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How to Identify and Control White Mold on Plants and Vegetables

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Prevent White Mold Fungus in Your Garden!

Catherine Boeckmann
Pest Type
Plant Diseases

Have you ever noticed dense white fuzz at the base of your plants—or have you seen mold symptoms on stems, leaves, or blossoms? Learn about white mold—a fungal infection—and how to prevent and control this plant disease.

What Is White Mold?

White mold, also known as sclerotinia, is a fungal disease that affects more than 360 different garden plants, including beans, peas, lettuce, and members of the cabbage family. White mold on tomato plants is sometimes called timber rot. 

Mold symptoms appear on blossoms, stems, leaves, and pods with water-soaked spots. Leaves wilt, yellow, and die, and pods may rot.

The host crops and plants are most susceptible during flowering, but young seedlings are also very vulnerable. White mold typically infects the plants early in the spring or summer and then develops unnoticed for a while. 

White mold fungus spreads spores in cool weather, which can infect other plants through the wind. This is why it is so important to catch white mold and destroy the infected plants quickly to stop the spread of the fungal plant disease.

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Identification

How to Identify White Mold Damage

White mold symptoms (signs of sclerotinia) tend to vary depending on the environment and type of plant, but here are some of the most common ones:

  • The stem might first appear to have a water-soaked part. At this point in the infection, the plant will look healthy from above.
  • Wilting of individual stems, especially at the base, with tan discoloration.
  • Infected stems may appear to have tan to dark brown lesions on them. From these lesions, a dense, cotton-like growth will form under conditions of high humidity.
green beans affected with white mold
White mold takes over a bean plant with its dense cotton-like growth.
Photo Credit:
Gardening Products
Control and Prevention

How to Control White Mold

  • As soon as you notice any diseased plants, destroy them immediately.
  • If your soil is infected, remove as much of it as you can and replace it with clean soil.
  • You can use a barrier, such as plastic or mulch, to cover the infected ground to prevent the spread of the disease.

Prevent White Mold

  • Be sure to use well-drained soil and space your plants properly to avoid crowding. Also, remember to avoid areas with poor air circulation.
  • When watering your plants, try not to water the tops of them. Or water the plants early in the day so they have the chance to dry before nightfall. Learn more about the best times to water your plants.
  • You can also spray your plants with an approved fungicide to help prevent infection. Spray the plants right before they bud, then spray again a week later.
  • Control your weeds. Weeds can host this disease and spread it to your plants.
  • If possible, remove all crop residue after harvesting. If residue is left, this disease may develop in it. White mold spores are long-lasting, so they will survive the winter if given the chance.
Plant Disease
About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s ÃÛÌÒÁµÈË found each other. She leads digital content for the ÃÛÌÒÁµÈË website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
 

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Comments

It’s hard to say for sure, but what you describe sounds like powdery mildew fungus, which won’t kill the tree, but can be unsightly and might compromise the tree’s long-term health, if allowed to spread. Go ahead and remove that branch, then monitor to see if the spores are spreading. There are a number of non-toxic products on the market for treating it, and even a few home remedies!

denise lynk (not verified)

9 years 6 months ago

It's spring time planting in Michigan once again and tilling a second time before planting vegetables. Many gardeners had mold issues last year including me. What can I put in the soil as I till as a preventive to mold? Baking soda?

If you notice mold turn the soil over and bury the mold. Keep the soil as dry as possible and only water the individual plants not the entire garden. It also helps to add new fresh soil to the garden if the mold issue doesn't go away.

jennifer bary (not verified)

9 years 7 months ago

If I have what looks like white mold only on the soil, not the plants, can I just remove effected soil and apply a ground cover? Do I have to remove the soil? Can I just apply wood shavings? It appeared after we added chicken manure mixture to our garden. Is it related?

Hi, Jennifer: Just to be on the safe side, sure, go ahead and remove the affected soil, then proceed as usual. Mold is everywhere, though, and usually doesn't pose a problem in soil, as it will dissipate once its growing conditions (organic food, a lot of moisture) deteriorate. Mold on plants is another matter, as you recognize, as is nonwhite mold. Thanks for asking!

branden (not verified)

9 years 9 months ago

I have some indoor potted plants. Some had begun to get "rootbound" being out of new soil I baked a lot of it to sterilize it. It was too late for the transplant for most and they died anyways. When removing from their pots for discard, I noticed white mold growing specifically where the inside of the pot meets the soil. I have one that survived and its pot has the mold in the same manner as well. So I watered around the edges with a peroxide solution. What else should I do? Can this kill my plant? Should I simply repeat the peroxide treatment and keep the problem at bay until I can harvest and discard the soil? This plant is 3-4 weeks from being ready to harvest

Hi Branden,
We suggest that you remove the plant from the pot. Discard any soil that has mold on it and replant in a new bigger pot with light potting soil for containers.

P.J. (not verified)

10 years 3 months ago

can you eat the veggies after you remove the mold from the plants ?

Hi, P.J.: Excellent question! From a technical standpoint, the answer is yes. Assuming that you mean a leafy veggie, and not something that you would peel or de-pod anyway, it is indeed possible to wash them thoroughly enough to eat (say, with a very weak bleach solution, then assiduous rinsings), especially since some might end up being boiled anyway. From a practical and 100% safety standpoint, though, we wouldn't do it.

Lea Schatkowsky (not verified)

10 years 6 months ago

I can see there are white powdery spots on some of the leaves of my yellow
zucchini. Do I have to remove and destroy the plant or will spraying these leaves with a fungicide help save the spread?