FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Well... I stratified a few seeds but.. mold. uhh.. Do i just change out the paper towel or what do I do?

How long have they been in, and what does the mold look like?

I havent checked on them in about a week.. seems like green/black mold and pink?

Have they been in stratifying for only a week? The mold isn't bad...if they've been in there for several weeks. I was told early on to use brown towels like you get at stores and restaurants...the roll type where you wave your hand in front of the dispensers and the paper magically comes out (I think they've got a tiny elf in there or something!). The brown towel doesn't seem to mold as bad as the regular white ones that you buy at the grocery store. Next time you go to eat or go to the doctor, maybe, just go in the bathroom and wave your hand several times and grab a handful of the brown towels. Fold'em up, and stick'em in your pocket. If anybody looks at you oddly just look at them with a frown and say something quietly like, "I have this leakage sometimes...."...they'll quickly go about their own business!

The white paper towel in the photo below was inside a larger ziplock that contained two smaller ziplocks with sarrs seeds in them. The white towel was only in their as a "backup" for keeping the humidity/moistness high outside the smaller ziplocks...OCD-Me making sure nothing dried out. The white paper towel never came in contact with the contents of the smaller bags. The photos of the brown towels were after right at two months (as was the white towel) of stratifying in the refrigerator. The smaller bags also contained a very small growth point of live sphagnum moss...so even with a bit or organic matter added the brown towels still outdid the white towels greatly. FWIW.

We got plenty of those brown paper at work lol ill be sure to bring in some home. Its been 23 days since I put them in but the mold is a recent development

You're three weeks into it. I think they're looking good. Most folks don't really notice a big problem with the mold being present. Naturally if it all turns into a big mold cookie then you got a problem, but spots scattered on the paper towel doesn't seem to hurt much of anything. Panman has had much more experience than I have and I think he might use white paper towels, has the mold spots, and has good results from the seeds. See what he says about how long they've been stratifying and the amount of mold.

I will say, too, that the white towel I showed with all the mold spots on it *may* be more affected than most white paper towels. I have no idea why it was that bad, though.

I apply a light spray of sulfur based pesticide when i bag them.

If the mold is on the paper and not the seeds, it isn't a problem. Most of mine do that.

Okay! @Panman, The mold does seem to be on the paper and not growing on the seeds themselves, but I'll keep watching them closely. @Intheswamp, I got my brown paper so I'm ready for the next group of seeds I'll stratify lol and I'll check out @optique, suggestion of using sulfur based pesticide!

So when using paper towel to strat, do you wait until they start sprouting or will they not sprout when cold? How long do you let them strat and is there an advantage doing it that way as opposed to just letting them set in water?

andynorth wrote:So when using paper towel to strat, do you wait until they start sprouting or will they not sprout when cold? How long do you let them strat and is there an advantage doing it that way as opposed to just letting them set in water?

you store them 6-8 weeks in the fridge to break down the waxy coat on the seeds that prevents early germination on a warm fall day. I have never used water but i can imaging it taking up much more space. I just put a few sandwich sized bags stacked up under the crisper.


Party cups of random seed grown plants have been a big seller locally. This plant is from that pot of seedlings.

andynorth wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2023 5:43 am So when using paper towel to strat, do you wait until they start sprouting or will they not sprout when cold? How long do you let them strat and is there an advantage doing it that way as opposed to just letting them set in water?

The stratification is a process in itself, Andy. It is an attempt to mimick the natural "winter" conditions of the plants' native weather. As optique said, to break down the waxy coating of the seed so that moisture can get to the germ. Once the seeds have been stratifying a couple of months (longer in nature, I would think) and are subjected to warm temperatures the magic of life starts stirring within the seed.

You've probably already read, but some people do a "winter sowing" where they go ahead and plant the seeds in a pot, bag it, and stick it in the refrigerator. Or, the most natural way...stick the pots outside in the cold temperatures. My understanding is that freezing will halt/delay the stratification process, but doesn't hurt anything other than negating the time that the seeds are frozen from the total stratification time. The down sides of doing a winter sowing in the pot in the refrigerator is that you have more chance of mold/mildew due to the growing medium and also takes up a good bit of room. If you have a cold enough winter with fairly consistent cold weather in the lower 40's/upper 30's (doesn't have to be freezing) then setting the pots outside would work.

The paper towel method inside the refrigerator is good in that it is a *very* compact method, mold is usually held to a minimum, and the cold temperature and moistness is consistent. When it's time to plant I take a wooden toothpick, cut one tip off at a slant to create a "half wedge/scoop" (one quick slice does it, watch your fingers! ), dampen the tip against the old wet paper towel and go to moving seeds from it to the pot. The seeds usually will stick to the wood and are easy to "brush off" onto the surface of the grow mix. Of course, I'm "OCD-Me" and I have to try and space things out a bit...going to more trouble than I need to!

Not all sarracenia seeds are created equal. From several places that I've read it seems that some seeds require 6-8 weeks germination while other do better with just 3-4 weeks. Look at the weather and climates of the plants' natural ranges. Plants coming from the southern coastal plain will not require as long of a stratification than more northern cousins. Leucos are even mentioned to have lower germination rates if the stratification time is longer than three or four weeks. In my location in south Alabama we rarely have a week where temperatures are consistently below 45F...we may have the rare times where it does, but usually you will see a day or two in the 50's or higher within a week of freezing temperatures. Now, whether the ground warms up that much is debatable. But, the plants down here don't expect a long, consistent strat period. In the north part of the country the favorable stratification temperatures last far longer...and the plants native to that area are accustomed to and expect the longer strat time. Anyhow, that's about as confusing an explanation that I can give for that.

Anyhow, we have two granddaughters that spent the night with us and somehow "Sandy" the Elf on the Shelf managed to show up this morning, in her Ninja way...and that's what matters!!!

Intheswamp wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2023 4:00 pm

andynorth wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2023 5:43 am Anyhow, we have two granddaughters that spent the night with us and somehow "Sandy" the Elf on the Shelf managed to show up this morning, in her Ninja way...and that's what matters!!!

I have my 3 year old granddaughter here with me. Early riser she is. She will be 4 in Feb. Also have 2 others that my son and his fiancé take care of due to drug addicted mom and imprisoned dad. They are 6 and almost 8. We usually have them also but they are with their maternal grandma this weekend. And yes, that is exactly what matters.

Mine are all beginning to get a bit "long in the teeth". 8/13/16....don't blink or they'll be graduating school, starting work, getting married, and bringing you great-grand younguns to keep you company!!! Blink...that's all ya gotta do! I'm so happy to hear that your son and his fiance stepped up for the six and eight year olds!!! Much respect!!!