to mold or not to mold

[simpang1]

hi guys,i think this is a noob question.i notice that there are mold on my sphagnum moss recently,i think maybe its due to the weather. so are the mold harmful to the cps?what should i do?remove the plant?

[simpang1]

so cold out here....

[arvin555]

Simpang, sorry I was waiting for others to reply because I am not an expert on this. But I'll give you my opinion. I would rather that my plants do not have any molds at all, so if it was up to me I'd physically pick them off with tweezers or whatever tools you can use. I was going to also suggest that you repot, but that is where I stop, because between cleaning up moldy medium versus disturbing the roots of a CP which seems to be doing okay is a tough call.

By the way, please post what type of CP are we talking about, maybe you should post the same question in the specific species Forum topic so that those that keep them can give comments.

TTFN
Arvin

[simpang1]

thanks arwin,they are n.mirabilis, d.intermedia and d. burmanii.all seedling.i repot some n.mirabilis and left some in the old pot to do more observation.about the drosera,i not yet repot but i've put them under full sun,see the mold will disappear or not.i was going to put them full sun later when they're big enough but i put them now, hope they can stand the hot sun.

[cactustts]

Hi Adrian, keep your N. mirablis & drosera outside under full sun, they'll just love it. Don't keep the potting media too wet, with the help of the sunlight and the rain to flush on the mold, they will disappear eventually. But if they are still seedlings, protect them from heavy rain with something transperant on top, remove it when they are big enough to take the rain. But of course the rain will also flush away the dews on the plants.
I kept some of my drosera under roof with a few hours of direct morning sunlight, rest of the day is bright. They are without mold, but I flushed water from the top occasionally, I will try not to disturb the dews too much by flushing very carefully. Let the water tray to dry out for a day before adding water. Hope this helps.

[arvin555]

My drosera Capensis and Spatulata are potted with cocopeat and dried sphagnum moss on the surface, the sphagnum moss is always wet or moist and the pots are in 1 inch of water, for some reason I have never experienced your problem of mold. As TS mentioned, best way is to put them outdoors where they can get sun, but do put them in full sun slowly meaning get them acclimatized to full sun over a period of a week, we recently got a lot of sunburned plants (VFT, Nepenthes, ferns, etc) when we trimmed our mango tree and so there was no more cover. And this was on plants that already got full sun most of the time. Don't worry I am 100% sure that the plants will recover easily, most of them already have recovered in fact.

If you really are irritated with the mold or afraid that it might affect your plants, then just repot, but I think as of now if you don't see any difference with the plants being affected, then don't do a repot yet. At the least I think that droseras do not mind being repotted much, just be careful when you do repot.

TTFN
Arvin

[simpang1]

thanks cactustts and arwin,at first i thought all nepenthes need to put under shaded location but now i think i'll put all the plants into full sun light, hope they won't get sun burn since they are still very small. i've repot some and left some on the old pot, still observing.
thanks guys.

[cactustts]

No, no, no...... Adrian, I think you misunderstood us! Not many neps could be grown nicely under full sunlight, for N. mirabils or N. gracilis, yes. For N.rafflesiana, N.ampullaria, N.veitchii etc., they tends to grow better if grown under shade clothes or under trees where they get dapple sunlight or places where they receive a few hours of direct morning or afternoon sunlight (rest of the day is bright).
For VFTs, sarracenias and tropical sundews, they are sunlover, the more sunlight the better.