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New England

I recently received some seeds with what looks like a surface mold on a few of them (light brownish-black splotches.)Can these be cleaned with a dilute bleach & water solution and still be OK to plant? If they do germinate, is there still a chance they might harbor a nasty mold or disease that could contaminate the patch?

12/7/2004 12:46:20 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Good question. Usually once they're dry we want to keep them that way. Peroxide or 5% Bleach would do it. But then you need to dry them again.

You might also dust them in Captan.

But I'd probably just freeze them. They won't get any worse.

Then use Peroxide in the pre-germination soak, then dust the Captan after the radical pops out as planting.

12/7/2004 3:17:22 PM

New England

Cool, sounds like a plan.

12/7/2004 3:23:37 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

That's pretty common. No matter what I do, or how well I do it, I always have a few like that, or alot. Like Steve said, just peroxide and then dust after germination and all should be well.

12/7/2004 8:03:40 PM

New England

Thank you

12/8/2004 7:51:36 AM

Wichita, KS

Wish I knew that before I threw out all the moldy ones... about half the seeds from my kid's pumpkin. Dang!

12/10/2004 4:09:59 AM