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 Fred Teddy
Flying with Turkeys
Registered: 07/18/11
Posts: 55
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 A different lc mini method 
#15804711 - 02/13/12 05:55 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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Since my abode is way too dry in the winter ( coalstove = 20% RH ), making my myco hobby useless for growing anything, I like to mess around with stuff to pass the time. I have 100 - 1 dram ( 4ml ) vials I picked up at a sale on the cheap and have been trying to find a use for them ever since. As an experiment, I've come up with this ...
I made up an LC - 1/2 teaspoon Karo / 1/2 teaspoon Extra Light Malt Extract to 100 ml water, nuked it slightly to dissolve the sugars, and syringed 3 ml Liquid Culture into each vial. Slightly loosened the caps, and then into the Pressure Cooker for an hr. When cooled, I flecked some spores from an old print I found into each one ( did it free air just on the counter, only flamed the tool once at the beginning ) and waited 3 or 4 days. Out of 20 vials I only had 3 turn cloudy, the rest showed explosive growth and the Liquid Culture remained clear as a bell.
When it gets to be springtime, I figure I'll just do a quick dump in a Glove Box onto some Wild Bird Seed or other grain and see if that works out for me. It may be easier than f'ing around with syringes, this and thats, and the such. I just dont see the need for all the steps involved, every one of them a chance to introduce contams, and chance ruining a large amount of Liquid Culture every time you go into it. As we all know that will ruin your day in a hurry. So, why not break it up into individuals right from the start? The only worry is at the dump, but that is just like a Grain to Grain so I dont see a big deal.
Judging by the speed of the growth I think I can reduce the Karo and/or Extra Light Malt Extract a bit. I may even only need 2ml in the vials instead of 3. Another thing I noticed was the vials with tightly closed caps, the myc seemed to be at the surface, while the slightly cracked caps the myc settled to the bottom or remained in the middle. Huh. Anyone got an explaination for that?
I've duplicated this 3 times. Seems to work. I need outside verification, so if anyone is bored to shit and wants to try to duplicate this please Private Message me or let me know somehow. Thanks.
Be good to each other. - FT
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... its all about fun and games ... and no one has poked their eye out ... yet.
Peace.
Disclaimer: Fact is ... Its all fiction.
Edited by Fred Teddy (02/16/12 04:51 PM)
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!
Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 152,751
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck 
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Re: A different lc mini method (moved) [Re: Fred Teddy]
#15814166 - 02/15/12 03:01 PM (3 months, 12 days ago) |
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 This thread was moved from Advanced Mycology.
Reason:
wrong forum
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Kizzle
Misanthrope
Registered: 08/30/11
Posts: 1,948
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Re: A different lc mini method (moved) [Re: Prisoner#1]
#15814612 - 02/15/12 04:35 PM (3 months, 12 days ago) |
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Why can't you grow in the winter? There are plenty of way to create a humid environment.
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Fred Teddy
Flying with Turkeys
Registered: 07/18/11
Posts: 55
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Re: A different lc mini method (moved) [Re: Kizzle]
#15818483 - 02/16/12 11:28 AM (3 months, 11 days ago) |
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As previously said, I burn the big bad evil coal for heat. (anthracite = clean(er) coal) I would rather send my money to an American that needs a job to support his family, rather than overseas to the sultans. Burning wood or coal brings the RH down to 20 - 30%, even with a pot of water on the stove. That dries out the humidity chamber practically overnight. I also dont have any other source of heat, so the temperature swings are from 45 to 90 in this place because I'm not home all the time. It can go well below 0degF outside this time of year. I know I can fight the interior environment, but just not worth the effort with all the other battles I'm in.
I'm all about easy, The more steps you put in, the more chances for failure imo. I've been doing small lc vials over the last couple of weeks every other night to try to get a number on it. I'm running about 75% success with them. I dont think there is such a thing as a 100% clean print without a million dollar lab. If you fleck part of that print that does not belong into one large lc, the lc is junk 100% of the time. You divide that by 25, you are almost guaranteed that some of them will be OK. It also removes the inoc syringe, fancy lids, etc, from the picture because it is just a simple dump onto the grain. I do have to say I have not tried it on the grain all that much. Once on some WBS (success), and I found some left over popcorn that I PC'd up last night. 4 - 1/2 pts and I dumped it this AM. We'll see. Up to that point anyway this seems to be working well enough to throw it out there to the forum.
Be Good - FT
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... its all about fun and games ... and no one has poked their eye out ... yet.
Peace.
Disclaimer: Fact is ... Its all fiction.
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 crimsondrac
Stranger
Registered: 12/09/11
Posts: 490
Last seen: 1 month, 25 days
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Re: A different lc mini method (moved) [Re: Fred Teddy]
#15818704 - 02/16/12 12:16 PM (3 months, 11 days ago) |
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I would think unless you are growing in the open air of your home, your home's RH should be a moot factor. My house gets pretty low on the humidity side during winter as well, but my substrates and tubs grow fine. You create a micro-climate inside those containers that is independant of your ambient climate. It is easy to keep the RH up in a tub or prevent too much moisture loss from your substrates while colonizing.
And while I do also appreciate the quick tips you provided, could I make one recomendation? Refrain from using only letters when describing something (LC, ELME, GC). While many may know what you are talking about, if you are handing out instructions, you have to realize some newbies may be reading and they may not know what ELME stands for. Try to spell it out the first time, then you can use the abbreviation. (i.e., ...grab the Liquid Culture (LC). )
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Fred Teddy
Flying with Turkeys
Registered: 07/18/11
Posts: 55
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Re: A different lc mini method (moved) [Re: crimsondrac]
#15819884 - 02/16/12 04:53 PM (3 months, 11 days ago) |
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Roger that Crimsondrac - edited original post per request.
Be Good - FT
--------------------
... its all about fun and games ... and no one has poked their eye out ... yet.
Peace.
Disclaimer: Fact is ... Its all fiction.
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Fred Teddy
Flying with Turkeys
Registered: 07/18/11
Posts: 55
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Re: UPDATE : A different mini lc method [Re: Fred Teddy]
#15874398 - 02/28/12 12:39 AM (2 months, 30 days ago) |
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I want to post an update to the "individual" LC approach. I have now done up 100 mini 1 dram LC's ( 3 ml per mini ) and the average contaminates are still running around 20% - 25%. Thats 75 out of 100 that turned out OK. If that was one large 300 ml LC, it would have all been junk. Thats what I'm trying to say here. Going small increases LC success.
I've thrown out so much good stuff that it would make lots of people here cry. It seems the orig recipe of 1/2 tsp Karo, 1/2 tsp ELME, to 100ml water seems to be the bomb for speed of development. Ready to dump in 3 - 4 days is common. I've had none that needed to go over 5 days before it was ready. This is a good way to guaranty some degree of success as far as LC goes. IMO 75% - 80% success is pretty darn acceptable.
Moving on with it, I have so far "dump-prepared" 20 - 1/4 pts of popcorn without a single contaminate. I think a lot has to do with the lower humidity, so all these experiments I will have to repeat in the humidity of summer to compare. I expect to find the contaminate ratio to increase.
I'll throw this out there too. I dont simmer my popcorn. GASP !!! I just soak it for 48 hrs, with multiple rinses in between. I use hot tap water to soak in, cold water to rinse. Then off to the PC. I've been doing it this way for 20 years. I read about the simmering thing and I understand the reason behind it, and it makes perfect sense to me, but I never done it and have had great success without it.
At times the water suddenly gets cloudy and bubbles rise to the top when knocked. Is this an endosporic reaction?, or, is the corn just starting to ferment?, or, is it all the same thing? I'd love to hear all of your ideas on that.
One downside though, I find it takes twice as long as bird seed to colonise. But, 20 for 20 is hard to argue with. I'll wait. I never had much luck with birdseed. It just escapes me for some reason. Some day I'll tell you how we did it 30 yrs ago, when 10% success was a reason to celebrate.
Be Good to each other, and it'll be a much better day -
FT
--------------------
... its all about fun and games ... and no one has poked their eye out ... yet.
Peace.
Disclaimer: Fact is ... Its all fiction.
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