Kratom Turning Black With Spots of Mold

Hi, there!

I got my first kratom tree this year, she was quite small when I got her. She was very healthy. I'm in the Southern hemisphere in South Africa and we are now in the middle of winter where we have an average of 7 celsius. I originally had her growing in a small greenhouse tent and things were going great, but it is now way too windy and had to remove her from it. Her leaves started falling off which I attribute to the drop in humidity. The scary part is that the top part is going black. There are spots of fuzzy mould on her, I have no idea what type it is or if its what is causing the damage. I have now snipped off most of the black part which I perceived to be dead.

Can someone please advise what to do? Should I bring her at night? Should I spray with hydrogen peroxide? Should I cut off more?

Thanks in advance!

I would keep it inside at night. anything under 37 degrees F will give the trees root rot. Do you have a green house, hay/ mulch, fish emulsion?

@guywithtrees

Is neem oil to fight the mould/fungus? All I have is Hydrogen peroxide at hand. I'll try check at our local hardware store for neem oil.

I keep her inside at night. I'll use a make shift cloche for now. It's too windy to use my small greenhouse. Every morning I have to find her turned on her side by the wind when in the greenhouse. I have fish emulsion, I'll give that a go. Thanks, @guywithtrees!

I haven't seen anything like that before

@roadkill same. i thought it was so odd that it would mold over like that. 

@megajeth that is scary looking mold. If it got to the core of the stem,  it may be finished  😫


I've only seem that type of fungus when it's been too cold and too wet for too long.

I've used heating blankets under rooting trays in the winter to prevent this rot in my clone cuttings. These guys get pinched young to encourage bushing out.


The heating pads have all but eliminated damping-off and related fungi growth.Use special non-medical ones that don't auto shut off every 2 hours, but will stay on...designed for greenhouses.

Btw, What type of soil am I looking at in that pot of yours?

                        ~Contented Kratom Froggy~ 

last edited by peteypyro

@peteypyro I love seeing pics like this!!! Thanks for the response. lol nice little protector you have there. :) 

Hey guys thanks for all the advice, hope you all doing alright.


@peteypyro, I think it has been the cold that hurt it so much. Should not have removed her from the greenhouse tent at all.
 She is a goner  😭

That soil was common garden soil that I mixed with perlite.
At some later stage I placed fireplace ash on top of it and it got intermixed with the soil. I probably won't do that again. It had no evident contribution to the plant.

It is now spring in South Africa and I decided to start a new batch.

So far so good!
This time I'm using average garden soil. It drains quite fast.
And keeping her in the tent at all times. Ill do what @guywithtrees said, Ill bring her in the home at night when the temp drops below 5 C (41 F) winter time, I'm not gonna take chances this time around😅

Question 1:
Sometimes my little tent reaches temps exceeding 45 C (113 F) should I worry about this? I could always vent the tent around mid day.

Question 2: 
How often do you guys water?

@megajeth oh boy those leaf do not look hot. I think they still could recover but the leaf will probably fall off in a month or 2. 

@guywithtrees, I'm not too worried about the brown leaves. They will fall off, but recover. The same happened to the previous one that died.
They have already formed new leaf "jackets", sorry I don't know what its called😅... new leaves are forming.
I've had these for less than a month so I think they are still acclimatising.