This is a problem & often fatal.... It is most likely caused by poor air circulation, very high humidity, poor lighting, high temperature etc.......

Your soil may have been too wet to start with.
It should be damp, not wet. If you grow mold on your soil, it is usually too wet.

What kind of medium did you use? Peat and perlite, half and half works well for most things for me.

Don't give up. Try again. and again, and again.

There are about a million things that will spell doom for our cuttings. They have just about all happened to me.

Just be aware that when you root the first cutting, you are hooked.

Good luck, and have fun!

Janie

You have all the elements to grow mold. Moisture, Food & the right Temp. Try another approach to what you are propagating in. If needed info. just post and I will let you know how

I've had mold on my seedlings before also. I did find they were too wet which caused the mold. All I did was place a fan on low allowing it to gently blow across my seedlings. This worked very well and almost all of them survived every time. I allowed the fan to blow during the day and turned it off during the evenings. Good luck!!!

Read the post she has them in a shoe box which is cellulose which is a perfect breeding ground for mold spores. Sorry I'm a mold Remediation Technician and know all to well what I'm talking about.

oh a plastic shoe box okay just mist with some fungicide.

'fraid that that isn't the best advice, terryb. Anyone growing seedlings or cuttings, in particular, must come to terms with the reasons that mold has been able to grow in the propagation site. Fungi, if indeed that's the problem, can be one hundred percent avoided in the first place.

A coarse, well-drained medium, good air circulation, attention to proper watering practices, and other environmental aspects are what's important for the average home gardener.

If poor conditions are allowed to continue, then all of the fungicide in the world won't save the seedlings or cuttings.

Well I been doing this for years and anyone with the correct knowledge knows that food, moisture & the correct temperature is the perfect breeding ground for mold spores. And yes I always spray with a fungicide, when this problem arises. Maybe do some research and you will see. Most of the people I even know in the Commericial end of this do the same thing. And even using the best practices mold may form. It's really funny everyone is so afraid of mold but yet we grow it. Also the biggest reason for mold to grow is over misted cuttings. Or incorrect time to propagate that cutting in the first place. And look at what people are doing rooting cuttings in a small shoe box with out drainage. Proper drainage with the correct medium is also a problem. It might look just moist on the top but not proper drainage around the cutting, or to much moisture in the bottom of the shoebox. It could also be the wrong misture of medium to even have the cuttings in in the first place also. Just to post something and someone try to say what could be wrong isn't the answer, or to tell someone that the post is wrong isn't the answer either. If I were to do something like that on such a small scale, first thing I would do is squeeze out the excess moisture from my medium. BTW I have a success rate here of 85% of growing from cuttings and have done over 3,000 in the last year and you did how many (rhizo1)?????

My my! Rather testy, aren't we? ;-)

Please re-read what I wrote previously. It still stands as very good, balanced advice. And I didn't say that your post was wrong.....just that it wasn't the best answer. And it's not! Reaching for pesticides as an automatic solution to a problem, rather than preventing that problem from occurring is just plain irresponsible.

It makes no sense to discuss commercial propagation in this conversation because the conditions are completely different. A commercial enterprise is actually conducive to fungal activity, by the very nature of the intensity of culture.

You mentioned earlier that molds require a certain environment in order to grow. True. It's not difficult AT ALL to create an environment that is hostile to molds or fungi.

Coincidentally, cuttings or seedlings would find the improved situation much more to their liking, as well. Seems like a win-win solution to me.

By the way, squeezing out extra moisture from a medium is also not the best idea, dare I say that? You'd be removing the pore spaces, if you did that. I'm sure that you realize the importance of oxygen in rooting.

Jennie, if you're still around....how about a description of this 'mold'? You mentioned that it is also on some of the leaves? Same stuff on the soil as on the leaves? How about a little bit of a description? And did you put drainage holes in your shoe box?

Well using a little bit of common sense you would also want to fluff back up the medium once the excess water is removed. Also did you ever hear of a soakaway? This is also a term used when propagating many plants at one time in a contained space such as a shoebox. It also cuts down on the amount of cuttings lost due to mold. And I also see that something as simple as a soakaway isn't even being mentioned by any of the people posting. It's not like I started propagating yesterday.

read the post 'Easy propagation chamber' this works really well, also i use the storage containers upside down over my flats or plug trays with a heat mat, this works great for seeds as well

terryb and rhizo this forum is for education not squabbles but i have to side w/ rhizo, never squeeze your soil and better conditions will suppress fungus outbreaks and yield better plants

Well guess what I don't ever use a soil for one thing too propagate any cuttings. I use a soiless propagation mix, and another thing I think you have to look at what you are saying. To much moiture leads to death of any cutting or plant life, it is a known FACT!!! And also if someone is growing MOLD on the cuttings instead of cutting down someones POST recommend something!!! Something I haven't seen here huh???

Hmmmm. I would have thought that it was a common assumption that we are ALL talking about soil-less mediums.

Assumption: HUM