What to do if mold on seeds in cold treatment

I have several zip lock bags of various Japanese Maple tree seeds. A few of them have a white stringy mold on them. What should I do? After cold treatment for several months, I hate to just throw them away.

Ouch that doesn't sound good. Are you sure they haven't rotted? Can you gently scrape the mold off? Definitely separate them from the unmoldy seeds right away to hopefully prevent it from spreading.

Don't know about viability at this point, but you might at least try to save them with a quicky 10% bleach solution wash to kill surface varmints. Usually we do this prior to storage or stratification, but it may work post stratification if the seed coat is not too compromised. Use careful measurements, 1 part bleach in 9 parts water. You only need a small amount of solution. I used to do it in an erlenmeyer flask in the lab, but any glass container will probably work fine. Drop the questionable seeds in the flask and swirl gently for 1 minute and only 1 minute. (Have some sterile, ROOM TEMP water ready to go before you start anything- boil it and leave it in the kettle to cool to RT.) At 60 seconds of swirling in bleach solution, gently drain out the solution while retaining the seeds in the flask. Rinse the seeds and flask several times with sterile water to remove all traces of chlorine (use as much water as possible per rinse). Air dry on clean cloth or paper towel OR plant immediately. This method works well for surface contaminants. However, sometimes if the seed coat is compromised, either mechanically (ie chipped coat) or by intruding hyphae etc. you may not be able to save the seed. Best of luck. Stacey

Thanks for the suggestion Stacey. Is this something you do to all seeds before you store them or just for certain types of seed?

Bill, before ya tear them all apart, take a coupel of them out of the fridge and put them out in a warm sunny plac e and see if the mold yoru seeign disappears.

At lot of times and especialyl with bulbs, this mold forms on the tops of the pots. It superficial and wil disappear afetr a coupel of days in the warmth and sunshine.

if it doesn't afetr giving them warmth, them ya have a problem and would follow Stacey's advice.

Bill, I do this with most seeds. It only takes a couple of minutes (after you've boiled the water and cooled to room temp) and I find that in the long run it saves me time and money instead of having to go back and do it later when I discover a problem. Also, if you leave seeds stored for any period of time and they do have something on them, it will make its way inside the seed coat eventually and then it is too late. Picked up this trick when I did plant tissue culture in academia and at USDA where everything must be absolutely sterile in the hoods. FYI there is a seed saving forum here at Dave's - I have never visited it (maybe I should) but I'll bet they've got their methods over there. You might check it out and see what others do to treat their seeds prior to storage or sowing. Stacey

Thanks Stacey! You have most helpful.