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jdavis0092
Learning


Registered: 11/04/13
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Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like.
#19085696 - 11/04/13 02:34 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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This is my first time ever doing a liquid culture and I'm curious if these pictures look like they should. The reason I am curious is because after inoculating my popcorn jars, I could see signs of growth after one day. I've never had a jar colonize so fast. The jar in the picture is after 3 days of being in the incubator. Another thing that bothered me about the liquid culture is the way the mycelium grew on top of the of the liquid. Its like a cotton ball floating in the jar. I have read article after article and i have never heard anyone mention the mycelium growing on top of the liquid. Any advice would be amazing.
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Psilicon
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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: jdavis0092]
#19086320 - 11/04/13 05:08 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Because of the nature of LC, it's impossible to say for certain an LC is not contaminated. It's sometimes possible to tell that it is, but in this case I don't see any indication. Your popcorn jar is kind of hard to tell because of the size of the image, unfortunately.
As far as advice goes, don't use LC and don't use popcorn. I've done both and am very happy that I don't any longer.
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Kiya_Star427
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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: Psilicon]
#19086403 - 11/04/13 05:23 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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An LC looks like a cloud sitting on the bottom of the jar, and if you swirl it around it breaks apart. But your LC is floating... Strange it doesn't look contaminated...
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SpitballJedi
Ancient Astronaut



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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: Psilicon]
#19086414 - 11/04/13 05:25 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
van der griegen said: Because of the nature of LC, it's impossible to say for certain an LC is not contaminated. It's sometimes possible to tell that it is, but in this case I don't see any indication. Your popcorn jar is kind of hard to tell because of the size of the image, unfortunately.
As far as advice goes, don't use LC and don't use popcorn. I've done both and am very happy that I don't any longer.
-------------------- The Basics A little civility goes a long way The Noob Forum The Hammock Hangers' Forum
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jdavis0092
Learning


Registered: 11/04/13
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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: jdavis0092]
#19087531 - 11/04/13 09:35 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Thanks for the advise. I usually use WBS and inoculate the jars with a spore syringe. I just wanted to try something different this time and see how it worked. My very first grow I tried using mycobags that was not successful at all. Next I tried BRF tek which turned out great, but with very little yield for all the time and patience I put into it. A couple years ago I moved up to d-casing with the WBS and its worked great except getting the trays to flush right. This time I am going to try my first monotub. That's what the LC and the popcorn was for. I wanted to try and speed up the process. If the LC isn't contaminated and that's not some type of white mold that looks like mycelium in the jars, so far everything is going as planned. I've read alot about bulk growth and I think I am going to use 6 quarts of spawn and use vermiculite, coir, spent coffee grounds, and a little bit of lime to mix as a substrate. Any kind of advice on monotubs would be greatly appreciated because I want to get this right and not screw anything up. I have seen people use both clear and solid color tubs and I was wondering if it would be best to use a solid color tub with a clear top for light to get in. I have also read about people covering them with trash bags until the mycelium colonizes the substrate. Does that really matter as long as I have it where no light can get in? Seems like a trashbag would keep it from getting fresh air and it still needs to breathe right? Where exactly should FAE holes with polyfill go in the tub and how big should they be? Should the side holes start even with the substrate on two sides and up high on the other two sides? And last, my understanding is that saturated substrate alone will keep the correct humidity within the tub with no kind of humidifier at all? Any suggestions or advise would be much appreciated. I am growing with the mazatepac strain of cubensis.
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RogerRabbit
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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: jdavis0092] 1
#19088599 - 11/05/13 04:09 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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At its best, LC from spores will slow down everything because it's so much slower than inoculating your jars directly. At its worst, it will contaminate everything.
I have always failed to see why folks are still messing with liquid culture when you don't ever know what you have until after spawning, usually wasting a month or more. If you want to speed things up, use agar to grains, and then grain to grain transfers to expand your spawn.
Popcorn is also about the slowest spawn media since so little of it fits in a jar. People think popcorn is fast because a 'jar' colonizes in half the time, but the fact is a fully colonized jar of popcorn has only about ten percent of the mycelium of a colonized jar of rye, making it actually much slower. Popcorn is also more prone to contaminants. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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jdavis0092
Learning


Registered: 11/04/13
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Last seen: 10 years, 1 month
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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: RogerRabbit]
#19089777 - 11/05/13 12:08 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Thanks RR. I have read quite a bit on agar, but I have never actually tried it. I'm not quite sure how to sterilize the agar and petri dishes. The dishes I have are plastic and I fear that putting them in a PC will warp them. I also am not sure which is best, to use a tissue sample from a healthy mushroom or to just use spores from a print or a syringe. Any advice on a good agar tek? As for the popcorn, I will for sure switch back to WBS or I might even try rye if I can figure out where to get it around here. Again thanks for all the advice. Ive been reading about cultivation for a long time now and still learning something new everyday. Most of what I learned has came from the Shroomery and a lot from your own post. I have been reading info on here for over 6 years now, but just decided to register as a member a couple days ago. Not sure why I didn't do it sooner. I had no idea about the marketplace forum and now I learn that I have to be a member for 90 days before I can enter lol. Oh well... 90 days isn't that long of a wait. Thanks, Jason
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bodhisatta 
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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: jdavis0092]
#19089964 - 11/05/13 12:51 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
jdavis0092 said: Thanks RR. I have read quite a bit on agar, but I have never actually tried it. I'm not quite sure how to sterilize the agar and petri dishes. The dishes I have are plastic and I fear that putting them in a PC will warp them. I also am not sure which is best, to use a tissue sample from a healthy mushroom or to just use spores from a print or a syringe. Any advice on a good agar tek? As for the popcorn, I will for sure switch back to WBS or I might even try rye if I can figure out where to get it around here. Again thanks for all the advice. Ive been reading about cultivation for a long time now and still learning something new everyday. Most of what I learned has came from the Shroomery and a lot from your own post. I have been reading info on here for over 6 years now, but just decided to register as a member a couple days ago. Not sure why I didn't do it sooner. I had no idea about the marketplace forum and now I learn that I have to be a member for 90 days before I can enter lol. Oh well... 90 days isn't that long of a wait. Thanks, Jason
plastic petri dishes come pre sterilized. They're a one time use deal. I have glass petri dishes that can be pressure cooked. However these dishes suck ass to handle and I would much prefer to just use plastic. I got my glass ones free though.
RR's lets grow mushrooms has a good agar tek. Or search for frankhorrigan and his agar tek.
I find my Rye at an organic food store in the bulk bins. I get it for 89 cents a pound. 12quart jars are filled for about 4-5$
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Psilicon
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Re: Question about what a colonized liquid culture should look like. [Re: jdavis0092]
#19091709 - 11/05/13 06:44 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Clear-walled monotubs are better, and WBS inoculated with a syringe is faster and more reliable than LC.
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