Salt buildup, or mold/fungis? Need help PLEASE!!!

Hello all,

I've been growing for over a month now. I started off with 2 plants that were given to me from a friend. Both were female, so I cloned 8 clones (lost 1).

My set up: Using CFL's (for veg) and 6- 4ft Floro tubes for bloom. Doing 18/6 for veg and 12/12 for bloom. The 2 plants I received were already in soil. For the clones, I used starter plugs in a prop until roots came thru. Took approx 13 days for roots to protrude out of the plugs. They were then transferred to 1 gal plastic pots. I'm using cocotek coco coir with perlite, but 1 of the pots I used cococoir with hydrotron. It seems to hold water longer and doesn't seem to dry out so fast. Basically, I was seeing the difference and what works better as far as ease of use and my environment.
I used great white mycorrhizae when transplanting clones into the 1 gal pots. I have fans and trying to keep the temps where they need to be, but not easily done here in AZ during this time of year right now.

Using RO, Heavy 16 Veg A&B for my 18/6, and Heavy 16 Bud A&B for my 12/12. Keeping the PH right at 6 for both.

Ok, some mistakes I've made. Went to a local nursery to get the 1 gal pots...they were free as they were used. I did clean them out, but only with water. They weren't sterilized...I know now that I shouldve just used new pots.

So today I was checking my girls and noticed a white substance on some of the clay pebbles and around the starter plugs. I'm just curious if this is salts and my plants need to be flushed or if it is the start of mold/fungis.

I uploaded some pics. Hoping they are good enough for you to see. Any and all information will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Here are the 2 plants when I first got them and the clones I took off of them (pics of clones were taken today).
The 2 seedlings in the pic were given to me from the same friend as the other 2 plants in the picture. I'm slowly building my set-up, so anything that anyone can add to help me out would be great. I've been doing as much reading and research as possible, as well as asking my friend. I don't think I'll keep using the coco coir next time. I'm just going to go with some nice high grade soil. The clones are always under the light, I just moved them out a bit so I could take a better pic. I guess I'm doing some things right as they are growing and the other 2 plants in the 12/12 are budding nicely! For me, it's the fear of the unknown and I don't want to lose any of these gals to my own stupidity.

Your main worry is trying to get them to re veg.

*BUDS said:

Your main worry is trying to get them to re veg.

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Care to elaborate a bit more? They have IMO, started to re-veg. Compared to the first pic of the clones to the pics I just took yesterday. From my understanding it isn't that difficult to get them to re-veg. And they were cloned before they went into the budding stage.

That white substance is fine. It is not mold. It is probably harmless fungi. I have noticed something like this on plugs and the top of coco. Mold wont grow in well lit areas and salt buildup happens at the bottom of the pot.

A sterile environment is not needed esp when you add bacteria to the medium. BTW, I really dont think the great white is necessary or beneficial.

Pic 3 Looks like Looks like pm on top of the dirt to me.
I used to get clones from sr71, and they would sometimes have what looked like salt build up on the rockwool. Every time that happened I'd end up with pm 2 weeks later.

MYOB said:

That white substance is fine. It is not mold. It is probably harmless fungi. I have noticed something like this on plugs and the top of coco. Mold wont grow in well lit areas and salt buildup happens at the bottom of the pot. A sterile environment is not needed esp when you add bacteria to the medium. BTW, I really dont think the great white is necessary or beneficial.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information and confirmation!!! I ended up stopping by the LGS (needed some things) and they also confirmed that it was beneficial microorganism, most likely from the mycorrizae.
So what would you recommend to use? My buddy uses ZHO and gets good results.

skoobie dew said:

Pic 3 Looks like Looks like pm on top of the dirt to me.
I used to get clones from sr71, and they would sometimes have what looked like salt build up on the rockwool. Every time that happened I'd end up with pm 2 weeks later.

Click to expand...

What is PM? I looked in the list of definitions and didn't see it listed.

PM is powdery mildew