Baggie method...what to do about moldy seeds?

I started 11 pansy seeds using the baggie method about a week ago. 4 of them managed to germinate before I noticed a bit of mold growing on the seeds. What did I do wrong? Tamara

What type of soil did you use Tamara. That the best place to start . You needed to use a sterile seed starting mix. If you used potting soil it has all kinds of unseen fungi and bacteria hiding in it that can affect your seeds.

I grow hundreds of thousand of different seeds usign the baggy method. The trick is when you have yoru sterile mix, you just add a tiny and i mean tiny bit of water to it and mix it up good. It may still feel on the dry side to you , but trust me that plenty. Becaus e that moisture is gonna recycle in the baggy.

When you put yoru seeds in the baggy, if you see a whole lot of consensation on the top to where you can't see your soil, you used to much water to begin with. That excess moisture causes mold ( fungi) damping off disease to grow on your plants.

Take your seeds out of the baggy. destroy the moldy ones, if it hasn't gone to far you may be able to save the few without mold, debatable.

Back to the baggy. Now you wil se e a little condensation form and that is a good thing. When you firt see the sprout s startign to come up even if they only an 1/8" up out of the soil, open your baggy about half way so air can get in and circulation. Put a little somethign there at the opening to help keep it open. The rest of yoru seeds will stil germinate just take them a few days longer.

As you see the tray dryign out from the openign, and the seedlings gettign taller than open the baggy all the way. You can use a mister to keep the soil just a tiny bit moist. Just mist into the bag.

When you think you have most of your seed germinated, remember they not all gonna germinate, remove the baggy completely. The sooner you get that babby open and then them out of it the better you are.

I put the seeds on a damp paper towel and then put it in a ziploc bag and sealed it. I would check the bag everyday. As soon as a seed started to sprout, I would remove it and put it in a peat pot with seed starting mix. Do you think I used too much water in the paper towel? It wasn't soaking wet or anything, but there was condensation in the baggie. Tamara

If your using a paper towel it best not to wet it through under the faucet, but to use a mister to damp it. Any spray bottle that cleaned throughly will work. The paper towel method shouldn't have but just tiny bit of condensation.

The seed can mold even faster in too wet a paper towel than in sterile soil and baggy way. try again and cut way back on the water. If the same thing happens it can be that your seed ha s been contaminate d someway. Pansies can get alot of diseases and may be on the seed. The seed so small , but you might take your paper towel , lay seed on it, spray with mix of 1/4 teaspoon of Hydrogen peroide to spray bottle of water. Lightly mist and roll over and mist again then pick off and put on moist paper towel and then in baggy.

Thanks Starlight! I'll give it another try! Tamara

I recently read to wet your paper towels in a 9 parts water to 1 part bleach to prevent this. I will try to locate the source of this info.

Thanks for the tip, Tammy! Tamara