WEST virginia black dark mold on garden soil surface

10 years ago

hi,
i have a rather large garden its been at it for years but this is the first year i have been at the helm as the original grandparents are no loner able to tend to it. so i stepped in. (I'm a city boy from NYC... I'm sure that'll explain a lot of this...)
so we have had quite a wet season and things started to dry up for a short spell then we had the torrential down puts that caused all the flooding in the news. then about 3-4 days later after helping needy friends i went out to look at my garden and i notice there is quite a bit of dark black surface on the ground.
I THINK ITS A MOLD!
it was so close to the end of the day and i had been at it all day helping flooded friends so i thought ill go out first thing and see what it is and what i could do... the problem is i don't have any idea what to do... as i said I'm a city boy fresh out, only been here since 4/2016 now its 7/2016 and it rained again last night...
i also notice some mold on some of the green peppers.. that mold was white and fuzzy. and many others were just feeling soft and wilted...
any ideas or tips would be helpful?
trying to save the garden!!!
thanks
kurtis

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Comment (1)

grassman
10 years ago
I live in Central Virginia. This year we've had excessive amounts of rain and the mold, mushrooms and toadstools have really taken off. Also, some fungus in the lawn has also shown up.

There are several approaches to controlling mold, but some black molds can really be tough to control. Some molds can be killed using an herbicide like 2-4-D - usually sold at the big box stores as lawn weed products. But you need to be careful not to allow runoff get into places you don't want killed. I find a pump sprayer works best.

A mix of 50% Clorox bleach and 50% water will kill some molds, BUT DO NOT USE ON PLANTS.

Finally, my go to fungicide for most garden mold and mildew problems is Daconil - available at the big box stores too. The fuzzy white stuff on your peppers sounds like it might be some form of mildew.

If the Japanese Beetles haven't invaded your garden yet, they probably will. They started attacking my raspberries around the 4th of July. I use Sevin to control Japanese Beetles on my roses, raspberries and asparagus ferns. Hope this helps.

Ed
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