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Mushouse
Mycomancer
Registered: 06/26/06
Posts: 500
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Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes
#10420475 - 05/29/09 03:23 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Adding coloring agents to agar to identify contaminants:
Food coloring?
What color works best for what?
What color will make common contaminants stand out the best?
Discuss
edit: (clarified thread subject)
Edited by Mushouse (05/29/09 04:44 PM)
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worowa
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: Mushouse]
#10420568 - 05/29/09 03:37 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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I use cocoa or coffee for a dark agar, I have heard of people using charcoal. I've just made some old vitamin powder agar, and it's yellow-like the colour of piss after a vitamin B supplement.
-------------------- We are all in this together. Visit my site, forestfungi.com.au, let me know what you think.
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Mushouse
Mycomancer
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Posts: 500
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: worowa]
#10420629 - 05/29/09 03:53 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
worowa said: I use cocoa or coffee for a dark agar, I have heard of people using charcoal. I've just made some old vitamin powder agar, and it's yellow-like the colour of piss after a vitamin B supplement.
And how do these colorings improve your ability to spot contaminants? Do any contaminants become less visible?
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fastfred
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: Mushouse]
#10421332 - 05/29/09 06:15 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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I don't think coloring is going to help much in IDing contams. Experience is the best way to ID contams.
They do make some agar types which have certain chemicals that can specifically identify even closely related bacteria and fungi based on metabolic differences. However I don't think those are designed for normal contam identification, and I bet they are pretty expensive.
-FF
-------------------- It drinks the alcohol and abstains from the weed or else it gets the hose again. -Chemy The difference between the substances doesn't matter. This is a war on consciousness, on our right to the very essence of what we are. With no control over that, we have no need to speak of freedom or a free society. -fireseed "If we are going to have a war on marijuana, the least we can do is pull the sick and the dying off the battlefield." -Neal Levine (MPP) I find the whole "my drug should be legal but yours should be illegal" mindset disgusting and hypocritical. It's what George Bush and company do when they drink a cocktail and debate the best way to imprison marijuana users. -Diploid
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Brennus
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: fastfred]
#10424339 - 05/30/09 09:29 AM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Noobieshroomie would put food coloring in his agar to make identifying the species type he was working with easier, I think. Otherwise, as stated above, you'll just need to learn how to spot contaminants with experience.
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Cyber
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: Brennus]
#10424905 - 05/30/09 11:52 AM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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I color agar so I can easily spot what agar it is.
MEA == Green PDA == Red DA == Blue
I can know at a glance what type of agar it is and I don't have to makes notes on the petri as to which agar I used.
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P.Menace
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: Cyber]
#10427277 - 05/30/09 09:46 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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then after it grows out a little the mycellium will digest and discolor or decolor the agar... ill get some pics up of that later
-------------------- http://www.sporeworksgallery.com/Cubensae/Psilocybe_cubensis_Menace roby000 said: thats true a shotgun is almost like a college degree in a sense that if you show it to the right person at the right time you could make a lot of money.
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Cyber
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: P.Menace]
#10428686 - 05/31/09 08:20 AM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Yes, but it takes a while on agar for it to get to that point. If I am going to keep it that long I put it on a slant and it never strips more than 2cm of color from the slant. Everything else is transfered or used before it reaches the point of the color being removed.
On a side note, although the mycilia looks like it is only on the surface of the agar it seems to be accessing the full depth of the agar dish when removing the color. This would seem to indicate that the mycilia is penetrating the agar and pulling nutrients from the full agar plate.
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P.Menace
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Re: Coloring agar foe identification purposes [Re: Cyber]
#10431381 - 05/31/09 06:25 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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indeed it would be
-------------------- http://www.sporeworksgallery.com/Cubensae/Psilocybe_cubensis_Menace roby000 said: thats true a shotgun is almost like a college degree in a sense that if you show it to the right person at the right time you could make a lot of money.
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Morelman
LC Master
Registered: 05/17/06
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes *DELETED* [Re: Mushouse]
#10437565 - 06/01/09 08:14 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Post deleted by MorelmanReason for deletion: Never again...
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Mushouse
Mycomancer
Registered: 06/26/06
Posts: 500
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes [Re: Morelman]
#10437870 - 06/01/09 09:07 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Morelman said: I've used coffee instead of water with MEA and to a lesser extent, DFA. The dark agar makes it extremely easy to spot satellite colonies very early. It is my preferred method.
And does the coffee have any nutritional or detrimental effects on contaminants? Or for the mushroom mycelium?
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Morelman
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes *DELETED* [Re: Mushouse]
#10437949 - 06/01/09 09:18 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Post deleted by MorelmanReason for deletion: Never again...
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Mushouse
Mycomancer
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Posts: 500
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes [Re: Morelman]
#10441454 - 06/02/09 01:45 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Morelman said:
Quote:
Mushouse said:
Quote:
Morelman said: I've used coffee instead of water with MEA and to a lesser extent, DFA. The dark agar makes it extremely easy to spot satellite colonies very early. It is my preferred method.
And does the coffee have any nutritional or detrimental effects on contaminants? Or for the mushroom mycelium?
I'm sure the Ph of the agar is affected as coffee is acidic. I never had any probs with bacteria or maybe I was just lucky. The mycelium loves it, but it's not anymore resistant or condusive to competitor molds IME.
And you're talking about straight coffee here? Not diluted or second-brewed?
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Morelman
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes *DELETED* [Re: Mushouse]
#10442726 - 06/02/09 04:55 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Post deleted by MorelmanReason for deletion: Never again...
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P.Menace
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes [Re: Morelman]
#10463347 - 06/06/09 09:19 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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was green about 9 days ago...
-------------------- http://www.sporeworksgallery.com/Cubensae/Psilocybe_cubensis_Menace roby000 said: thats true a shotgun is almost like a college degree in a sense that if you show it to the right person at the right time you could make a lot of money.
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Mushouse
Mycomancer
Registered: 06/26/06
Posts: 500
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes [Re: P.Menace]
#10471287 - 06/08/09 02:10 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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The mycelium broke down the dye, and didn't absorb the color into itself. Very interesting.
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P.Menace
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes [Re: Mushouse]
#10495954 - 06/12/09 07:47 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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because mycelium actually digests its food like people do
-------------------- http://www.sporeworksgallery.com/Cubensae/Psilocybe_cubensis_Menace roby000 said: thats true a shotgun is almost like a college degree in a sense that if you show it to the right person at the right time you could make a lot of money.
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Mushouse
Mycomancer
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Posts: 500
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Re: Coloring agar for contamination identification purposes [Re: P.Menace]
#10496003 - 06/12/09 07:56 PM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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Shows how thorough the fungi digestive system is. I supposed that it would have absorbed the dye along with the water of the food coloring.
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