Your observations should be followed by some experiments, like determining
just how much water the acorns need, or if they germinate in sterilized
water after the acorns themselves have been sterilized with dilute bleach
(hypochlorite). I did a test with tomatoes once to try and make them
resistant to mould. The supermarket tomatoes are never ripe enough, but
when they are left on a shelf to self-ripen the mood tends to get them
first. I remember I rinsed them in detergent, quaternary detergent, and 70%
ethanol. This improved the shelf life, though not much possibly because the
mould spores are always present in the air and I assumed the ones on the
tomato surface were the culprits. I might try having some tomatoes gamma
rayed after first sealing them in a porous paper bag. This should keep out
floating mould spores while letting in the air to allow self ripening.
(Keeping the tomatoes in the fridge slows down the ripening.)


"George" wrote in message
om...
Iris said "Acorns are not designed to germinate in water. The acorn
has died and is moldy."
I understood that to mean that the acorn died because of being
submerged in the water, then mold spores were attracted to the site in
order to do their thing.

If the acorn died by being submerged in the water, it doesn't appear
to be a symbiosis. Unless the mold appeared before the acorn died, and
there was a short symbiosis.

As I mentioned, acorns in the gutter (some of which must have been
under the sitting rain water) did not produce the gray mold. All I
remember seeing is black or dark brown - decaying stuff.

Is it possible that bacteria in the decaying stuff prevented or ate
the mold? My indoors experiment (with just tap water) may not have had
that bacteria.

George

"Peter Jason" wrote in message
...
If I may butt in George; everything has something living on it,
sometimes in
a symbiotic relationship. Maybe the acorns get something from the mold.

"George" wrote in message
om...
Iris,

When the gutters become full of acorns and other stuff, the downspouts
get clogged. Small trees start to grow in the gutters.
These evidently arise from acorns that sit on *good* material?

When I clean this junk out, I don't remember seeing any gray mold. I
would think some of these acorns were fully submerged in the water, as
in my experiment. Does the mold have predators?

George







(Iris Cohen) wrote in message
...
Do you know where the mold comes from and why it forms - does it
eat
the
acorn?

Mold spores are everywhere. They are in the air and land on
everything.
If you
look in a very damp spot on the wall and see black spots, those are
the
spore
containers of the fungus.
As you have seen, some fungi grow right in water. When the spores
land
on a
likely spot, they sprout and start growing. The fuzzy hairs that you
see
are
called hyphae. That is the fungus's growing stage. You might say
that
the
fungus eats the acorn. It breaks down dead plant tissue (and other
substances,
like paint and fingernails). Actually, fungi are providing a very
important
service by doing this, when they do it in the right place. The ones
that
attack
live tissue are dangerous.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the
oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)