Quick...what is this mold and how do I kill it.

I really dove into amaryllis this year and spent all of my excess budget on bulbs. Now one of them has a greenish, grey mold growing on it. Can I spray the exposed part of the bulb with an anti-fungal product and kill it?!?
I don't want to lose a single one of them. It's either a Red Lion or Picote. I know it is a common and "plain one", but I like the colors and even these are expensive at $7 a bulb! I do have 2 small Butterfly Amaryllis, but thank goodness, they seem to be fine so far (different pot).
I have them on a table, with the regular light on all day and off at night. I water them about once a week. Am I doing this correctly? Or did I cause this mold? And how?
I'm rambling. Help :)

Catherine

I'm waiting for an expert to chime in here but I feel your pain. I remember spraying a lot of my older bulbs one year (foggy brain). I used a fungicide but I can't remember which. The fungus was that awful red one. Since then I have made an effort to water the soil rather than splash on the bulb-at least not on purpose! And I occasionally preen the flakey stuff off the bulbs, if it comes off willingly, since old layers could harbor fungus.

Hope we hear soon. I'm freaking out!

Well let's keep posting till someone saves you!

It looks like a common mold that shouldn't be a problem to the bulb itself, AFAIK. It just grows on old and decaying matter, like the dried scales on your bulb.

You can carefully remove the dried scales and spray with a fungicide if you want. The dried scales will absorb water from the moistened medium anyway, so it's prolly best to clean them away since it also looks like they have ripe spores to spread around.

Try to avoid applying water directly on the bulb, in any case, and try to improve air circulation around the bulb if you can. Better air circulation will lessen molds starting up.

R.

Thanks!

My experience is that it happened only when I used the cheap peat pellets that come with some bulb kits. Of course, the limited air circulation in the house in Winter was a factor, but only the ones with the peat had that problem. Same with pure coir as the medium on the indoor plants. Any chance you're using a bulb kit that included the pellet and the plastic pot without drainage holes?

They're in ceramic pots with drainage holes and planted in potting soil. BUT, I did put some peat in the soil to lighten it up. I was afraid regular potting soil would hold too much water. Mistake?

It should be alright with the fungicide as Raydio advises. I suggest adding perlite to lighten up your potting mix in the future.

Peat will lighten a soil, it's true, but it also holds water like a sponge, which isn't necessarily a good thing at times. As Andidandi says, perlite would be a better choice for aeration. It does hold water, but in a different way.

R.

Is the idea of peat in them so bad that I should repot all of them? One is already blooming. I will repot if it is really nessesary. I don't want all of the bulbs to rot.

It just depends on what you want to do and how much peat there was in the mix already. I am assuming that pot has drainage holes in the bottom and you're not ever letting it sit in water.........

If you have a mix with good organic content to begin with, the extra peat may just be "too much". High peat content can be especially problematical indoors in winter with cooler temps and no breezes blowing to help carry off unneeded moisture that a new bulb with its root system "injured" by the harvesting process just doesn't want.

The mold growth is a sign that temps may be too cool. A high peat mix can be tolerated under warm-hottish conditions with low humidity--but indoors, it's perhaps not worth the fight that might be coming when indoors in winter.

I myself wouldn't hesitate to unpot them and replant in an airier mix. Pro-Mix and Miracle-Grow are good prepared mixes. I always augment the Mir-Gro with perlite. Sometimes a "run" of Mir-Gro seems to be heavily peaty with few wood chips and perlite, so how much I add depends on what the mix looks like at first. I have worked with Pro-Mix (though I don't use it at home) and it is a better product straight from the bag and would need less added perlite--but I'd add some to it too. Water on the light side and try to keep the local environment no cooler than, say, 65, especially at night, if possible.

Repotting won't be a problem while your plant is in bloom (its using resources stored in the bulb), though you may prefer to wait so that chances are lessened that you might accidentally damage bloom or stem.

R.

Thanks so much. I'm going to repot. I have 17, and to me that's a lot. Plus, I have a coupon for HD for buy one get one free of the Amaryllis in a box. Those bulbs are really nice sizes.

Off to Home Depot for perlite,
Catherine