Hi All,

I am still new to the fig world and trying to grow some cuttings.  I've put them in in dirt cups moistened the soil, and have them sitting in the warm sun room of my home.  They have clear cups on top to create a greenhouse effect.

However, the cuttings started to grow white mold on some of the exposed nodes.  Is there a good way to remove the mold now they are in cups?  So far I've removed the cups to try to remove some of the moisture to allow the cuttings to breath and hoping the mold will go away.

Any advice to rid the mold without harming the cutting would be very helpful!

Thanks all,

Phil

In my limited experience you have done the best thing.  Leave the covers off and keep the media just barely moist.  

Hey fill i have the same problem. Some of mine the bark peels right off. I think i got them to moist. Good luck

I'm fairly new to growing figs, so what I've been doing may not be the optimal approach.  I've been wiping the mold away with a paper towel moistened with a little rubbing alcohol.  I washed my cuttings with warm water and dish soap and dunked them in a 1:10 diluted bleach solution prior to rooting.  So far, I only had small fuzzies appear on 3 cuttings in the past 10 days, which I promptly wiped away.

Leaving the covers off would take care of the moisture allowing the mold to grow.  Personally, I'm leaving the covers on my rooting bins since my basement is apparently cool enough to render my heating mats useless without a cover to trap the heat.

I think it's Phil and not fill. lol

I use a soft tooth brush to carefully clean them off...

Sorry phil not fill. Lol wow. Lol anyway i put hydrogen peroxide on my iris bulbs when the get to much water. This helps them. Also put on cuttings tonight that had mold did some bubbling dont now if it killed the mold. Also good for roots. Just by the weak stuff. Adds oxygen to roots of dieing plants but dont know if it kills mold. Thanks richie. There is,info on peroxide and plants,check it out ps hydrogen peroxide is same as h20 but has a extra oxygen molecule

I you washed them in  soapy water,, followed with wash in diluted bleach solution as mentioned above, and mold still persists, there is not much you can do.
Throw those affected by mold away, burn them.
Read some older posts on this issue.
There are some cuttings, you can not get rid of mold coming from a node (bud).
The conclusion in the posts I understood it was not to waste time and effort, move on, throw it in waste.

good luck with your other cuttings.

I slightly disagree...
In most cases you will still lose the cutting if it's developing mold, however, I have had cases where I take the cutting out of the mix I use from Jon's Uline bag method and could clearly see where part of the cutting was rotten and part was not.  I then cut off all of the rotten part, usually until I got to wood that still looked viable and didn't have any brown in it (brown in the inner part of the wood usually means that area has already begun rotting).  So I cut it back until it looks like it does when you fresh cut it off the tree with green, etc.  Then I redo the whole soapy water and bleach process and restart it.  In some cases (very few), the remaining piece survived and grew.  However, in most of those cases, it is because I caught the rot early and didn't have to remove too much of the cutting, leaving plenty of stored energy to grow.

I've also had cuttings with rot on one end still put out roots and was able to remove rotten part and plant the rest and it grew.  These cases are extremely rare.

Figpig,  If the bark is mushy and rubs off with your finger your cutting is already rotten and a goner.  Check soil moisture, probably too damp.

Ok thanks Timmy itook them out and kept cutting them and there were like a wet rag

That's unfortunate, sounds like they were goners.  This is just me, but I also wouldn't reuse the same mix without disinfecting it first, in case there are any fungus gnat larvae in there from the rot.  I had a rough time with them last year and likely will again this winter.
New mix is obviously preferred, but if you're on a budget, I've been putting mix in a gallon zip bag and make sure it's a little damp (likely already is), seal bag most of way but leave a little bit of the zipper open so it doesn't build pressure and explode (been there done that... multiple times) and microwave it for 2 min 30 sec.  I believe that is the right amount of time but google it to be sure.  Not more or less because too little and bad stuff won't die and too long will release toxins in the soil that you don't want to do.  After microwave stops, I take it out and seal the zipper all the way and lay it flat on the counter.  The steam in the bag will disinfect the medium.
Timothy

Wetable sulfer and water to make a slurry is what my father uses for mold.

Hey all thanks for the advice,

I originally used a 1:10 bleach solution and scrubbed them with a toothbrush, then I rinsed them off, but I guess I should have just let the bleach sterilize it.

I took the same tooth brush and some water to the nodes with any mold on them, because that was the only part moldy.  I did a slice test to see how alive the wood was and they were very green on the inside.

A day without the cups on top the mold started to dry out.  The soil is moist and hasn't shown any signs of mold so I'm just going to keep an eye on them to see if the mold comes back.

Thanks all,

Phil

Phil, over time you'll be able to tell whether it's rotting without cutting it. I don't cut to tell if it's rotting, I do it to remove rotten portions. Usually the rotten part will be discolored compared to the healthy part which gives you an idea where to cut it off. Hopefully that was clearer than mud.

Ive had a fair amount of experience with moldy cuttings. Ive tried everything. Bleach, h2o2, alcohol, none have ever survived for me once mold hits it. I think the spores work their way in deep and kill the cutting. Maybe amputate if you have a long one.

For what it's worth, when I started growing mushrooms and learning about making cultures and such, there was a forum fella up north who was a mold remediation specialist.  He preached that bleach doesn't kill mold, particularly if it is colonizing in wood.  I don't remember the exact solution they use but it was high in ethanol.  

What we see on the surface is kind of like an iceberg in that there is more under the surface.  Fig wood is fairly soft and porous.  I would imagine by the time we see it on the surface, there are mycelium strands already growing into the bark and wood.

Molds have a way of mutating and adapting.  If one uses a certain solution that doesn't completely kill the beast, it will reproduce the next batch of spores to be resistant to that solution and likewise with heat.  That's why mushroom culture producers pressure sterilize everything at 250 F for hours sometimes.  Only one resistant spore can ruin the whole batch, particularly if it wakes up in the perfect environment for it to thrive and reproduce. 

Re:mold. Once u got it, discard cuttings & everything associated w/them! Save time/$/materials/frustration, etc., etc!

Thanks Danny,

Yes, I spent a bunch of money on these cuttings and I don't want them to go to waste.

 The cuttings seem to be doing much better after I scrubbed them with a tooth brush and let them dry out. There is currently no sign of the mold.

Im hoping that (if the infected nodes are not viable for leaves) the nodes which were not affected and/or nodes slightly below the surface will take a go at growing leaves.

Thanks all for everyone's input.