Mold on my indoor pepper plant's roots

Pepper

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You can read the headline, so ill cut to the chase. Repotting is not really an option because of the way the plant has spread out and intertwined with other plants in my small plant room (closet). Is there anything i could put on it? (Already tried springtails) I read some things about baking soda or apple cider vinegar, but it seems like those solutions would need some balancing? Anyone have experience with this?
 

Poonjab

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Is it a white fuzzy mold? If so, then it could be saprophyte. It’s a mold that only eats dead tissue. I use to have this problem when I first started keeping carnivorous plants. My plants were dying and I wasn’t aware at the time until it was basically too late. Might be why it’s only affecting the pepper plant and not the others.
 

Pepper

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Ok, i see baking soda mixed with water, and cinnamon, will kill it. Will this cause any damage to the soil's balance, and how do i offset it?
 

Poonjab

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Those components shouldn’t. The best thing to do is clear away any dead or decaying matter. scrape away any mold on the soil or plants and discard it. Careful not to over water in the future. This combined with poor air circulation will cause mold to grow. Start with a light sprinkle of baking soda and cinnamon. Don’t go overboard. If this along with the few changes doesn’t work, you can always try neem oil. That’s what I used to use on my carnivorous plants and it did the trick.
 

The Snark

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This is a no brainer. Just use a zinc bearing fertilizer. It's very common and certain death to molds and fungi.
 

Pepper

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This is a no brainer. Just use a zinc bearing fertilizer. It's very common and certain death to molds and fungi.
Thanks for the tip! If the above solution doesnt work ill look more into this.
 

Poonjab

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Thanks for the tip! If the above solution doesnt work ill look more into this.
That’s good to know. I had no idea of that. I know as far as carnivorous plants go, you’re pretty limited on what you can put on the soil. I’m going to look into this. Thanks
 

The Snark

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Re: Zinc. It only takes a micro amount of zinc to stop spores from growing. As example, simply stringing a galvanized wire along either side of the hip of a roof will inhibit and eliminate algae growth on roofing just from rain picking up minute amounts of zinc oxides off the wire and depositing them down stream.

You can even make a mild zinc spray solution spore killer by boiling galvanized wire in pure vinegar or stronger solutions of acetic acid. Care must be taken however as the threshold from beneficial nutrient for animals to toxic is very low. Also, it is pervasive and will accumulate in the environment.
Zinc solutions and compounds are commonly used as wood preservatives.
 
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