How To Get Rid Of Mold In Your Garden

You have problems with mold on your plants and want to get advice on how to treat it? Great!

This article is exactly for you since I will show you simple but yet effective ways to get rid of mold in your garden.

Plant Mold Overview

Short description	Plant mold is caused by fungus varieties and often looks like fine cotton candy on your plants.
Scientific name	Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.
Lifespan	Many years if not treated properly.
What plants are vulnerable?	All sorts of plants are vulnerable to mold if growing conditions are suboptimal.
Symptoms	You will see fine white or grey strings on your plants or on the soil. Quite often, those strings look a little bit like cotton candy you know from the fair or the cinema.
Distribution	Worldwide.
Potential damage	Mold can cause your plants to rot and your plants will therefore decay if you don’t treat mold properly.
Control options	Chemical, biological and cultural.
Treatment difficulty	Intermediate.

How to prevent & control White Mold

Remove contaminated soil or plants material

If you spot mold on your plants, the first thing you should do is to remove contaminated plant material and contaminated soil so that mold will not be able to spread in your garden to other plants you might grow.

Also make sure to dispose of this rotten material in your garbage and don’t use it for composting purposes!

Make sure that air can circulate well to get rid of mold

Mold often forms when air cannot circulate well.

Hence, to get rid of mold, you need to make sure that air can circulate properly.

You can do so by installing a fan or grow plants outdoors with sufficient distance to each other so that wind can do the work for you in a completely natural manner.

Water your plants less often

Another reason why people often have problems with mold in their garden is that they water their plants too often.

In fact, you should never water your plants if the soil surface is still wet.

Instead, wait until the soil has dried up a little bit before you water your plants again.

By doing so, you can make sure that the roots of your plants stay healthy and that mold has a hard time growing in such an environment.

Avoid waterlogging to prevent mold

Not only should you make sure that you water your plants properly, but you should also make sure that no water puddles form under the soil surface.

Otherwise, the roots of your plants may start to rot and also mold will have an easy time developing.

Consequently, make sure to loosen the soil enough so that excess water can run off properly and therefore to minimize the risk that white mold will occur.

Keep your plants in sunny environments

Another easy measure to reduce the risk of mold is to grow your plants in sunny environments.

Since the sun dries up the soil and mold needs moisture to form, growing plants in sunny spots in your garden or on your balcony can help you prevent mold in a fully natural manner.

Hence, always make sure that your plants get at least a few hours of sunlight per day on average so that the soil can get dry enough to prevent mold.

Use vinegar to control mold on your plants

Mold also doesn’t like vinegar at all. In fact, vinegar is a great substance to get rid of mold.

You just need to spray a solution of vinegar and water onto the contaminated leaves and soil and wait a few days.

After that, repeat the process and you should see positive results within a few weeks.

High-quality sterile soil mix can help with keeping away mold

You should also make sure to get a high-quality soil mix from the garden center to minimize the risk of mold infestation in your garden.

Also make sure to remove soil that already looks like it is contaminated with mold when you prepare the soil mix for your plants at the beginning of your growing season to avoid that mold will grow exponentially in the long run.

Remove dirt and rotten leaves on a regular basis

You should also make sure to remove rotten leaves from your garden since those leaves are a perfect hotbed for mold and other diseases.

Just get rid of this plant material or use it for making compost in your garden to protect your plants from mold and also to make your garden look nicer in general.

Neem oil can help to control white mold as well

Neem oil can also help against mold.

Once you see mold on your plants or in the soil, just spray a solution of neem oil and water onto your plants and wait for a few days to see the results.

If mold hasn’t fully vanished, give it another try and chances are that you will get rid of mold and also of other plant diseases and pests with the help of neem oil sooner or later.

Use an anti-fungal solution to get rid of mold

You could also rely on anti-fungal solutions to deter mold from your plants.

However, many of those substances contain chemicals that are harmful to our environment and which may also harm the quality of your yields.

Hence, make sure to try other natural ways to get rid of mold before relying on those chemical substances to make your growing projects as organic as possible.

What’s left to say?

As you can see, there are several simple ways to get rid of white mold on your plants.

If you want to learn more about gardening in general, also make sure to have a look at my grower’s guides and my companion plant charts.

About the Author

My name is Andreas and I’m really passionate about our environment and also about growing plants. In fact, I have grown several different plants over many years. I love to see my plants grow and also always try new things to improve my overall conditions at home.

In my blog posts, I want to share my experiences with you so that you can become successful in growing various different plants and improving your home as well, even though you might still be a beginner right now.