Mold on my poles?

gimmieToms · July 17, 2018

I bought brand new bamboo poles this year for my tomato plants, and noticed today that a couple have dots of mold on them, one pole in particular had a fair bit. It’s been a very hot season so far, some humidity but not a lot of rain. My plants are huge but I’ve been making sure there is plenty air movement around the plants, there isn’t too much foliage and I never wet my plants when I water them.
I cleaned the affected poles with diluted bleach and a toothbrush being careful not to get any of it in the soil, but what could be causing this? Could this potentially spread to the plant itself?
I lost all my tomatoes to mold last year. It was a super wet and mild season, I’d just had a baby so wasn’t pruning like I normally do and they were a jungle, so it was kind of understandable. It was a horrible growing year. But I disposed of that soil, bleached out my pots, put fresh soil, brand new bamboo poles and the plants are great. I don’t get why it would get mold on it.

PhilaGardener · July 17, 2018

Maybe the poles were coated with something that is hosting the mold growth. I think the bleach sounds like a good idea. Hopefully it will subside as the coating breaks down and weathers off. May you have a better season this year!

gimmieToms · July 17, 2018

I was thinking that too. I’ll keep an eye on them and bleach as needed.
Thank you.

brownrexx · July 17, 2018

Mold spores are in the air everywhere. They land on surfaces and if they have high humidity and it is not too hot, then they will grow. Bamboo is a natural product and mold will grow on anything that it can "eat" like bamboo, wood, cloth, leather and even some plastics. You would not ordinarily find it growing on metal tomato cages or metal stakes since it can not get any nutrients out of them.

nbardo · July 17, 2018

Bamboo, probably not fully dried yet, gets packed into shipping containers in the tropics with heat and high humidity and and sits there for weeks or months in ideal conditions for mold. Probably it is not coated with anything and the fungus is feeding on the carbohydrates and other stuff in the bamboo itself. Once it has a chance to dry out all the way it will probably die. Bleach should help knock it down too. Penetrating epoxy thinned down with a little acetone and applied as a finish would lock out moisture and mold, but thats probably way overkill for some bamboo stakes

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

gimmieToms · July 17, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownrexx

Mold spores are in the air everywhere. They land on surfaces and if they have high humidity and it is not too hot, then they will grow. Bamboo is a natural product and mold will grow on anything that it can "eat" like bamboo, wood, cloth, leather and even some plastics. You would not ordinarily find it growing on metal tomato cages or metal stakes since it can not get any nutrients out of them.

I think I might invest in some metal poles next year. Last time I used those though they rusted and broke. I liked this bamboo because they were super thick and tall.

brownrexx · July 17, 2018

You may find that bamboo will rot off at the base. I don't know for sure becaseu I have not used it but one year I got these nice wood markers and used them on all of my rows. Before the season was over they were starting to turn black at the soil level and they rotted off. I stick with plastic now.

Worth1 · July 17, 2018

3/4 inch EMT conduit works marvelously.
Two feet in the ground eight feet out.
Worth

bower · July 17, 2018

I bought bamboo from the dollar store here, and they turned out to be a real nurture center for mold at some point in the season... Used bleach to clean em and re-use, but by the end of the second year the part that was in the ground was looking streaky and year three the in ground parts were pretty funky with white mold. It did not seem healthy to put that close to anything, and bleach treatment wasn't really staving it off. (Pun!!!

) So I tried a couple of kinds of paint on a few of the staves - one was an enamel the other a 'rust paint' of all things. I was using the rust paint on some metal cages and decided to try it on a few bamboo as well. The rust paint worked. It's pretty tenacious and season two of it not seeing any damage. The enamel otoh started to rub off after one year.

So... I think the right finish may help to extend their life, but without a coating, they will rot pretty fast.

saltmarsh · July 18, 2018

The grey plastic conduit is UV resistant and is good for at least 7 years.

For mold and mildew use Horsetail tea with a molasses sticker, safe and effective. Works by raising the ph of the surface so the spores don't bloom. Claud

gimmieToms · July 18, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by bower

I bought bamboo from the dollar store here, and they turned out to be a real nurture center for mold at some point in the season... Used bleach to clean em and re-use, but by the end of the second year the part that was in the ground was looking streaky and year three the in ground parts were pretty funky with white mold. It did not seem healthy to put that close to anything, and bleach treatment wasn't really staving it off. (Pun!!!

) So I tried a couple of kinds of paint on a few of the staves - one was an enamel the other a 'rust paint' of all things. I was using the rust paint on some metal cages and decided to try it on a few bamboo as well. The rust paint worked. It's pretty tenacious and season two of it not seeing any damage. The enamel otoh started to rub off after one year.

So... I think the right finish may help to extend their life, but without a coating, they will rot pretty fast.

I normally get 2-3 years out of my bamboo poles. So I was surprised.

gimmieToms · July 18, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltmarsh

The grey plastic conduit is UV resistant and is good for at least 7 years.

For mold and mildew use Horsetail tea with a molasses sticker, safe and effective. Works by raising the ph of the surface so the spores don't bloom. Claud

Awesome. Where would I get that from?

kurt · July 18, 2018

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...=Bamboo&page=2

This is from way back.I have poles for ten years,the first layers will grow mold,over time and capping the ends in a asphalt( the pure organic now which it is!)a hole drilled inbetweest the node lets the drainage.Stopped plenty of those 9 mms back in the day.

gimmieToms · July 20, 2018

So, the leaves on the plant that had the most mold on the pole started to look strange. I couldn’t figure out if it was splashes from the bleach water causing the spots, or if it was mold. There was a gray/black spot on the stem too. Rather than wait it out, I removed all the affected parts and sprayed all my plants with copper spray. After losing all my plants to mold last year, I wasn’t about to let that happen again, so I’d rather be safe than sorry. I just hope it wasn’t too late for the affected plant.

July 17, 2018	#1
gimmieToms Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: canada Posts: 46	Mold on my poles? I bought brand new bamboo poles this year for my tomato plants, and noticed today that a couple have dots of mold on them, one pole in particular had a fair bit. It’s been a very hot season so far, some humidity but not a lot of rain. My plants are huge but I’ve been making sure there is plenty air movement around the plants, there isn’t too much foliage and I never wet my plants when I water them. I cleaned the affected poles with diluted bleach and a toothbrush being careful not to get any of it in the soil, but what could be causing this? Could this potentially spread to the plant itself? I lost all my tomatoes to mold last year. It was a super wet and mild season, I’d just had a baby so wasn’t pruning like I normally do and they were a jungle, so it was kind of understandable. It was a horrible growing year. But I disposed of that soil, bleached out my pots, put fresh soil, brand new bamboo poles and the plants are great. I don’t get why it would get mold on it.

July 18, 2018	#13
kurt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Homestead,Everglades City Fl. Posts: 2,501	http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...=Bamboo&page=2 This is from way back.I have poles for ten years,the first layers will grow mold,over time and capping the ends in a asphalt( the pure organic now which it is!)a hole drilled inbetweest the node lets the drainage.Stopped plenty of those 9 mms back in the day. __________________ KURT

July 17, 2018	#2
PhilaGardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Near Philadelphia, PA Posts: 1,940	Maybe the poles were coated with something that is hosting the mold growth. I think the bleach sounds like a good idea. Hopefully it will subside as the coating breaks down and weathers off. May you have a better season this year!

July 17, 2018	#4
brownrexx Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: Southeastern PA Posts: 1,420	Mold spores are in the air everywhere. They land on surfaces and if they have high humidity and it is not too hot, then they will grow. Bamboo is a natural product and mold will grow on anything that it can "eat" like bamboo, wood, cloth, leather and even some plastics. You would not ordinarily find it growing on metal tomato cages or metal stakes since it can not get any nutrients out of them.

July 17, 2018	#5
nbardo Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 78	Bamboo, probably not fully dried yet, gets packed into shipping containers in the tropics with heat and high humidity and and sits there for weeks or months in ideal conditions for mold. Probably it is not coated with anything and the fungus is feeding on the carbohydrates and other stuff in the bamboo itself. Once it has a chance to dry out all the way it will probably die. Bleach should help knock it down too. Penetrating epoxy thinned down with a little acetone and applied as a finish would lock out moisture and mold, but thats probably way overkill for some bamboo stakes Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

July 17, 2018	#8
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	3/4 inch EMT conduit works marvelously. Two feet in the ground eight feet out. Worth

July 17, 2018	#9
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	I bought bamboo from the dollar store here, and they turned out to be a real nurture center for mold at some point in the season... Used bleach to clean em and re-use, but by the end of the second year the part that was in the ground was looking streaky and year three the in ground parts were pretty funky with white mold. It did not seem healthy to put that close to anything, and bleach treatment wasn't really staving it off. (Pun!!! ) So I tried a couple of kinds of paint on a few of the staves - one was an enamel the other a 'rust paint' of all things. I was using the rust paint on some metal cages and decided to try it on a few bamboo as well. The rust paint worked. It's pretty tenacious and season two of it not seeing any damage. The enamel otoh started to rub off after one year. So... I think the right finish may help to extend their life, but without a coating, they will rot pretty fast.

July 18, 2018	#10
saltmarsh Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: 2 miles south of Yoknapatawpha Zone 7b Posts: 662	The grey plastic conduit is UV resistant and is good for at least 7 years. For mold and mildew use Horsetail tea with a molasses sticker, safe and effective. Works by raising the ph of the surface so the spores don't bloom. Claud

July 20, 2018	#14
gimmieToms Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: canada Posts: 46	So, the leaves on the plant that had the most mold on the pole started to look strange. I couldn’t figure out if it was splashes from the bleach water causing the spots, or if it was mold. There was a gray/black spot on the stem too. Rather than wait it out, I removed all the affected parts and sprayed all my plants with copper spray. After losing all my plants to mold last year, I wasn’t about to let that happen again, so I’d rather be safe than sorry. I just hope it wasn’t too late for the affected plant.