I have been using a "Jim Reed" all year on my Fox 41 bassoon, and a Jim Reed is a reed made by a local person in a local symphony orchestra player. These were supplied by my high school, and up until about a month ago, I had gone through 3 reeds for the entire year. The school recently switched to Renard 1006 Reeds, and I have been unable to keep a reed going for longer then a day, and if left, after a few days, the reed starts to go mouldy, brown, and starts to smell and taste, quite literally, like garbage (It turns white and fuzzy). Why would this happen?

Two things:
1) Maybe you should start spending your own money and buying these Jim Reed reeds that work so well for you.

2) Do you rinse your reeds out after each use? Then put them in a place where air can get to them so that they dry out? Without this basic handling practice, your reeds will get mouldy and awful, but not, I think, wihin a day's time. Something else is going on here if these reeds do this but your "Jim Reed" reeds do not.

The school supplies the reeds, but I have to pay the school the cost of the reeds.