FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I don't know what to tell you about a brand of spray. Are you having problems getting the seeds to germinate and sprout or is the problem after germination with mold/mildew attacking the sprouts? A little bit of green algae on the perlite would not seem to be overly worrisome...somewhat of a natural occurrence I would think. A wholesale covering of green, slimy algae is another story. Even with wanting to keep high humidity inside the germination chamber it seems that a small bit of ventilation would help with allowing some fresh air exchange to take place.

I've always loosely covered my vegetable seeds with plastic during germination...my favorite covering is old ice bags from the convenience store<g>. I'd attach them at a couple of points around the Sterilite container I had my seed cups in and cut a few slits in the plastic allowing air inside, but holding most moisture in, too...never had a problem with mold or mildew and you could still see the condensation on the plastic. BUT, once I see a vegetable seed popping up I remove the loose piece of plastic.

CPs are a bit different, though, as the seeds take longer to germinate and the seedlings still want a humid environment for a while after germination. In the wild they are in high humidity BUT (lots of "buts" here, eh? ) they're also exposed to open sky...fresh air. Personally, if I thought I was having a problem with mold and mildew I'd try ventilating my growing chamber a small amount...moisture will stay inside but some fresh air will also be available. And, if the extra ventilation causes it to dry out a bit faster inside you should be back home before it gets dangerous. Oh, and after my vegetable seedlings got to growing I *always* had a small fan softly blowing across them. Even with covered containers (with slight ventilation) I would let the fan run.

I agree that giving them fresh air is very important, but I'm not so sure a completely sealed container is the best if you're having mold and mildew problems. A fungicide will help, I suppose, but fixing the root cause of the problem seems like would work better....not a lot of fungus on those wild plants growing in the bogs!