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Willy Wonka
Medicine Man



Registered: 12/14/11
Posts: 2,109
Loc: The Other Side
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Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) 1
#21893557 - 07/03/15 05:01 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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I have had many a different agar cultures that I have been working with for awhile now. Many of which were harboring nasty contaminates that I thought were going to be impossible to isolate a clean culture from. Not being one to throw things out I put a great many a plates on the shelf and just let them be to see what might happen. I watched the cultures grow. As they grew I observed mycelium grow and I saw the contaminate mold in the dishes mixing with the mycelium. Then after awhile I noticed knots would form in the dish. There would be discolored blue or grey in the dish but knots would form. I know that when a cake is contaminated it has a tendency to form pins invitro as a last ditch effort to beat the contaminate by developing a fruiting body in an attempt to drop spores and reproduce. The same thing can and often does happen in a contaminated tub before the contaminate really runs it's course and destroys everything.
My thought is this. I think the same thing happens in a contaminated agar plate. A contaminated agar plate will form pins when it is contaminated. Although this isn't necessarily the best way to isolate a clean culture this can work to your advantage. We know that a pin will produce mycelium that grows really aggressively on agar. In fact it grows so aggressively that if you act quickly enough when it first starts growing you can grab a relatively clean culture from the mycelium produced by the pin. This is because the mycelium from the pin will grow at a much faster rate than that of whatever contaminate you are trying to isolate from. After several transfers you will be working with a clean culture.
I have recently saved 3 different strains from 3 different cultures that I thought were lost by doing this. Just some food for thought. If you are working with agar you might want to hold on to those questionable dishes just because you never know what might happen.
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Kizzle
Misanthrope


Registered: 08/30/11
Posts: 9,855
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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: Willy Wonka]
#21893636 - 07/03/15 05:21 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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I've noticed the appearance of little tufts of aerial mycelium, although not exactly knots in Penicillium/Mushroom cultures.
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Willy Wonka
Medicine Man



Registered: 12/14/11
Posts: 2,109
Loc: The Other Side
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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: Kizzle]
#21893642 - 07/03/15 05:22 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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The stuff I am talking about forms into full on mushroom pins.
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spacechildo
proletarians rise up



Registered: 01/24/13
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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: Willy Wonka]
#21893668 - 07/03/15 05:33 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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even clean plates form pins after a while. usually takes about a month for me at least. some say dog food agar has a tendency to pin faster and heavier.
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Kizzle
Misanthrope


Registered: 08/30/11
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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: spacechildo]
#21893764 - 07/03/15 06:01 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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You know the myceliun in a plate can bruise just like any other substrate when it starts drying out. I've also seen it can bruise grey but only after pouring hot agar onto it
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Willy Wonka
Medicine Man



Registered: 12/14/11
Posts: 2,109
Loc: The Other Side
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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: Kizzle]
#21894921 - 07/03/15 10:51 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ya know what I thought that was a fact. I posted awhile back asking if mycelium can bruise bluish grey in a jar, and I never got any replies on the thread. I had a jar that was doing well. It was almost fully colonized and then it started to develop a bit of a bluish grey ting to it in a small place. Because I never got an answer either way, and I was going to use the jar as a master grain I tossed it.
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Willy Wonka
Medicine Man



Registered: 12/14/11
Posts: 2,109
Loc: The Other Side
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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: Willy Wonka]
#21925879 - 07/10/15 07:49 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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And yet another thought... When looking at some of my contaminated agar dishes last night I saw a fruit that had recently developed so much in the dish that It was a full fruit body with and open cap. I placed a bit of foil down in front of my flow hood and the removed the cap from the dish and placed it on the foil. I then placed a petri dish lid over the cap and foil, turned off the flow hood and let it set over night. When I got home from work today I turned the hood back on. I removed the dish lid, removed the cap with a flame sterilized scalpel, and then immediately streaked an agar dish with the spores.
I can't wait to see what comes of this. I tried to create as sterile of an environment as I could while printing it, but I am sure that due to the fact that the cap came from a contaminated dish the culture will have to be cleaned up big time. I am also sure that the spores will at least be viable though. Considering that all the spores I had collected over time and had stored have failed to germinate due to what I believe to be improper storage (left in a hella hot garage) this is great news for me. My fingers are crossed.
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natedawgnow
Rocky mountain hood rat



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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: Willy Wonka]
#21925895 - 07/10/15 07:53 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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I had a plate with an aspergillus contamination on one side of the plate that I decided to let ride, and as soon as the myc met the contam, it knotted and started to pin. I cloned one and it is currently on agar
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thatguyatthatplace
Stranger

Registered: 08/31/15
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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: Willy Wonka]
#22173013 - 09/01/15 08:45 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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hello i was wondering if you guys could give me some info on this. I harvested my mushroom kits last night and some of the mushies were blue soft and dingy kinda. are these good to eat? are they oxidated? are they contaminated?? so confused....

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tetherface
get in where you fit in



Registered: 10/05/14
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Quote:
thatguyatthatplace said: hello i was wondering if you guys could give me some info on this. I harvested my mushroom kits last night and some of the mushies were blue soft and dingy kinda. are these good to eat? are they oxidated? are they contaminated?? so confused....


ya bud they're fine but next time make your own thread if it doesn't pertain to the subject at hand
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thatguyatthatplace
Stranger

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Re: Contaminated agar (Food for Thought) [Re: tetherface]
#22173145 - 09/01/15 09:17 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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cool thanks man, my bad still learning hahaha. ill make a thread on this now.
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tetherface
get in where you fit in



Registered: 10/05/14
Posts: 553
Loc: wild
Last seen: 6 years, 6 months
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its cool bro were here to help you along the way welcome to the shroomery
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