Re: fungus, how to kill it

John Walker (jorwa@syspac.com)
Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:23:10 -0800

At 03:27 PM 11/22/96 -0800, you wrote:
>> From: info96c3@ULB.AC.BE(Micheletti =?iso-8859-1?Q?Micha=EBl?= )
>>
>> My nepenthes basket's is attacked by Botytris fungus.
>> How can I kill it without killing my nepenthes?
>> I found in a french book that I must use Benomyl.
>> But in Belgium, I cann't found Benomyl, in reality, I can,
>> but I must buy 10 kilogr. because it dosn't exist in small packets.
>> Could you help me to save my nepenthes they will die soon.
>> Wich other fungicid can I use or someone could sale me a packets of
>> Benomyl.
>>
>> Thanks. Michael info96c3@ulb.ac.be
>
>Benomyl will not kill that fungus. It's simply too tough.
>It might strengthen your plant against the fungus' attack however.
>Is the fungus on the plant or in the soil? I have only seen
>grey mold (Botytris) on Nepenthes soils, thankfully. This is
>easy to take care, just replace the soil by repotting. Small
>spots of fungus can be killed or at least controlled by hitting
>the fuzzies with water from a spary bottle which breaks apart the
>tiny filaments.
>
>Dave Evans
*************************************************************************
Hi Dave,

I'm a little confused and was hoping you could help :-) You say that
Benomyl is not strong enough to kill this fungus, but later say that the
fungus can be taken care of with just plain water by hitting the fuzzies.
Can both be right? Thankfully, I have never seen a bad case of this fungus
up close so I don't have first hand experience in how to fight it ;-)
However, I have seen a very light "down" grow across peatmoss that I have
used for germinating seeds. I thought this was called "damping off" and I
too find that a light mist of water can break up the filiments and control
the fungus with no fungicide.

Regards,
John in Phoenix