How can you remove mold from the dirt in your garden?

Removing Mold From Dirt

Are you sure this is mold. If the dirt has a white look to it, it is probably alcalie. Take a soil sample and have it tested. They will recommend a way to blance the nuitiants in the soil.

Answer

It may be a type of soil fungus which thrive on both dead and decaying matter in the soil and too wet conditions. Over-watering can make it worse. Try to aerate the soil as much as possible and improve the drainage. It most likely will not harm plants, although seedlings would be more vulnerable.


If by mold you mean cottony white threads in the soil or fuzzy colonies, especially in places with deeply layered plant detritus, then you do not want to remove them. They, collectively, are the saprotrophic fungi. Saprotrophs, decompose plant matter, where most of the carbon in terrestrial ecosystems is sequestered. They do not photosynthesize instead they grow on dead or dying material breaking it down into molecular components. Fungal respiration returns much of this carbon to the atmosphere as CO2. Plants in turn take the CO2 and sunshine to create carbohydrates. The nitrogen and minerals are held by they fungi. Many fungi enter directly into a symbiosis with plants exchanging the retained nutrients and growth hormones directly for the plants carbohydrates. Trees in temperate forests are dependent on the fungi that accumulate minerals from the decomposing litter, before the minerals pass into the deeper layers of the soil where they would be unavailable to the roots. This exchange can enhance a plant chances of survival five fold. Plants give some 10- 25% of the growing seasons photosynthetically fixed carbon dioxide back to the soil microorganisms through the roots, as carbohydrate exudates. The reason appears that in exchange they are joined to the underground network of fungal hyphae that reaches between plants and much farther than the plants root system. This hyphal net supports and protects its host plants. Many of these fungi protect there host from pathogens and are our original sources for antibiotics.

Keep in mind that what may appear to be mold might actually be a BENEFICIAL FUNGUS, which resembles gray/white 'root extensions'. A great catch-all for fungi, bacteria, algae & viruses is a product called PHYSAN 20. Its inexpensive & effective.