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Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 15th, 2014, 10:39 am
by sf108
Hi all,
I purchased some organic fertiliser cakes from "Evan" from the Ausbonsai markets last week. However after a week, 2 bags of them all turned mouldy...like serious mould. I guess I should've placed them in the fridge.
Question is - can I still use them?
Thanks
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 15th, 2014, 12:06 pm
by kcpoole
No idea on how to store them except keep dry.
Would think they should be be fine to use as they are all organic and mould should not affect the tree, but happy to be corrected
Ken
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 15th, 2014, 4:38 pm
by Scott Roxburgh
What are they made of?
The mould doesn't effect the performance of the cakes based on cottonseed or soya bean meal.
In fact, I have found that there is a white fungus/slime that forms on the cakes that helps to break them down while they are on the soil surface.
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 16th, 2014, 8:58 pm
by shibui
I agree. Should not affect nutrient value. I suspect they should have been dried better and probably not stored in sealed plastic bags. Spread them out in the sun - that will kill the mould and help reduce moisture content so they will store better.
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 16th, 2014, 11:21 pm
by sf108
Thanks a lot guys. I think that was very helpful.
Yes they're made from soybean meal etc (so I was told).
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 17th, 2014, 8:32 am
by Steven
I got some of these as well. They were packaged really well in a Chinese style food container with holes in the lid to keep humidity down.
I still haven't used mine and they are dry with no mould on them. How did you store yours? Did they get wet?
Regards,
Steven
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 17th, 2014, 2:12 pm
by Webos
Here are some I made recently out of canola meal... Drying out on the trampoline. I still have tonnes of the mix left, just gotta find the time to press them into cakes
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 17th, 2014, 8:08 pm
by Watto
I also purchased a few containers of this fertilizer. A few have a bit of mould on them, but the ones I put around the bonsai soon lost the mould. I too suspect a bit more sun will alleviate the mould issue and I am certainly not at all concerned about it.
I am however looking forward to seeing how they go.
Re: Organic fertiliser cakes - mouldy?
Posted: March 17th, 2014, 8:59 pm
by sf108
Steven wrote:I got some of these as well. They were packaged really well in a Chinese style food container with holes in the lid to keep humidity down.
I still haven't used mine and they are dry with no mould on them. How did you store yours? Did they get wet?
Regards,
Steven
Hi Steven,
Mine came in small plastic sandwich bags - so I suspect they weren't fully dried out and thus the moisture has been the cause of it.
Will lay them out in the sun tomorrow.
Last night I saw a few roaches eating them in the backyard - so I'm going to invest in some fertiliser cups to avoid insects or birds nibbling on them.