Fuzzy White.. mold?

[Fizzikos]

I tried to get a picture transferred but my phone (aka: camera) is acting up because it's junk...

there's a little bit of fuzzy white something growing right at the base two of my best looking plants... I'd hate to throw them out but obviously if it's a risk for the other plants or it will spell doom for these two they've got to go but is this just part of the roots growing? This is my first try at growing (if you couldn't tell) so any info on a potential cause of this (mold?) would be wonderful

Currently the plants are in little plastic greenhouse trays under 2 blue CFL bulbs, hoping to switch to a T5 setup soon but i just kinda fell into this, originally didn't expect a bunch of old seeds to even start growing, then figured I'd just make a cheap setup to get my feet wet... slowly learning that it's kinda deep end or bust

 

[DeeTee]

How old are your seedlings? maybe too humid in that greenhouse, that would cause mold, what if you removed them from that greenhouse and let them breath. 'course unfortunately pics would help, try to get some for the future so that we may help a little more.

 

[Fizzikos]

yea usually i can just text a pic or even plug the phone in i'm due for a replacement... i'll take the lids off tonight and see how that goes - should i get the plants with this mold out of there and away from the rest? they're all about 2.5 weeks old? most of this time they were under red light because i didn't have blue yet (like i said, learning as i go) the healthier looking ones have two round leaves and two pointed ones, most are 2"-3" at this point but that's with some reaching, i've tried to keep the light as close to them as possible

 

[DeeTee]

Is the mold on the plant itself or on the medium they are in, make sure you have a small fan blowing on them to strenthen the stem, never had that problem before but I would imagen the mold will go away once exposed to fresh air, if on the soil or medium you could maybe scape it off, best of luck with your grow my friend.

 

[hotrodharley]

Second dee tee on the medium versus plant. If it's on the soil simply till the top of the soil with a fork. The mold is actually fungal spores showing from subsurface colonies and is a good thing. Mold on the plant is quite another thing.

 

[Nizza]

no light, less moisture and more air movement are enemies of mold, you need to have more air hit the tops of the pots and also maybe water less (you could water more if your soil was "looser") also when the canopy starts togrow over the pot you can focus the air less on the pot and then this will make the soil retain more moisture, which it will need since the plant is bigger

 

[ProfessorPotSnob]

Second dee tee on the medium versus plant. If it's on the soil simply till the top of the soil with a fork. The mold is actually fungal spores showing from subsurface colonies and is a good thing. Mold on the plant is quite another thing.

Good call , I was thinking Mycelium as well ..

 

[ProfessorPotSnob]

Currently the plants are in little plastic greenhouse trays ..

This is not advised once they have germinated ..

 

[Fizzikos]

sounds like i'm headed in not so terrible of a direction...

-i've got an air purifier next to the setup just to keep the air moving- i'll flip it to aim AT them now instead of away from them...
-lids are off and come to think of it... there really was a lot of condesation so hopefully this helps
-with the lids off i lowered my CFLs a bit
-the mold was right at the base of the plants... but it's eactly what i had seen growing in the soil of a few others last week, on those i had scooped that out and just thrown it away... also i started these seeds inside a wet paper towel in a 1 gallon ziplock and i rememeber seeing some of this mold in there the first time i opened it up to check on them so high moisture definately makes for a logical culprit (i couldn't believe so many sprouted out of my random seed stash from over the years, and thus my first grow unexpectedly began)
-of the two plants, i dug down a bit and one of them it may have actualy just been the root system curling up near the surface, i didn't want to uproot it to get a closer look because i unfortunately did that to other plant, not knowing just how long the root sytem would be... caused a small bend in the roots unfortunately, hopefully after replanting it with some more soil to support it gives it a chance to recover

speaking of longer-than-i-expected roots systems... if they are at 4 leaves mostly and stems around .5"-2.5" should i be upgrading to larger cups at this point? Currently i've got two little "green houses" going... one has plastic cups that are slightly larger than those tiny bathroom dixie cups, and the other is just all soil with the plants evenly spaced out

If this grow fails... and i realize it may.. i've got plenty more seeds to try again and i'm learning more and more as we go.... is there a "check-list" anywhere that could be referenced? something like you'll need...
a- pick one of these mediums
b- pick one of these light setups
c- hydrometer
d- fan
e- some way to test Ph
and so-on....

thank you guys so much for your advice to this point.. please feel free to yell at me if i'm abusing my thread and should be starting one out in the newbie section as opposed to here

 

[Nizza]

try to get the air to oscillate over the soil so it doesn't dry it out too fast / make the leaves transpirate too much\
scoop off as much of the mold as possible
then till in like above said, maybe with a lil fresh dirt on top

 

[Nizza]

good rule of thumb; keep it in a humidity dome as short as possible. They are basically used for clones, with seedlings you dont need domes because they get their h20 from the roots which are there (since its not a clone) and thus you are only encouraging mold with that type of environment, or maybe even stem rot, leading to dampening off (falling over at the base). so yeah if theyre seeds dont use a dome and water good when needed (stick your finger in ) and then dont worry about it, you dont need a shit ton of air flow but id to it for the moment to get rid of the mold

 

[Fizzikos]

On sunday i think i'll transplant to new cups(after giving some time for soil to dry out a bit), it sounds like i'm a little behind on how i should be treating them at this stage after what's been said... i'll follow the "Replant Those Long Stretchy Stems" guide and try to even out the heights as best i can.

 

[Fizzikos]

good rule of thumb; keep it in a humidity dome as short as possible. They are basically used for clones, with seedlings you dont need domes because they get their h20 from the roots which are there (since its not a clone) and thus you are only encouraging mold with that type of environment, or maybe even stem rot, leading to dampening off (falling over at the base). so yeah if theyre seeds dont use a dome and water good when needed (stick your finger in ) and then dont worry about it, you dont need a shit ton of air flow but id to it for the moment to get rid of the mold

Yep, further evidence of my mistake, one or two have already fallen over and there's a shriveled up section at the base... i'll be sure to say goodbye to those ones when i replant