i hate mold. it's been my experience that once mold takes a hold on a cutting, it's rather hard to get rid of unless you use some chemical. i promised a cutting to a member and i'm embarrased to send him the cutting i have since it has mold on it.

i scrubbed with anti-bacterial soap, soaked it in 10% bleach solution, didn't dry and wrap in wet paper towel. that should have done the trick, but only a day after it's back.

yes. i heard s-moss is good for it. and i do have it. but i have seen pictures of cuttings with mold even when s-moss was used. not sure how good s-moss will be if that's the case. i know there is specific chemical to kill the mold and keep it away. but i really don't want to use any chemical on my cuttings. i know bleach is chemical, but at low level it's safe to eat. i sanitize all my beer equipment in bleach solution.

in the past, only handful of cuttings i lost are due to mold. i did the same thing. bleach solution, then cutting off the portion that has mold. then clean it with clorox wipe.. and some of the cuttings were still getting mold. usually end up throwing it away. i even try to clean them again and put in new bag with new paper towel...

only true solution i know of is putting the cutting out to dry in well circulated area with sun. that usually stops the mold rather quickly. but the cuttings are in bag getting rooted.

what to do? what to do? i don't want to lose these cuttings, and i want to send clean cutting to the othe rmember?

I wish I had an answer. I've tried the common remedies such as a bleach solution, but no help. I lost a whole batch of cuttings to mold recently.

barry,

i guess the trick is getting it to root quick and put it in open air. since i can't get rid of mold, best i can do is control it.

one strange thing i noticed is.. the mold doesn't spread over to next cutting. from what i have seen, it's one or two cuttings that will get the mold and not go away. i would think they will spread to all the cuttings in bag or a bin.

Have you tried Physan?  I used it a few times and it seemed to halt the mold after a few sprayings.  I had the same problem the first time I rooted cuttings. It attacked everything until I used it.

dominick,

i heard about plysan for last few years. gave it a thought. how safe is it? typically i don't clean my cuttings when sending to other members, so never really thought about this before. but i started rooting then agree to send just one cutting. i'm thinking my prep surface or something in the air. then again, i did wipe the counter with bleach solution. i left them to dry on the counter near kitchen. maybe it's from all the food stuff in the kitchen. not sure.

last spring, as soon as i saw mold coming, i just stuck the cuttings in the cup and left them outside. that get rid of them. but it's getting rather cold to do that now.

just ordered physan 20. will see how it goes.

Here's my story on cuttings:

2 years ago I put cuttings in a Ziploc wrapped with a damp towel. Mold was everywhere on most. This was after cleaning with anti bacterial soap and bleach solution. It just never went away by rooting and had to use the physan. It worked on most but not all after they took in bins.

After that I never washed again with ANYTHING. Just wrapped them in Saranwrap. No paper towel-no source of moisture.  Started using New Zealand Sphagnum moss as well.  I have really not seen mold again. Here or there but none to kill a cutting.

As far as storage, I just wrap them tight in Saran wrap and put in fridge.

Pete,

Instead of stressing yourself, why not explain to your friend of the problem?
I'm sure he or she will understand.

Once you get this out of the way the rest will all fall into place. If not with this cutting then maybe with another at a later time.

I know you mean good, but there's no reason to get stressed over it bro.

Good luck

I hadn't heard of Physan, so I googled it.  Interesting product.  I'll have to pick some up for emergencies!

Suzi

rafed, well.. i promised and i'll send it to the member. but want to make sure it won't die when it gets there. not really stressing. just want to provide something that will work out. one thing i should have done is not start rooting on the cuttings i'm sending :)

Pete,

Like I said it earlier on the thread: I know you mean good.
I think all will be fine at the end.

Here's what works for me:

Use an old toothbrush with AB soap and scrub entire cutting.  Use colored newspaper.  Soak with water, then squeeze hard, so there's no water dripping from it.  Wrap the cutting, only exposing the bottom where the roots will sprout.  Place in ziplock bag and blow air to make a balloon shape.  Air out every couple days for a few minutes.  Room temp is 65-70 deg. F which I think is probably the most important part of this process.  Most root within 7-20 days.

Heard the ink in newspaper helps to retard the growth of mold.

Use Physan/water mixture instead of bleach/water mixture. Wash the cuttings, rinse in the physan mixture, air dry. Mix up a gallon of it then wet your s-moss with the left over. Squeeze s-moss to damp.

it's not all the cuttings. my typical prep is using tooth brush (new one, not old used one) to brush the cutting with anti-bacterial soap. rinse. soak in bleach solution (10% or little stronger) for 30-60 sec. wrap it in kleenex paper towel (they are more or less stuck to each other so less chance of things growing inbetween the sheet while in storage). put them into freezer bag (new bag each time). make sure there are plenty of air inside of the bag by "pumping" the bag, not with my mouth and not with any tool that might carry any pathogens. of course, i wash my hand with anti-bacterial soap before doing this. i was microbio major in grad school. i know it's not perfect, but close to aseptic as i can get at home.

not all the cuttings are getting mold. and fresher cuttings have better chance of not getting mold. however i have very fresh cuttings from two members and they are both getting mold. so it has to be something i'm doing. i just can't figure out what. i know my house is really dry, and i always wipe all the counter tops and what not around where i prep the cuttings. so it must be some air borne things landing on the cuttings while being prep'ed. but that should have been taken care of during the bleach solution bath. last time when i went to redo the clean up, i didn't even dry the bleach solution. so the inside of the bag is nice and toxic to whatever trying to take hold.

i did order physan 20.. but not too sure about using it. not sure how toxic that is and not sure how long they will stay in the plant tissue if it does get in.