New grower here and I've got a green layer on my soil =/ [+pics]

I'm fairly new here at RIU, but I've been lurking in the shadows for a couple months, sucking up as much knowledge about growing as I could before starting my first attempt. I just want to quickly say that this forum is amazing and I'm certainly glad to have come upon it. It's been a great help so far and I hope someone can shed some light on my newest development.

Firstly, here's my set-up. I'm growing just for personal use and have space and money restrictions (as with most everyone here) so I've got two babies right now (it's all the room I've got).
-I've got one 5000K 150W CFL
-Two 60cfm fans. One pushing air in on the bottom and one sucking it out on the top. It keeps my growing environment right at about 78 degrees and 35% humidity.
-They're planted in 3.1gal square containers
-I used a house mix soil from a local growing store (Indoor Sun Shoppe if anyone is from the area). It looks like about half perlite. It was what was recommended to me for seedlings over Ocean Forest because I've heard that can be a bit too hot for seedlings.

So, everything was going great until yesterday when I noticed I had what appeared to be fungus gnats flying around my CFL. I only saw one though so I figured I'd get a jump on them and top off with sand this afternoon but when I checked on them this morning there is a new, green layer of something on the topside of the soil. It doesn't look necessarily like mold, almost like moss. I'm wondering if anyone knows if this is something to be concerned about and/or if replacing the top layer of soil with sand will help both issues. ANY AND ALL HELP will be greatly appreciated. I can't exactly take my plants in to the local shop and have them take a look =/

My babies are just over a week old, going on day 10 now, and are about 2-4 inches high with some real nice top growth, good looking leaves, and really all around some beautiful looking ladies.

I tried to get the best pic I could of the green.

Wow new to me! But u NEED more lighting maybe not yet with thier size but later also scrape that crap out please might be mold but I dunno

its probably kind of too wet , thats how moss starts. and for fungus gnats have you tried sm90 or some dunks for misquitos?

hey man, I had an issue with one of my plants earlier where they developed some sort of mold on the top layer of their soil. My advice would be scoop out the questionable material with a spoon, take about 1/8"-1/4" of soil off, and even possibly replace it. If a mold spore gets into whatever you water with, when you water the plants itll catch in the soil. As for moss, or other fungi, I imagine it would be real similar.

This happened when my girl was only about 4 inches tall, and now she's well over a foot happy as can be =)

Good luck!
Jakeoh

Jakenbake said:

I noticed I had what appeared to be fungus gnats flying around my CFL.
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Also, i Had the dreaded moisture gnats too when I had the mold issue. Sort of indicative of over watering, as they won't take to dry soil as happily. how often do you water, and how much? if you put a cup of cider or beer in there with the plants, the gnats will fly into it and drown (mwa ha ha ha) that's how I got rid of them. In the future you can try baking soil in the oven to sterilize it before planting... thisll kill any bugs in it. sometimes soil you buy from local shops is real wet because most people dont know to add water to the soil while its still in the bag, which is why it can have gnats.

Remember: plants like periods of intense drought MUCH more than periods of intense flood. dry periods cause root growth, wich increases potential for plant growth!

Good Luck!
Jakeoh

Thank you everyone for your quick responses! I live in Seattle so mold is definitely a huge issue. It grows everywhere it can so I want to head this off before it gets outta control.

For how much I water, drenched the soil and let it drain when I planted the seeds and then let the top layer dry out completely (4-5 days) and then I watered enough to get some drainage out of the bottom. I think I realized why people plant seedlings in a small pot before transpotting into the big one. It's MUCH easier to control moisture levels of the soil when you're not using a 3.1gal container with a seedling.

Green_Is_Good - I have no idea what SM90 is so no, I have not tried using it =/

Jake - Like I said, living in Seattle there are mold spores EVERYWHERE. This is my game plan so far. I'm going to remove the suspicious soil off the top and replace with 1/4" of sand. From now on I'm going to boil the water I use to water with and let cool before using it. I still am fearful that the room itself is where the spores are coming from, is there anything out there that will treat the soil itself to prevent mold from growing in the future?

hey jake sm 90 is somthing i used when i had fungus gnats, i used it in the water. it is also used for spider mites , when you spray mist your leaves on both sides. its all natural. the sm in the name (spider mites). bugs hate the stuff.

Jakenbake said:

Jake - Like I said, living in Seattle there are mold spores EVERYWHERE. This is my game plan so far. I'm going to remove the suspicious soil off the top and replace with 1/4" of sand. From now on I'm going to boil the water I use to water with and let cool before using it. I still am fearful that the room itself is where the spores are coming from, is there anything out there that will treat the soil itself to prevent mold from growing in the future?

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I feel you man, I live in this fight-club-esque house, and the carpets are LADEN with mold it seems. what happened to me is I used to let my water stand for 24-36 hours before using it to let the nutes dissolve more, and let any contaminants settle. I guess a spore must've landed in it then. boiling your water definitely will help... as long as you don't mind the extra hassle every couple days to sterilize it.

as for treating the soil, I'm sure someone will be more knowledgeable about fungicides, I grow all natural w/ no pesticides or anything. It's my humble opinion, however, that if you remove the questionable soil and keep a close eye on it for a week that you'll be just fine. Mold on top of the soil certainly isn't preferable, but it also isn't exactly lethal. You don't want it to go down into the roots, but if it's on the surface for a day or two you can just scoop it off with no penalties =). It's my opinion that using pesticides/fungicides on something you're growing to be consumable (or combustible could be a bad idea... I even grow my cash crops (corn, potatoes, rice, and hay) all naturale too! There's probably no "research" showing the "products" you'd treat your soil with to be dangerous, but then again, how can you prove smoking a fungicide is MORE dangerous than smoking cannabis? *rolls eyes*

Good Luck!
Jakeoh

Jakeoh6 said:

I feel you man, I live in this fight-club-esque house, and the carpets are LADEN with mold it seems. what happened to me is I used to let my water stand for 24-36 hours before using it to let the nutes dissolve more, and let any contaminants settle. I guess a spore must've landed in it then. boiling your water definitely will help... as long as you don't mind the extra hassle every couple days to sterilize it.

as for treating the soil, I'm sure someone will be more knowledgeable about fungicides, I grow all natural w/ no pesticides or anything. It's my humble opinion, however, that if you remove the questionable soil and keep a close eye on it for a week that you'll be just fine. Mold on top of the soil certainly isn't preferable, but it also isn't exactly lethal. You don't want it to go down into the roots, but if it's on the surface for a day or two you can just scoop it off with no penalties =). It's my opinion that using pesticides/fungicides on something you're growing to be consumable (or combustible could be a bad idea... I even grow my cash crops (corn, potatoes, rice, and hay) all naturale too! There's probably no "research" showing the "products" you'd treat your soil with to be dangerous, but then again, how can you prove smoking a fungicide is MORE dangerous than smoking cannabis? *rolls eyes*

Good Luck!
Jakeoh

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Fighting mold is always an uphill battle, but it's good to hear you're coming from similar conditions and have beat it more or less =] I think I'm going to try everything you've mentioned. I do NOT want to use pesticides or anything of the sort, I was just hoping someone would know of an organic option for mold like Neem oil for those pesky gnats. What has me the most concerned is when it comes time to flower. My buddy just lost about a quarter of his crop to mold on his buds. He lost almost half of his colas that had turned slimy on the inside =/ His ventilation was.. lacking.. close to non-existent. So I'm not as worried but the fact that something has sprung up in my soil after only a week makes me nervous..

Thanks again for all the good info. I'll scrape off the offending layer and replace with sand, hopefully help with the mold and get rid of those damn gnats. And instead of boiling the water (I too let my water sit out for a couple days) I'm going to stick with distilled water. It's a buck a gallon and with the amount of mold spores out here I think it'd be worth to at least know my water isn't the source of it.

green_is_good said:

hey jake sm 90 is somthing i used when i had fungus gnats, i used it in the water. it is also used for spider mites , when you spray mist your leaves on both sides. its all natural. the sm in the name (spider mites). bugs hate the stuff.

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Thank you for the advice! I think I will take a trip up to my local store just to see what they've got.

thats not mold. scrape that top layer off, put new soil in its place. you soil is too moist, giving "the green stuff" an environment, or place to survive.

the gnats larvae emerge from your soil. you bought the soil and the gnats. i have had some strange mushrooms sprout out of my soil before. this happens often when there is a lot of woody mulch. its just mother nature, and thats simply life.

captain chronizzle said:

thats not mold. scrape that top layer off, put new soil in its place. you soil is too moist, giving "the green stuff" an environment, or place to survive.

the gnats larvae emerge from your soil. you bought the soil and the gnats. i have had some strange mushrooms sprout out of my soil before. this happens often when there is a lot of woody mulch. its just mother nature, and thats simply life.

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Thank you for the information, that's definitely good to know. I did notice something else sprouting up in the soil, I guess it's just being the naive grower that I am I figured when the soil said it was naturally sterile I wouldn't be having this problem :/

hey Jaked, glad to be of help, i guess I didn't mean to sound like I was knocking on sm90, I haven't used it but if its all orgo I'm sure its all good.

On other boards I've even heard of people using round-up, raid, and off! (why do you think I came to rollitup =P) I would absolutely have to discourage your use of these products on your plants, and if you would even consider it I'd have to give you the number of a doctor I'd like you to see best of luck mate, let us know what happens!