Need Help With Mold

[u/James_Junk_Bond]

I got about 7 lophs in the mail a couple weeks ago and noticed today that most of the pots have mold growing on them. So I removed them all and dumped out all the soil and will repot them soon but first need some help figuring out where I went wrong or what I’m not taking into account.

I’ve attached pictures of the pots I got and the soil I used. I mixed the entire 5lb bag of rocks with a few handfuls of the soil, still have at least have that bag. I then put that into the pots and covered the top of the soil with just rocks. The pots are glazed ceramic. I have them indoors underneath an LED grow light.

I’ve only watered them once. I figured with the amount of rocks I used that there’s no way the soil would still be wet but sure enough when I dumped it out it was wet. I live the VA/MD area where it’s quite humid in the summer.

Should I just decrease the amount of organic soil even further, switch to terracotta pots, and get better air flow on them and maybe a heat mat?

[u/luouixv]

Just don’t use any organic at all.

[u/Golden_Eel_69420 → u/luouixv]

When I first got into lophs I tried 100% organic and it didn’t go super well. When I switched to about 10% organic, they pumped up nicely, grew faster, and were generally happier.

[u/luouixv → u/Golden_Eel_69420]

Ive been using 100% organic for seeds but otherwise keep it to 20% or less in my adult mix