Mildew is forming on the soil of my indoor starter garden. What am I doing wrong?
Also, should I throw the contaminated peat pots and soil out, and start over, or just scrape off the mildew? There was only a small amount of mildew.
Details: I started them from seeds 4 days ago. The batch that was contaminated consists of 35 peat moss containers (only 5 of them actually had mildew on them) in a disposable aluminum lasagna pan. At first I left them exposed to air; the soil dried out too rapidly, so I used the plastic lid that came with the pan to help hold in the moisture. I did not put the lid on tightly. They are under a Grow Light for approximately 8 hours per day, and the average temperature ranges around 67*F degrees at night and 75*F in the daytime.
On day 4 I noticed the mildew which I removed right away.
I got the idea to use the lid to create a greenhouse like environment created from the kits (black plastic base and clear plastic lid) that are sold in stores.
Mildew cannot grow without moisture. Leave that lid off for a few hours each day (or all the time) and let the peat pots and top of the soil dry out a bit. The mold will go away.
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