Fungus on japanese fertilizer cake

[proninyaroslav]

Hi. Recently I bought japanese fertilizer cakes. I didn't put them on top of the soil, but deepened them into the soil. It took 2 weeks, in some pots they began to mold. It turns out that the whole batch of fertilizers is infected with a fungus or the soil itself has been infected? Should I get rid of fertilizers or treat them with a fungicide?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Mycorrhizae?
If you're going to kill the soil microbiome, you're going to have to keep your plants in a sterile environment from now on.

Fungi that eat fertilizer, usually don't feed on the plant, they pass the fertilizer on to the plant, and protect their host against pathogens by creating their own antibiotics and helping restore tissue. That's the stuff you're not happy with and want to kill, because why exactly?

 

[proninyaroslav]

It's more like blue and white mold, not mycorrhizae. I didn't know much about the benefits of mold in the soil, you dispelled my doubts.

 

[M. Frary]

Take the fertilizer cakes and toss them as far as you can.
Organic fertilizers invite all kinds of nasties. From whatever it is you have to bugs and birds,squirrels and other rodents.
After you toss those cakes go get some miracle grow. You can control application better. It doesn't burn plants like organic fertilizer can because they sit there all the time. It doesn't smell so no animals. And no weird fungus will show up that makes you wonder what the hell it is.

 

[Anthony]

Gogeerah -----------ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Mottie

 

[M. Frary]

Gogeerah -----------ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Mottie

I got your p.m.
I'll be getting back to you Anthony.

 

[Cypress187]

miracle grow

I want to get some better fertilizer myself, do I just need the all-purpose stuff or do I need to get some special variety? And is water-hose feeder any good?

 

[M. Frary]

I want to get some better fertilizer myself, do I just need the all-purpose stuff or do I need to get some special variety? And iswater-hose feederany good?

I use the all purpose stuff.
I mix it in a watering can so I can regulate the amount applied.
Those hose sprayers probably dont muc in the strength I like and you're just blowing it all over.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Early this spring I applied Osmocote (14-14-14), then when that was exhausted I switched to an organic 5-5-5 called Ecoscraps literally made with composted food scraps collected from vegetable processing and distribution plants. However that just didn’t seem to give the trees the kick they needed to grow. So I then started using Miracle-Gro (24-8-16) applied from a watering can every coulpe weeks. The trees responded immediately with new shoots. My bald cypress are budding out like it is spring again and my elms are pushing new branch extensions and leaves. We have had a very wet spring/summer this year and temps have not gotten above 85 F so water stress seems low and the trees are loving it. I figure about early Septemvber I’ll go back to the Ecoscraps unless I find some 0-5-5 to ease them into dormancy. I don’t use a hose end sprayer since there are trees that I don’t want to push that hard and using the watering can make that easier. If that wasn’t an issue then I would jsut spray away.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Hi. Recently I bought japanese fertilizer cakes. I didn't put them on top of the soil, but deepened them into the soil. It took 2 weeks, in some pots they began to mold. It turns out that the whole batch of fertilizers is infected with a fungus or the soil itself has been infected? Should I get rid of fertilizers or treat them with a fungicide?

I don’t know what these are made out of but I ran into a similar problem with the organic Ecoscraps fertilizer I used, which is just composted vegetable scraps. Within a few days of surface application it was covered in mold. I also applied some slug killer pellets to the soil in my seedling trays and that developed mold right away. I think the inert material that makes up most of these products may be some unknown organic that mold likes to colonize. In the future I plant to mix the Ecoscraps into the soil and scatter the slug pellets around the outside of the seedling trays to avoid the mold issue.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Take the fertilizer cakes and toss them as far as you can.
Organic fertilizers invite all kinds of nasties. From whatever it is you have to bugs and birds,squirrels and other rodents.
After you toss those cakes go get some miracle grow. You can control application better. It doesn't burn plants like organic fertilizer can because they sit there all the time. It doesn't smell so no animals. And no weird fungus will show up that makes you wonder what the hell it is.

Toss them in my yard. They’re all I use. No bugs, no birds, no squirrels, no blue juice. Just healthy, strong trees.
OP: are your trees outside? Mold will go away when the cakes get good air movement and dry a little between watering.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Same here. I dont get any mold unless it's fall or early spring. 90% of all mycorrhiza don't make the typical white mycelium.
Blueish green can be trichoderma, which is a known plant protector. It even cleans up dead tissue, and the Japanese Onozuka R10 strain is commonly used to extract plant tissue dissolving proteins without damaging vital parts. It's even used for brewing.

The japanese have become masters of microbes. Trust on their stuff. There's a reason why a phletora of organic gardeners use a bokashi system.

 

[rockm]

I had to read this post twice. I find it kinda funny. YOU WANT MOLD and bacteria and other stuff on your organics. It means they're being broken down into stuff that your tree can actually use. Tree's can't use the stuff without it decomposing. That's WHY YOU'RE USING IT, slow action released over time. "Chemical" fertilizers are instantly "available" to plants because they contain the straight nutrients, organic ferts have those nutrients bound up in organic material--until microorganisms consume that material and release those nutrients.
https://www.burpee.com/gardenadvice...ardening/organic-fertilizer/article10710.html

 

[Clicio]

I've been using organic pellets (BioGold) in all my trees, mould and all, with no issues whatsoever.
But as @rockm has said above, I am happy when the mould appears on them.

 

[Anthony]

Just sprinkled the poop of congerees / millipedes on an elm.
Been using the piles of round shapes [ o -this size ]
as fertiliser during the rainy season for years now.

You often find up to level teaspoons under the pots.

Trees are ah growing.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[WNC Bonsai]

While mold and fungus may not be bad on bonsai I wonder about it with my seedlings. Always afraid of damping off a d other molds killing them.

 

[Dav4]

While mold and fungus may not be bad on bonsai I wonder about it with my seedlings. Always afraid of damping off a d other molds killing them.

You wouldn't be applying solid ferts to the soil surface of seedlings until they were established and had lignified trunks, at which damping off is a non issue. All my seedlings get liquid feed only until about now... they've been growing well since germinating this spring and any damping off would have happened months ago.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

You wouldn't be applying solid ferts to the soil surface of seedlings until they were established and had lignified trunks, at which damping off is a non issue. All my seedlings get liquid feed only until about now... they've been growing well since germinating this spring and any damping off would have happened months ago.

If you read my post you would see I put slug bait in with my seedlings and that got the mold on it not solid fert. Now I scatter it around the seed trays instead of in with the seedlings.