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Dionysus
Initiate
Registered: 06/10/03
Posts: 117
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 19 years, 9 months
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Stupid mistakes
#1635545 - 06/15/03 04:52 PM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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I am in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is both dry and cold here. In order to keep my cultures at a constant relatively high temperature (bout 83F) I have them in an aquarium. I use a 60watt bulb 24/7 for heat. I cover the aquarium with blankets to keep the heat inside. Could it be that because of the direct light I am drying out my substrate and killing the mycelium? That might explain how the cultures seem to stop growing after certain points. I had the cultures totally sealed off so I thought they wouldn't dry out. However, I can now see that the old substrate in the petri dishes have become very flaky and have started to peel back. What I should be doing is moving the entire aquarium to a place that has an ambient temperature of between 75F - 85F right? What kind of advice can you give me concerning this, I need help with this.
-------------------- "To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves."
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micro
bunbun has a gungun
Registered: 05/09/03
Posts: 7,532
Loc: Brick City
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Re: Stupid mistakes [Re: Dionysus]
#1635583 - 06/15/03 05:08 PM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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Yes; certainly sounds like they might be drying out and this can cause the petries to stall. You can incubate them at room temp; it just takes a bit longer, and thus a bit more chance for contamination, but better than drying them all out. I've put them back into the original sleeve + put into a box at room temp with good results Or you could humidify the terrarium.
You also said you had them completely sealed off; if you mean the edges of the petries with tape/parafilm, etc., you should not be doing this until you store them in the fridge. The lack of gas exchange can cause them to stall, too.
There are other factors, too, like oversterilizing the media, but the above seem most likely to me.
-- Micro
-------------------- Any research paper or book for free (Avatar is Maxxy, a character by Mizzyam, RIP)
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cyndyl
mycologist wannabe
Registered: 05/26/03
Posts: 193
Loc: far away from home
Last seen: 13 years, 1 month
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Re: Stupid mistakes [Re: micro]
#1635613 - 06/15/03 05:24 PM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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Check out this link. It's a page from a site that Anno posted. It has an inncubator that doesn't use light. Maybe it would help... It uses a submersible aqarium heater with double rubbermaid type bins. It appeals to me since it doesn't over humidify like the poor man's inncubator. http://www.fungifun.org/pf/incubator.htm
-------------------- There's no such thing as a stupid question, but they're the easiest to answer!
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Ahab McBathsalts
OTD Windmill Administrator
Registered: 11/25/02
Posts: 35,160
Loc: Wind Turbine, AB
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Re: Stupid mistakes [Re: cyndyl]
#1635765 - 06/15/03 08:00 PM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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i made my heater using same principal as the link, but my fish tank heater wasn't fully submergable, so i got a 1.9L gatorade bottle and cut a hole in the lid and stuck it in there with water. It works well, but i've only been testing it for 2 days so it might still leak, i'm not sure
-------------------- "Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody's going to die."
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MrSleep
P. Cubensis
Registered: 04/05/03
Posts: 804
Last seen: 19 years, 5 months
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Right here I'm using a styrofoam container with a tall Hard Rock Cafe glass cup with a standard non-submersible heater in it. Doing fairly well, not to humid keeps around 80. Only problems I seem to have is somehow temps change everyonce and a while according to outside temps. And I'm constantly paranoid about a fire. Hate to have the fire dept. come and put out a bunch of jars of maza cultures and flaming styrofoam. :-/ I've tried so many fucking different incubation methods, none of them seem to cooperate with me though, this one might come through. -Mr.Sleep
Edited by MrSleep (06/15/03 08:47 PM)
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oO_wombat_Oo
Stranger
Registered: 06/04/01
Posts: 812
Loc: NSW, Australia.
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: Stupid mistakes [Re: Dionysus]
#1635898 - 06/15/03 08:53 PM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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I?ll tell you what I do, works great. Fill a rubbermaid container with about an inch of water with a heavy dose of peroxide. Stick an aquarium heater in there and presto! Instant warmth and humidity.
I use it as an incubation chamber and a growth chamber. It?s a pretty lazy setup, and I?m sure it would have the hardcore mushroom maniacs baulking at it?s simplicity and contamination risk, but it works just fine for me.
When incubating, I let the jars sit directly in the water, but when birthing I prop them up on a sterilized, plastic container to keep them from getting wet.
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