Mouldy Stars

[Leatherlips]

Just opened a tub of charcoal stars i had made a few weeks back and found some mould. I thought I dried them completely (a week) but I guess not. Maybe being very humid(FL) makes drying times longer? I thought using the silica would help too, but obviously not enough.

 

 

 

[Peret]

It's probably living on the tasty and nutritious dextrin, and the stars are clearly not properly dry.

 

A common fungicide is sulfur; if you don't have enough in the stars (and they're not chlorates), toss a teaspoonful of sulfur powder in the tub. The stars don't need to be coated with it as it will react with the moisture in the air and the fumes do the job. Another common fungicide is camphor, and rubbing the inside of the container with Vick's Vapor Rub may do it.

[Bobosan]

You can almost see the outline of the silica pack where it laid on the stars.

 

Nice tips, Peret. Thank you.

[Ubehage]

Your stars might have been too big.

If you use Dextrin as a binder, there is a limit on the size. Otherwise, the crust will harden and prevent moisture from escaping; and leaving the inside moist.

Over time, this moist from within might slowly dissolve the outer layers of Dextrin, and wet the whole deal once again.

[Mumbles]

I guarantee that he's nowhere near the practical limit of dextrin binding. I've successfully made 1" cube cut stars, and pressed comets 3.5" in diameter with dextrin with no problems. The real issue is the stars weren't dry yet and sealed up, not with the size.

[FlaMtnBkr]

Yep, had to be some water in them. With water, some food like dextrin or gum and fertilizer you can have a good environment to grow stuff. People have used grass seed to roll on and got nice little sprouts in similar conditions,

 

I've always let charcoal stars dry for weeks and still got the occasional moldy batch. I just about always bag up stars I think are dry and stick them in the sun for an hour or two to make sure there is no condensation. Sometimes I get a surprise and I guess it just depends on the star and ambient conditions since it is usually very humid here in Florida.

 

I don't know if driven in stars will show condensation but I'm not sure I've had driven in stars. I usually just give water bound stars long dry times as I'm usually not in a big hurry. Sometimes I use a fan if I'm wanting to speed things up. Especially use a fan with BP because drying time is one of the three important factors for hot BP.

 

Anyways, checking for condensation is an easy way to check that your stars are in fact dry.