Mold that consumes...........18 pics

Mold that consumes the seed, seed coat, and the seedling, from the cotyledon......

Next.............

next

one more

just another

# 14

#15

#14

#16.......... always use preview to post successive pictures!
Noshort cuts, the shortcuts get lost or edited off.......

next mold pic

and finally.....................

Before you ask, I took these pictures with an Intel Play qx3 toy computer microscope intended for children. At least all the additional graphics are grade school level.

Beyond that, iff you have successive photos to post , I would suggest that you preview each that you wish to post, because if you don't, and you just post next, many will not get posted, as you thought it might

If you try to save time by bypassing the preview, uh uh, don't, , it probably will not even get posted. I started out with 18 pix, all much the same, and couldn;t....... Frank

Interesting, I wonder if this mold has a beneficial aspect in breaking down the seedcoat....

I agree, with the breaking down the seed coat. I wonder what chemical in the seed coat is the magnet. It consumes something in the seed coat with ferocity, but if the seed coat does the helmet thing, and causes an injury, then the fungus has an open injury, to enter the cotyledon. I used the Parks domes, with the little square sponges, with pre punched holes, for maple seeds. The white gray mold shot up out of the holes like flames, not traveling sideways. The whole seed was consumed. I put many hours into releasing those seeds from their shells. Every one was consumed by this mold. Not one survived.

Today I took some livestock Iodine and treated each sponge with a few drops of iodine. Iodine is a good fungicide. Frank

posting where I mentioned that beneficial fungi consume the soluble fiber in the seedcoat and sometimes produce natural antibiotics that help prevent the growth of competing organisms
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/677449/

peat contains humic acid which stimulates the growth of certain micro-organisms...although not all of the organisms stimulated by humic acid are beneficial...non-peated sphagnum moss does not contain humic acid...

No Damp Sphagnum - contains no dirt or peat -
http://www.mosserlee.com/products/nodampoff.html

SoilSyrup organic humic acid
http://www.megagro.com/soilsyrup.htm

GreenCure® is The Safest Fungicide on the Market!
http://www.megagro.com/greencure.htm

TTY,...

Ron

Thanks Ron. There certainly is a lot to study in a mg seed coat. For something that is currently dead tissue, it's life certainly is not over.
For something that is made of dead tissue, it certainly is a dynamic force in the future of the embryo. The seeds that I germinated with such high levels of mold as a result were purpureas and I.tricolors,
flying saucers. The I. tricolor seeds all seem to to be the same shape as a grape seed, unlike the other mgs.

I think also that the sanitation of our seed collecting practices may enhance the fungal contamination. My own purpureas had none of the mole! Those seeds I bought on internet, from good people with good names, sometimes gave me dismal results. Luckily for me, last fall, the killing frost of the 3rd week in Sept, came before the fall rains did.
All the several hundred seed I collected, were never subjected to wet moldy conditions. They were kept dry, and put into a sunny situation to complete the drying off, and they never molded. That is the only way I would consider doing it, but sometimes, other people aren't bothered by todays mold. The seed after all is in a nice waterproof case. Frank