Moldy beginnings

It's seed-starting time! You know what that means, boys and girls? There's bound to be some sort of delightful surprise waiting to greet me.

The story begins when I decided to use 3 25-cell seed starting kits from Burpee. They are little plantable pots made from bamboo that are filled with coir (shredded coconut hulls). According to the instructions, you expand the coir with warm water, plant your seeds, cover with the "germination sheet", and the little puppies will grow into happy food for my belly.

I decided to plant five cells of each seed just in case anyone wasn't feeling like growing for me - and in an ideal situation that would give me 15 different varieties of vegetables and herbs ready for the garden in a few weeks. Broccoli, 5 types of large and small tomatoes, sweet peppers, spicy peppers, lemon balm, basil, sage, and peppermint all went in.

Every little hole I made (with a pen tip) and every little seed I tapped in place made me feel a  tingle of joy. Food! I'm growing it!!! 

They got covered in their germination sheet and placed in the spare bedroom to be kept warm and away from our freaky is-it-spring-is-it-winter weather for a few more weeks.

Germinating happily (or so I thought)

A week later, I have two things to report:

1. I have broccoli sprouting through the surface! I feel like a proud momma...little green sprouts popping up to say "hello".

2. The Burpee pots are all covered in a fine mold. Oh yes...I'm growing things alright.

Here's the broccoli:

Here's the mold:

Naturally concerned, I did some online searches and the consensus seems to be a lack of air circulation since they're locked in a room with zero air flow. 

Recommendations include:

• Allowing the pots to dry out every few days (they've remained damp from that first watering for over a week...so I can see how my little science experiment began)
• Increasing air circulation (window is open even though it's snowing and the ceiling fan is turned on high)
• Drying out the mold using a hair dryer on the coolest setting (feeling a little ridiculous, I hair dried my seed kits for about 15 minutes. Is that enough? Too much? Who knows?)
• Keep them warm from the bottom (two of the three are now sharing a heating pad while sitting in the open window)

My goal is to eliminate as much of the mold as possible while maintaining optimal growing conditions to see if I can get any of the other seeds to poke their little heads up through the dirt.

When I saw the broccoli, I felt an immense sense of pride. Now I'm worried, but still hopeful. 

I'm tempted to talk to the seeds and encourage their little journey upward. Go towards the light, Cherokee Tomato, go into the light!!!