How to Remove Mold from House Plant Soil?

Are your house plants looking a little down? Well, they may have been attacked by mold! This is why you need to learn how to remove mold from house plant soil to save your plants.

Reasons for Plant Mold

Mold and other fungal illnesses flourish in humid, dim, and stuffy settings. Sadly, it’s simple to produce such circumstances, mainly when dealing with indoor plants. Avoid the following at all costs:

Overwatering

Any surplus water left in a potted house plant will be consumed by fungus, and far too much water might cause the roots to rot. Typically, indoor plants need less water compared to their outside counterparts.

Outdoor plants may dry out rapidly in direct sunshine and open areas, whereas indoor plants can retain moisture for longer in enclosed locations and indirect sunlight.

Lack of Drainage

Excessive wetness might also be caused by poor water drainage. Several factors may bring poor drainage, including the wrong pot size, lack of drainage holes, and compacted soil.

As plants can’t utilize the water that bigger pots can contain, root rot is more likely to occur when roots are exposed in a pot. Before buying a container, measure your plant. Or, even better, take it with you to the garden center to check whether it fits. Some plants grow better in pots than others.

Many attractive pots lack drainage holes, allowing extra moisture to seep into the soil and out of the container. All that moisture remains around the roots when they are gone, where fungus and mold may use it. We advise using containers with many quarter- to half-inch diameter drain holes.

Your soil won’t be able to drain properly if it’s too compact. Specially designed potting soil is used for container planting. Perlite and peat moss, both of which are lightweight, aid in water drainage. You may repot the plant in superior potting soil or enrich thick dirt with basic peat moss.

Poor Ventilation

Sometimes indoor plants don’t receive enough airflow, particularly during the winter when the windows are closed. Particularly vulnerable to this problem are plants placed on narrow shelves or dark nooks. In between watering, air movement aids in plant drying.

Neglected Soil

The potting soil itself may be a source of mold issues. Although soil should include certain microbes, it could already be polluted before reaching a pot.

Throw away any compost that was improperly kept, and keep the residual soil in any dry location with any holes firmly filled. Additionally, always check the bag before planting a seed since a puncture might cause even well-kept soil to absorb moisture.

Leaf Decay On the Surface

An accumulation of dead leaves can favor the growth of mold in the soil since mold and some other fungal diseases feed on decaying plant material.

Before they accumulate at the plant’s base, remove any dead plant parts. Fall leaves may be used as mulch outdoors to cut down on yard trash.

Read What houseplants clean the air

How to Prevent Mold from Growing in Plant Soil?

• Use wholesome, sterile soil when switching soil or for all freshly acquired plants. For your indoor plants, think about using professional potting soil rich in nutrients.
• Try not to overwater plants. Excessive water will encourage the growth of mold spores since mold prefers wet environments. You should water the plants after the top 2 inches or quarter-inch of the total soil volume are dry as a general guideline.
• Regularly clear away dust or dirt from the leaves and eliminate debris (like dead leaves) from the plant’s soil. It may be easier for mold to develop if organic waste is left on the soil. Don’t fail to prune your plant’s dead branches as well.
• Give your plants plenty of airflow and light. Both artificial and the sun’s light are necessary for your plant’s development and to ward against mold. Airborne particles may readily move throughout the plant when there is a ventilation supply, like a fan set to low.

Read Can You Be Allergic to Houseplants?

How to Remove Mold from House Plant Soil?

If you know what you are doing, getting rid of the plant’s mold is not very difficult. When most people discover mold, they automatically believe their plant is doomed, but this is not the case.

When removing mold from house plants, you need to look at the common causes of mold growth, including overwatering, inadequate drainage, and occasionally even using soil that is soaked with decomposing organic matter or has already been polluted.

It is just too late to begin preventive care if mold is already present on the soil of your plants, but you can still take some corrective measures. You must first get rid of the mold from the soil before you can begin to make it difficult for mold to develop.

The following five methods can help eliminate the ugly white mold in the plant’s soil.

1. Pot The Plant Again to Eliminate Mold

If you don’t want to attempt to remove the mold issue, you may want to solve it once and for all. The plant may be repotted in sterile, new soil to eliminate the influence of the contaminated soil.

Simply remove the houseplant from its pot, clean it out (you may even lightly treat it with fungicide), and then put it back with new, sterile soil.

Alternatively, you may immerse the container in a mixture of 9:1 parts of water to liquid bleach for about 10 minutes to eliminate any lingering mold spores. The pot should then be thoroughly rinsed with standard dish soap and water. You may repot the houseplant once the vessel or pot has dried and been filled with soil.

Make sure you’ve wiped the mold from your houseplant’s leaves and root system before transplanting it. You may experience recontamination if some mold spores are left behind, so be careful when eliminating mold from house plants in the United States.

Before repotting the plant, you may also wish to give it a little fungal spraying. After repotting the plant, you must create a successful watering and maintenance schedule to guard against mold formation.

2. Dry Potting Soil to Remove Mold Spores

You must watch out that your indoor plants don’t become continuously too wet since mold loves moist soil. Using natural sunshine to dry up the soil is a good idea. The sun’s ultraviolet radiation kills mold.

Using the sun’s energy, you may dry the potting soil in two different ways. Simply moving the plant to a bright location outdoors will allow the sun’s rays to perform their job. Mold dislikes sunlight, but since it often just grows on the soil’s surface, it may be used successfully in mild situations.

Even better, you may remove the mold’s developing region from the soil’s top layer, discard it, and then briefly expose the houseplant to the light.

Another approach is to gently remove the house plant from the container and scatter the soil on a surface with plenty of sunlight. If the houseplant is vulnerable to direct sunlight, doing this is a smart idea. This prevents your houseplant from being burned or dried while the sun takes care of the mold.

You may also spritz some baking soda and water on the soil when exposed to the sun. Baking soda will aid in removing and absorbing moisture from any mold and aiding in its future prevention.

Read How to Treat House Plant Fungus

3. Eliminate The Mold from Your Plant and Fungicide Spray It

If your house plant has mold, the soil will also continue to be infected, mainly if it stays moist. It’s a good idea to start by manually removing the mold.

You may carefully take the top layer of its contaminated soil out of the plant’s pot since mold is often only present on the soil’s surface.

Then go ahead and clean the real plant of the mold. Until there is no longer any evidence of mold on your plant, you may repeatedly wipe it off with any moist cloth.

Next, to further safeguard the plant or soil by spraying the plant with a fungicide. You might use potassium bicarbonate diluted with water if you do not want to purchase chemical fungicides and would rather seek more natural alternatives.

This organic fungicide is effective against white mold spores. Simply liberally mist the plant with this solution and the potting soil’s surface.

4. Supplement Your Indoor Plant Soil with A Natural Anti-Fungal

Natural anti-fungals can be a great option when removing mold from house plants. In certain cases, the soil needs assistance to ward against fungus and mold.

Living in a wet or cold climate in northern parts of America like Minnesota might be challenging, but you can improve your house plant’s condition by simply incorporating natural antifungals into the plant’s soil.

What choices do you have for natural antifungals? Cinnamon, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar are a few fantastic all-natural antifungal remedies. Your indoor plant won’t face harm from these items.

You don’t need to place too much in, and you can either incorporate them into the soil mix or only sprinkle it on the soil’s top. Per indoor plant, a few spoonfuls or sprinkles are more than sufficient.

5. Use Sterile Soil to Promptly Repot New Houseplants to Eliminate Mold Contamination

You will be excited to place your new houseplants, whether you purchase them or get them as a present, to decorate and give some color to the home.

Regrettably, you can’t tell what a new plant has been exposed to or where the first potting soil originated since you didn’t grow it from seed.

Mold spores may have previously been present in the soil where the seedling or new plant has been growing. You may repot a new plant right away into brand-new, sterile soil to ensure it doesn’t spread mold to other plants or suffer from an increasing mold infestation. You might also utilize soil that you created yourself and provide enough solar exposure.

Without letting it touch other plants, throw away the possibly tainted dirt. When removing mold from house plants in America, before adding the new plant to other indoor plant locations, you may also treat it with fungicide or a mixture of baking soda and water.

Read How Much Oxygen Does a House Plant Produce?

Types of Mold 

You must first understand the different varieties of mold before learning how to eliminate it. You cannot take action to remove mold unless you are aware of the proper sorts of mold. There are several varieties of mold:

Black Mold

As a result of too much moisture in the pots, black mold might develop. It could come in different tones. It is regarded as the most hazardous kind of animal.

As a result, you should act quickly to eliminate it when it manifests. This mold’s spores induce allergies and interfere with the lungs’ regular operation.

White Mold

This kind of mold is the most prevalent and is most often seen on the soil of indoor plants. You may be perplexed by how mold spots resemble salt patches despite their structural differences.

While mold has a smooth texture that is simple to remove with your fingertips, salt stains have a crystalline structure.

Both people and animals should avoid white mold. Both allergic responses and the deadly infectious condition is known as mucormycosis might result from it.

Efflorescence

The surface of the plant soil may develop patches in various hues as a consequence of chemical interactions. They are called efflorescence and are unrelated to mold. If the efflorescence mold delves far enough into the soil, they have a detrimental influence on every soil layer.

Blue Mold

For trees, the blue mold poses a particular risk. It is colored blue. Additionally, developing bonsai might result in the death of your plant because spores can rot the wood from the inside.

Now you know how to remove mold from house plant soil, so you can keep your plants healthy.

You may like the following house plant articles:

• Why Is My House Plant Dying
• How to Kill House Plant Bugs
• Why Are My House Plant’s Leaves Curling Up?
• Why is My Houseplant Wilting
• How Often Should I Water a Houseplant?