soil and vegetables growing on it. Fruits and tubers saturated with copper become toxic, in addition, copper sulfate does not separate representatives of the soil microflora into “good” and “bad”, but burns them all indiscriminately, which is why after its use it takes a long time to populate the “dead” soil beneficial bacteria.

In view of the above circumstances, total disinfection of the soil in a greenhouse with this pesticide is possible no more than once every five years.

Carrying out such processing is simple. In the fall, after harvesting and thoroughly cleaning the greenhouse, the soil in it is spilled with a fresh solution of copper sulfate prepared from a bucket warm water and a tablespoon (according to another version - a teaspoon) of crystalline vitriol.

Preparation of copper sulfate solution

The use of potassium permanganate for disinfection

Potassium permanganate is a very powerful oxidizing agent that destructurizes any protein compounds, and is therefore destructive to all soil microflora. Looking for a way to neutralize the soil in a greenhouse from diseases, many vegetable growers settle on inexpensive, relatively harmless, accessible and very effective potassium permanganate.

In autumn, and more often in spring, 10-15 days before planting seedlings, greenhouse beds are generously spilled with a dark purple solution of potassium permanganate, prepared from three buckets of warm water and a full tablespoon of permanganate crystals.

Potassium permanganate solution

Is it necessary to change the soil in the greenhouse?

Some vegetable growers claim that every three years it is necessary to change the entire soil to a depth of 70 cm. However, if changing the soil in a small greenhouse is not so difficult, then how to change the soil in a greenhouse with an area of 20-30 m²? This is hellish work and a very large financial investment!

Complete replacement of the soil in the greenhouse in the fall is an extreme measure, which should be resorted to only after no other conservative methods of treating contaminated soil have been tested and have not helped.

In normal cases, to prevent outbreaks of diseases in vegetable crops, it is enough to fumigate the greenhouse with a sulfur bomb every fall, water the beds with potassium permanganate in the spring, and renew the top 10-15 cm of the substrate every other year.

Replacing the top layer

Soil treatment with phytosporin - video

Chemical antiseptics and fungicides act powerfully, but not selectively. After using them, healthy soil microflora is restored for many years, and toxic products of the decomposition of pesticides remain in the soil for a long time. Biological disinfectants are completely free of these shortcomings; they naturally suppress the proliferation of virulent fungi and bacteria, and are absolutely safe for warm-blooded creatures and beneficial microorganisms.

Such environmentally friendly disinfectants include Fitosporin-M, an innovative systemic bacterial fungicide that suppresses the proliferation of two dozen types of pathogenic microorganisms.

Before disinfecting the greenhouse with this product, the soil in it is dug up again, harrowed with a rake and carefully leveled.

6-7 days before planting the seedlings, prepare a working solution of “Fitosporin” (for which 1.5 teaspoons of the powdered preparation are diluted in a bucket of slightly heated water) and generously spray the surface of the greenhouse beds with it.

Video: Instructions for tillage

Timely and high-quality disinfection of greenhouse soil prevents widespread plant diseases, protects against invasions of insect pests, and thereby significantly increases the chances of obtaining a bountiful harvest of first-class vegetables.

A white coating on the ground in seedlings is a sign that something went wrong when growing it. This is a fairly common problem not only for seedlings, it can also appear on the top layer of soil indoor plants. There is no need to worry about this, because if you detect the problem in time, you can deal with it quite successfully.

Signs and causes of plaque

Most often, plaque is a colony of fungal microorganisms. Fungal spores fall from the air into the soil, where they actively begin to multiply, after which the surface layer of the soil becomes covered with white mold (sometimes it looks more like yellow - this depends on the strain of the mold. Often the coating from the soil spreads to the inner walls of the containers in which your seedlings are growing.

Fungal spores are present in the air, but they begin to multiply only when they find themselves in an environment favorable to them. The following factors favor them:

Excessive air/substrate humidity.
Poor lighting.
Temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius.

The second option for covering the ground with a white coating is efflorescence, that is, small crystals of salts. It manifests itself only in the soil and does not spread to the walls of pots. It is easy to distinguish it from mold: it is harder, and when you try to knead it, it simply crumbles. If you look closely, you can see the crystalline structure.

Here's what causes it to appear:

Pot too big size or simply overwatering. In this case, the plant does not have time to absorb the entire volume of water, the moisture evaporates, and the salts contained in it are drawn to the surface.
Use for irrigation of hard water.
Dry indoor air.
Absence drainage holes in a container.
Excess fertilizer.

What to do if you find a white coating?

The easiest way to “defeat” crystalline plaque:

Dry the soil thoroughly. The best way To do this, place the pot in the sun.
We remove a thin layer of soil with plaque.
We loosen the soil underneath.
Next, water the seedlings only with settled water (at least 24 hours), making sure not to overwater.

If the ground is covered with mold, it will be a little more difficult to remove the plaque. First of all, we also dry the soil and remove the layer of soil. But usually this is not enough, and after watering, the growth of the mycelium resumes with renewed vigor.

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to disinfect the soil. You can do this in one of the following ways:

We are preparing a solution of potassium permanganate with a low concentration, the water should be slightly Pink colour. We spill the soil with this solution, making sure that its entire surface is wetted.
We use hydrogen peroxide, the required concentration: 5 milliliters of a 30% solution per liter of water. There is no need to water the soil with peroxide; we spray the surface with a spray bottle.
If all else fails, you can use special fungicides (substances that selectively destroy fungi): trichodermin, trichocin. We use them according to the instructions.

Mold thrives in soil increased acidity, That's why good option The way to combat it is to use special deoxidizers sold in stores ( dolomite flour, tree resin or ordinary lime).

They need to be applied to a surface that is free of fungus. The effect can be enhanced by adding leaf soil and humus to the deoxidizing agents.

Another good remedy to combat mold - Fitosporin-M. It can be used not only when plaque has already appeared, but also in advance. This drug protects against any bacterial and fungal diseases, is safe, environmentally friendly and is itself an organic fertilizer.

It is a culture of bacteria beneficial to plants, Bacillis subtilis, preserved in the substrate, which hunt harmful microorganisms, preventing infection. The drug is diluted in accordance with the instructions and is subsequently used to water the seedlings every third time (two waterings with ordinary water, the third with Fitosporin-M).

Preventive measures

The best way to combat plaque is to prevent its appearance even before the ground turns white. First of all, the soil used for growing seedlings must be disinfected.

This can be done using temperature treatment: heating in the oven or, conversely, freezing for up to several days. Next, the soil is washed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate and then dried. You can begin planting work.

After the seedlings are planted, it is worth mulching the soil (covering it with mulch on top for protection). As mulch for seedlings, it is best to use ash, charcoal or crushed Activated carbon. This helps retain moisture at the roots of the plant and prevents mold from forming.

The next important element of prevention is proper watering. Be sure to take these tips into account:

Using hard water is almost guaranteed to lead to salt deposits. If you are unlucky with the quality of your water supply, use a special filter. In extreme cases, let the water sit for at least 24 hours.
You can additionally soften the water by immersing a rag bag filled with peat in a container with it while it settles.
The water should be at room temperature; too cold or hot will not work.
Under no circumstances should you water too often or overwater.

Follow all these measures - and you won’t have to watch the surface of the soil turn white, and your seedlings will be strong and healthy!