If mold grows on wet things, than why doesn't it grow on paper?

Question

I mean, if you get bread wet, mold will grow on it right? But when you get paper wet, it doesn't grow mold but it just dries. Why is that? And please, I would like answers that make sense to me. Something that is easy to understand. Thanks!

Answer 1

Because the sheet of paper dries out before the mold spores establish themselves. Take a whole notebook some time. Soak it in water with the cover open. Keep it moist. You'll get your mold.

Answer 2

I don't think it's a matter of things getting wet. Bread usually grows mold when it's dry.

Paper doesn't get moldy because it doesn't have that type of bacteria.

Dairy products get moldy really quickly because they have live active cultures. Paper is too processed.

Answer 3

Molds grow on moist foods containing carbon but not all carbon bearing materials are the same so different molds grow on different food sources.  Bread is already moist and made up of carbohydrates, lipids, and protein all readily digested substances that will support a wide range of molds such as fungi of the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Rhizopus.

Paper is cellulose and, usually, dry. If it becomes wet for a periods of time it will grow mold. Cardboard, ceiling tiles, wood are all good food substates for molds. Brown rot fungi, Postia placenta, digests cellulose while white rot fungi, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, degrades lignin. Another fungus that will grow on cellulose is Stachybotrys chartarum.

Libraries in places with high humidity or damp problems have procedures for dealing with mold out breaks on their book collections.

http://www.ncpreservation.org/removemold...

http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/s...

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/ma...

http://preserve.harvard.edu/guidelines/m...

http://aic.stanford.edu/library/online/b...

Answer 4

it'll grow mold. Let it stay damp long enough and fuzzy nasty mold you'll get.

Answer 5

If the paper picks up the right kind of mold spores, it will rot.

Cellulose, (paper),  is harder to break down then

starch, (bread), so the breakdown is faster, but if paper

stays moist long enough, it will rot.