Schefflera Mold

Question

I bought a schefflera 8 months ago and am now repotting it. The top of the dirt has light green mold on it and the root ball has granular light green (almost white) fungus througout the root system. The trunk has a faint white dusting (presumable mold) on it. Otherwise the plant looks healthy and has the right sunlight conditions. How can I get rid of the mold and support my plant’s health?

Answer 1

This is a very interesting question, as the mold found on potted plants is most often described as white. If it were my plant, I would try to find out what the stuff is by having it analyzed at an extension service or university botany dept. Of course, you could try putting fungicide on it, but I always recommend against treating for something if you don’t know what you’re treating.
On the other side of the coin, mold doesn’t normally grow in plant soil unless the soil was infected to begin with, and is also kept too wet, which is ultimately going to be damaging to the plant.
Also you can wash all the infected soil off the roots, and start over with a good, porous, sterile medium.

Answer 2

Yes, ditto what theficuswrangler said. To take the last sentence one step further, you should purchase the potting soil that your favorite local growing greenhouse uses to grow their plants. Don’t just buy the first sack with the words “potting soil” plastered on it…not all potting soils are the same.

Answer 3

Good tip about using the kind of potting medium that is used by the local greenhouse.
I had another thought about this “green mold” I noticed the other day that on top of a small plant that I have been fertilizing heavily, the little pieces of perlite were turning green, presumably from algae growth. I wonder if this is what CATT is seeing? Something you could do is pick out some of the green bits with tweezers, maybe look at them under a magnifying glass, squeeze them with the tweezers or fingers. If they’re crunchy, that would be the perlite. If they’re soft and mushy, go with mold.