I was just doing some cleaning of my chams cage, dead leaves, poop, etc when I moved a potted plant and I found a large clump of mold growing on one of the natural branches behind the pot. What is the recommended way to remove mold/prevent it from happening again. He has a large plant box in the bottom of his cage with several plants in it. It looks great but I'm starting to feel like its more of a headache than to just have a few potted plants on the bottom instead. Anyway, any of you guys come across this issue before and no of a way to get rid of mold/ prevent it from happening? Thanks
Mold in cage
- Thread starter l0u1ss
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Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
It happens. Molds like stagnant air. Maybe creating a little more air exchange in this area of the cage would help...maybe thinning the foliage or moving things so there's a little more space around the branch would be enough. I think you are finding what a lot of us discover about cage bottom plantings...they take more attention even if they do look nice. I know I really wanted planted cages but eventually modified my view of what was "acceptable" for an attractive setup. Now a clump of nice looking color coordinated pots and a variety of healthy bushy plants that are easy to maintain do just fine.
Take the molded branch out, scrub it thoroughly with a 1:10 bleach to hot water solution, rinse, and dry thoroughly. If the wood is a soft porous type it will mold again eventually. I would not use any type of mold inhibitor on it. They often work because they leave a toxic residue. You may also need to scrub the pot that was next to this branch. Is the pot plastic or clay? Plastic is easy. Clay pots can and do mold, but because they are porous you need to be a little more careful how you clean it to protect the plant. Again, a hot water bleach solution and complete drying will kill the mold...you'd just need to remove the plant first.
The pot is plastic so that shouldn't be a big deal but unfortunately the branch is rather large and pretty much the center piece with many vines wrapped around it so its going to to some undoing
. Ohh The things we do for our chams well being Like you said I'm leaning toward repotting all the plants and just leaving them on a screen bottom and doing away with the big plant box. Seems a lot more steril. Thanks for the responses
. Ohh The things we do for our chams well being Like you said I'm leaning toward repotting all the plants and just leaving them on a screen bottom and doing away with the big plant box. Seems a lot more steril. Thanks for the responses
RPCV
Avid Member
Understanding and preventing mold growth is relatively simple. Mold needs three things to grow; spores, nutrient and moisture. Spores are always present on surfaces. Any material with carbon (including wood, paper, cardboard, dust and some plastics and paints) can provide nutrients. Moisture is the leg of the triangle that needs to be controlled.
In general; mold spores will start growing and forming colonies after about 48 to 72 hours of having elevated moisture. If mold is growing this simply means your enclosure is staying too wet for too long. Remove your branch, scrub it down with detergent and water then let it dry. Work to control the moisture in the enclosure and mold will not return. It is tempting to keep plants moist and misters going but you need to let things dry out; preferably returning to dry conditions at least once a day.
In general; mold spores will start growing and forming colonies after about 48 to 72 hours of having elevated moisture. If mold is growing this simply means your enclosure is staying too wet for too long. Remove your branch, scrub it down with detergent and water then let it dry. Work to control the moisture in the enclosure and mold will not return. It is tempting to keep plants moist and misters going but you need to let things dry out; preferably returning to dry conditions at least once a day.
