Is this stuff on my fabric pots a bad thing? I think it’s mold but not sure. Considering spraying down the entire tent w hydrogen peroxide solution.
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Are you using nutes already by chance? Or reusing old pots?
Looks like mycelium to me. (That is a good thing)
I saw this somewhere last week. They said it was salt build up. Not really sure just thought I would share.
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i just had this happen, if u use nutes it’s probably salt buildup
when u water them make sure ur gettin enough run off to prevent that from happening.
That’s totally normal, and harmless. It can happen from calcium in tap water, or from added nutrients.
Make sure you water/feed enough to saturate the entire pot and get good runoff, and consider adding a wetting agent like Yucca to your water or feeding solution.
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All nutrients wether derived from salts or organic sources will become insoluble salts when they dry out (dry back). The salt stains you see need a strong acid to become soluble again, or heat. Neither is good for a living plant. Mycelium, algae, lichen, and Cyanobacteria colonies will grow on the outsides and then die back further adding to the “bio stain”. They hurt nothing. Maybe on real old pots some fungus knats could find it attractive.
That said soaking them in hot water and vinegar does wonders for old pot stains.
Sometimes I just invert them and grow on. The insides never get the salt stains. It usually the outsides where the growbags dry out. I have never had a bad outcome from stained pots. I even have some old ones where the peat has come to life and is growing on the outside the bag as moss.
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I’m somewhat certain it’s not salt buildup because I do water with nutrients but I remember this being a problem before I even started feeding any nutrients. Also my plants outdoors in the same fabric pots have none of this white stuff and I feed them nutrients as well.
Are you using tap water? There’s plenty of mineral content in most tap water to cause that.
With your outdoor pots, it could easily be because of rain and sun that you’re not seeing the same staining as your indoor ones. @noddykitty1 explained something along those lines above. Perhaps just getting wet on the outside from rain is enough to prevent it.
I had to go back several years for these pics, I’ve been using gray ones for a long time now.
Do these pics make you feel more comfortable with it?
It is a mineral salt buildup. Very common and nothing to worry about.