Why does the ground become covered with a white coating? Mold in the greenhouse. Preventive measures and combating mold in protected soil

Alexandra

Mold on the ground in seedlings: why does the ground become moldy, what to do and how to get rid of it?

When planting seedlings in greenhouse soil, mold often appears on the surface of the soil. Why does greenhouse soil become moldy? Is everyone gray plaque Is mold appearing on the ground? This article contains qualified answers to questions asked, as well as recommendations on how to get rid of mold on seedlings.

Is gray or white coating on the ground mold?

The deposit that appears on the surface of greenhouse soil is not always mold. Often, this is simply a salt crust that has protruded to the surface, which is formed when there is excess salt in the soil. minerals. The layer of saline soil should simply be removed by adding a new portion of soil. It is useful to sprinkle the top layer with coarse quartz sand, which will protect the delicate stems of seedlings from the formation of hard salt rings that injure young plants. Water for irrigation should be settled; such water will contain a smaller amount of dissolved salts, which precipitate when settled.

Advice! When settling, you can put a gauze bag of peat in a bucket of water - this will help reduce the hardness of the water for watering plants or seedlings.

Mold appeared between the seedlings

The appearance of real mold is caused by the rapid growth of the mycelium of moldy fungi that have entered the greenhouse soil. Mold cannot cause much damage to adult plants, but for young and weak seedlings- this is a real problem.

The following reasons can provoke the development of mold:

Overmoistening of the soil in a greenhouse bed.
The soil is too heavy.
Musty air, lack of periodic ventilation of the greenhouse.
Thickened plantings of seedlings.
Contaminated soil.

There are several ways to get rid of mold, it all depends on the degree of contamination of the soil. General actions when soil is contaminated with mold:

Advice! The development of mold is directly related to the high content of silt and humus in the soil. Prepare the soil for seedlings in the correct ratio, add sand.

We should not forget about ventilating greenhouses and providing adequate lighting for planted seedlings.
Particular attention should be paid to the soil with which greenhouse beds are filled. By inspecting the soil in advance, you can promptly notice traces of mold and take timely measures before planting greenhouse plants in the soil.

How to deal with mold on seedlings: video

The last post contains several questions of the same type related to greenhouses. The most alarming one is this: I didn’t clean the greenhouse in the fall. Now I have arrived, and the remains of the plants are covered in white mold. What to do?

I wouldn’t even worry, but sound the alarm, because the presence of white mold in the greenhouse is a signal for immediate action, otherwise a significant part of the crop will simply have to be thrown away. As you know, fruits affected by mold cannot be eaten; it is a health hazard.

Actually, mold is the colloquial name for a fungus. Some types of fungus form colonies white, others - green, others - black, etc. Such mold is destructive to the earth.

Why does mold appear in a greenhouse? Yes, you can’t leave plant residues for the winter. Yes, in covered greenhouses during the winter a not-so-favorable microclimate is created: the bare ground freezes, but even in winter on sunny days it begins to warm up and condensation forms. Indoors, such conditions provoke the growth of fungus.

Mold appears on the ground much less often if the greenhouse is carefully prepared for winter and left open doors, and in winter, throw at least 50 cm of snow on the ground. Ideally, the greenhouse should have a removable or sliding roof.

Another important condition mold suppression - slightly alkaline soil.

What can be done now to destroy mold and thereby protect future harvests?

First, carry out general cleaning: remove not only plant debris, scraps of garter material, take out garter pegs, containers and other things that were stored in the greenhouse.

Secondly, remove a thin layer of soil where the mold has grown most and throw it in the trash.

Thirdly, thoroughly rinse structures and transparent surfaces. You can read more

Fourthly, add wood ash to the soil at the rate of a liter jar per 2 sq.m. Scatter it evenly over the soil and embed it with a flat cutter to a depth of 10-15 cm. If this amount of ash is not available, then save it for adding to planting pits. In the meantime, buy torfolin (pressed peat). Fill 5 liters of peat with a 0.1% solution copper sulfate, stand for 5-6 hours and then stir thoroughly until smooth. Discard all large inclusions. Then add 100 g dolomite flour and stir again. Scatter this mixture over the soil in a thin layer. After 2 weeks, repeat the procedure again.

Fifthly, as soon as the soil warms up and the air temperature in the greenhouse at night is not lower than +14, spill it with a solution of phytosporin.

Sixth, keep a close eye throughout the season for signs of white mold in the heifer and plants. For prevention, water or spray with phytosporin solution once every 3-4 weeks.

And one more important point: while in the greenhouse white mold Carry out all work in a respirator, because the smallest particles of fungus can cause allergies.

What is the most important thing when growing indoor plants? Certainly, good soil, because it is he who gives our flowers nutrients, thanks to which they actively grow and delight with their flowering. Poor quality soil not only inhibits growth, but can also cause death. indoor crops, therefore, all gardeners carefully select a suitable substrate for their pets. However, it often happens that a good, nutritious soil mixture is covered with a white blanket.

Reasons why the earth is in flower pots covered with a white coating, maybe several, namely:

Poor quality water is used for irrigation;
A fungal infection has settled in the flowerpot.

Water problems

Regardless of the type of indoor plants for all flowers there is general rule: for irrigation, you should use only settled water, or even better, rainwater. Tap water passes through purification systems and is “enriched” with some elements that flowers do not like, for example, chlorine. In addition, it is too hard, so after watering, lime deposits appear on the surface of the ground. Externally, such soil looks like dry white granules; if you carefully remove them, you can see ordinary black soil underneath. This is usually what they do, removing the top layer and pouring fresh soil mixture into the pot.

To prevent the appearance of sediment, water the flowers only with settled water. You can soften it using homemade filter, putting a little in a rag bag and lowering it into a container of water. also in flower shops for sale special means to soften.

To neutralize lime compounds, it is recommended to add lemon juice or kitchen acid (citric acid) to the water.

Fungus in the soil

If white coating the pot is damp and resembles fluff, and an unpleasant putrid smell emanates from the soil, which means a fungus has settled there. We often create a suitable microclimate for the occurrence and progression of mold and rot ourselves by intensively flooding the plant. And as you know, constantly wet soil– this is an ideal environment for many diseases.

In this case, it is better to take the most radical measures and completely replace it with a fresh one. Treatment with fungicides to destroy and prevent fungal infections will also not hurt. From now on, when watering, you should follow the golden mean and be sure to monitor the moisture content of the substrate.

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, mold, actively reproduces and quickly spreads over the surface of the earth and parts of the frame, and then spreads to 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 of 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 formalin working solution 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, therefore, in order to avoid racking your brains two or three years after the start of operation of the greenhouse because of the fact that an infection has proliferated 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.