Fungus is not so fun

Hi guys,

I am having a bit of trouble with a fungus that is growing in my pots. I up rooted a M. Pectinefra and it had large white spots of mycelium slowly taking over the soil and infecting the areole's. The plants basically stop growing and the roots start to turn corky and detach from the plant. I have managed to get many to recover well just by washing the roots, allowing to dry then re-potting them but this seems to be a relatively well entrenched infection in my garden. Every few months the re-potted plants get infected again. It seems I'm just chasing my tail round in circles. I have a few questions and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Does anyone have any experience with dipping an entire pot, cactus and all, into a fungicide solution?
Is this safe to do with cacti?
Whats the risks?
Any suggestions on type of fungicide best to use?

I mainly want to treat the re-potted plants to prevent re-infection the move around to re-pot them all.

Hey Sneaky,

I have had few problems with fungi, nothing major.

Iv'e got a few plants that have similar fungi balls, about 1-2 mm, they have grow in some of my pots for over a year, they don't seem to spread but i know i should re pot asap.

What do you use as potting mix?

I noticed in your recent '"What did you do in the yard today??"

sneakycuttlefish wrote:

This is the only way I can protect them from the daily down pours up here. They have had solid rain for weeks now

That doesn't sound good, i have most of my plants in a green/hot house, in a controlled environment, all my plants get watered by hand, there is never any over head watering apart from my Agave/Haworthias.

Maybe there is to much rain affecting your plants and soil.
I would get some cover over your plants, sounds like you have some great plants, plants that i would never leave out in the open without some protection.

Let us know what you use for soil and sounds like you need to tarp up!!!

Tarp up your plants that is!!! 

There is no problem with soaking your plant in a water/fungicide solution, just be sure you are treating the correct problem. Post some pics and we can help out identifying the issue.

HN

Cacti can be left soaking underwater, even completely submerged, over night or even a few days without any ill effects so long as they are a little dehydrated. I haven't used fungicide like this but I have done it for watering very dry plants and it works very well for that purpose. Have you tried dusting the roots with sulfur?

Well I have finally solved the fungal issue. After a discussion with HN on another thread about the effect of multiple afflictions compounding to create a more serious issue, I looked a lot more closely at the effected plants. It turns out that there was indeed an unknown mycelium growing in the pots but this was not the sole cause of the stalled growth and high mortality rate. The mycelium was so thick in the pots I treated, that they were masking a much more insidious little bastard.

Ga'damned root mealy!!!

I first started by drenching a number of pots in a fungicide then waited for a couple of weeks. On inspection of the roots the huge masses of mycelium (probably leucocoprinus species) had mostly perished revealing a particularly nasty root mealy infection closer in towards the middle of the root ball and extending up onto the subterranean stems. I then treated the remainder of the pots with a systemic insecticide.

Success!! The plants started growing again without the need of washing the roots and re-poting. I believe that the mycelium was locking up the nutrients and stalling the growth and then the mealys where invading and sucking the poor little buggers dry. Just to be on the safe side I have systematically washed and repotted every plant. As well as a couple of sprays with Confidor.