mold on pine

[Dan_Shade]

yikes, i milled up a few pine logs the other day, stacked it up, and not it's got mold all over it.  used 3/4" poplar stickers, we did stack it close to a wall, but i figured it would be OK.  some of it is covered in mold.  it's no big deal, it's just going to be used for shelves in a friend's garage, but it still stinks, had some really pretty clear pine, and now it's moldy.

do you all normally set fans up to stickered piles of pine?  spray it with borax?  or just stack it up no where near a wall?

[Kevin]

This should get you into some kind of trouble ...

http://www.southernpine.com/mold2.shtml#removal

http://www.southernpine.com/pdf/MOLDsheet0903_907.pdf

[Dan_Shade]

hmm, well, we were gonna plane it off, does that count!

i'm trying to figure out how to get enough water out in the first place to avoid the mold for the rest of my pile

[Ianab]

As you guessed it's poor airflow thats the problem.
Dont worry about air drying pine too fast, I dont think it's possible.
Moving to a breezy open place or running some fans thru the stack will help.
The mould will die off once the wood gets dryer but you may have bluestain fungus growing there too.

Bottom line - Dry it faster  ;D

Ian

[Dan_Shade]

yeah, it's for back wall shelves in a garage, he's not too bothered about the stain, I should have known better, but we stacked it up in there anyway

[Don_Lewis]

White mold on Eastern White Pine grows ideally between 60F and 100F. Good air flow and avoiding those temperatures is the only solution besides getting the lumber in a kiln that can get over 100F(higher as you go South from the Canadian border). You should broom it off (with a face mask) or it will keep growing, plug up the air space between the stickers and be a worse problem. This is why, in the old days, Pine was only cut in cold weather. If you don't have a kiln, that is still the best practice.

[SwampDonkey]

I had a little mold come on my white pine for the same reasons. It's not a deep stain in my pile and is easily planed off. I've seen alot worse though.

[Sawyerfortyish]

I learned the moldy way how not to dry pine. Now I cut it and sticker it before the end of april. Stack it outside where the wind blows good and put some tin over the piles. Otherwise when it gets humid out no matter what you try it will mold.

[Dan_Shade]

arghhh

man, this stinks, i probably have about a 1000 bf of pine I need to saw up!  i doubt it will wait until winter.

i guess I'll get some barn fans to set in front of the pile to attempt to fight it off

[Sawyerfortyish]

Your farther south than I am good luck your gonna need it

[SwampDonkey]

Yip

My poor grand father yarded severel pine logs one winter off his lot, which was only accessible in winter on river ice, to be used to build mother's cupboards. Well them logs sat around half the summer before getting sawed and they turned nice and green. Ended up burnin in a bomb fire.  :-\