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sakmeht

Mold - stupid question alert! :)

sakmeht
17 years ago

Okay,

I have a light dusting of mold in my terrarium. The humidity's around 80%, and I just today got a fan in there to take care of it. However, (here's where the stupid part comes in) will the mold just disappear on it's own, or do I need to take out the gravel and pots affected and scrub it off?

Thanks!

Sarita

Comments (2)

  • petiolaris
    17 years ago

    If it is possible to manually remove the mold, like with a toothpick, I would do so. You can also sprinkle a little cinnamon on the affected areas and additional lighting also helps. Together, with the fan, will go a long way toward preventative and curative maintenance.

    What are you keeping the terrarium? CP's, in general, don't need anywheres close to that high of humidity, not even most commercially available (and bombproof) Nepenthes. Light and air circulation are far more imporatnt than humidity, especially in our artificial environments.

  • sakmeht
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Thanks for the info - yup, I just changed out my lighting too, (3 strips of 40watt daylight bulbs)so hopefully that will help. I've got a bunch of houseplants in my terrarium - zebra prayer plant, pothos, wandering jew, a couple of primroses, and the cp's are a ventricosa and a d. capensis. I also have an n. maxima and an n. miranda on the way.

    I've been playing with the lid to see if I can't get the humidity down, and what's happened since I got the fan is the pebble trays have dried up, which should help lower the humidity. The only things that are in standing water are the capensis and the primroses, and those are in separate containers in the terrarium. I'll eventually probably take out several of the houseplants since they don't NEED to be in there, and will plant the primroses in my garden this spring if they're still doing well. Everything is growing like a weed, though. I love seeing all of the foliage and flowers in there. If I can get the humidity closer the 70%, I'll be happy. And right now, the humidity in our house is about 60%, and I know that would work for most of the cp's, which is what I'm planning on for when they get bigger... I have some hanging planters and windows all picked out for them!

    I'm still debating whether to take out the trays and just put gravel straight in the bottom - even with the fan, I don't want mold issues... I keep thinking if I take the plants out to water and then let the pots drain I can put them back in and only a little water would be left to trickle down to the bottom of the tank. Then the wet soil would be mainly providing the humidity. Sorry for rambling on - it's just exciting playing around with stuff and finding out what works! :)

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