Found something nasty in my sealed jar from 2020

I opened a terrarium I made three years ago in my old apartment in Phoenix, and the whole thing was covered in thick white mold. I used regular potting soil instead of a sterile mix, and the humidity must have baked in that Arizona heat. Has anyone else had a sealed setup go bad after that long, and what do you do with it?

4 comments

4 Comments

matthewp523mo ago

Yeah angelaellis is right, regular soil is asking for trouble in a sealed jar. I had the same thing happen with a moss jar I forgot about. That white mold is no joke, I opened mine outside with a mask on just to be safe. Honestly toss the whole thing, clean the jar with bleach if you want to save it, but starting over with sterile mix is way easier.

angelaellis3mo ago

That's a total bio jar horror story. Regular soil is basically a mold buffet in a sealed glass box. The Phoenix heat turning it into a slow cooker didn't help. I'd just toss the whole thing, jar and all. Not worth the risk of breathing in those spores. Next time, sterile mix and maybe a little charcoal are your best friends.

jessicaw1121d ago

Honestly I used to think a little mold was no big deal in these jars but this thread totally flipped my mind on that. Tossing the whole thing sounds like the smart play.

bettyhunt21d ago

Honestly I gotta push back on the "toss the whole thing" crowd here. I get that white mold looks scary and regular soil is not ideal for a sealed jar, but that mold is probably just a harmless saprophyte breaking down the organic matter in the soil, not some deadly pathogen. People act like one spore in the air will kill you, but unless you have a serious lung condition or are licking the jar, a quick open outside with a mask on is plenty safe. I'd say clean out the worst of it, rinse the plants if any are still alive, and see what happens. Sometimes the most interesting terrariums come from the ones that go "bad" and then balance themselves out over time.