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Offlinedigdog
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0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate
    #21963775 - 07/19/15 08:23 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Hello All,

So my initial foray into the wonderful world of mycology has been very interesting so far.

One of the things that has surprised me the most is a total lack of any signs of contamination on any of my dishes, jars or even my first straw bag (Reishi; Which is coming along nicely, it has 70% colonization in 7 days! yay!!! happy newbie :crazy2:).

I feel like I have made many mistakes. Dropped petri dishes in my SAB because the gloves I bought were to thick... once I even forgot to flame the needle duh! :blush:

Yet no sign of anything other than very nice white mycelium.

So I got to thinking why is there such a low rate of contamination in my experiments? It is surely not due to my diligence. I considered that maybe I just have cleaned things fairly well and that my initial LCs were clean from a good vendor.

Then it occurred to me that maybe it is because I live in the desert where mold (of any kind) is a relative rarity. Our average humidity here is under 10% so it stands to reason that the lack of moisture in this climate leads to very low airborne mold spore counts and the result is a happy newbie mycologist due to the lower risk of contamination.

Any thoughts on this or similar experiences?


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InvisibleMad Season
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: digdog]
    #21963974 - 07/19/15 09:32 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

I think you've just been lucky so far. Eventually everyone gets a contamination. In fact I started off with none too. They just creep up on ya. When you least expect it.


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Offlinedigdog
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Mad Season]
    #21964062 - 07/19/15 10:04 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

Mad Season said:
I think you've just been lucky so far. Eventually everyone gets a contamination. In fact I started off with none too. They just creep up on ya. When you least expect it.




I am sure you are right but oh how I hope you are wrong :wink:

Well I guess I will enjoy it while it lasts :smile:


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InvisibleMad Season
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: digdog]
    #21964086 - 07/19/15 10:07 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Lol also I live in a plant hardiness zone 2. It's also below 10% rh. If you get molds in the fridge (which you most certainly do) you'll see them elsewhere too :frown:


--------------------
contam and car window art
How to shroomery like a pro! (Seriously, everyone read this!)
Improve your sterile techniques! (A comprehensive guide to agar)
Links upon links of literally EVERYTHING UP TO DATE

AMU Q&A
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Offlinedigdog
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Mad Season]
    #21965101 - 07/19/15 01:49 PM (8 years, 6 months ago)

I did buy a mini-fridge to store all my cultures and syringes etc... so hopefully that will minimize some of that risk. I should clean it with bleach water regularly still... soon probably, it has been about 2 months since I set it up. I guess I have a task for tomorrow. :sad:


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InvisibleMikeBearPig
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: digdog]
    #21965619 - 07/19/15 02:52 PM (8 years, 6 months ago)

After the mounting evidence and my own laziness.. I am almost positive that 95% of contamination come from bad inoculates or dying substrates.


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OfflineKizzle
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: MikeBearPig]
    #21966006 - 07/19/15 04:04 PM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

I feel like I have made many mistakes. Dropped petri dishes in my SAB because the gloves I bought were to thick... once I even forgot to flame the needle duh! :blush:



Bacteria is usually what I run into when I fumble like that. It's not quite as obvious as mold contaminants. Keep an eye out for anything like slime or a film on the surface of the agar. Sometimes it will only be growing within the perimeter of the mycelium and you can't really see it all until it's added to grain or transferred to another dish.


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InvisibleToadstool5
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Kizzle]
    #21967961 - 07/19/15 11:02 PM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

After the mounting evidence and my own laziness.. I am almost positive that 95% of contamination come from bad inoculates or dying substrates.




Quote:

Bacteria is usually what I run into when I fumble like that. It's not quite as obvious as mold contaminants. Keep an eye out for anything like slime or a film on the surface of the agar. Sometimes it will only be growing within the perimeter of the mycelium




So true! If you maintain a decent level of cleanliness in your work area, properly prepare substrates and throw them away as they exhaust, bacteria is all you will normally have to deal with.

Im sure living in a desert helps too! Imagine working in SE asia or the caribbean :lol:


--------------------
If you do not know where the mushroom products you are consuming are grown, think twice before eating them. :badshroom:
- Paul Stamets

AMU Teks :mushroom2: Stro's Write Ups


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InvisibleMikeBearPig
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Toadstool5]
    #21968249 - 07/20/15 12:05 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

Toadstool5 said:
Quote:

After the mounting evidence and my own laziness.. I am almost positive that 95% of contamination come from bad inoculates or dying substrates.




Quote:

Bacteria is usually what I run into when I fumble like that. It's not quite as obvious as mold contaminants. Keep an eye out for anything like slime or a film on the surface of the agar. Sometimes it will only be growing within the perimeter of the mycelium




So true! If you maintain a decent level of cleanliness in your work area, properly prepare substrates and throw them away as they exhaust, bacteria is all you will normally have to deal with.

Im sure living in a desert helps too! Imagine working in SE asia or the caribbean :lol:




What do you mean "decent level of cleanliness"

After the kids eat breakfast, I dust off the table and lay out all my jars and liquid cultures. 

I boil a pot of water, suck up water 10 or so times then let it cool with the hot water in it.

I stab through aluminium lids repeatedly with a year old syringe (i fixed this finally) to get Multi-spore honey liquid culture out.

I don't bother with any fancy lids, i just drill a hole and cover it with 1 piece of Micropour tape for the PC run

I do everything open air, usually with the air conditioner on

I stab right through the tape and cover it up with 3 pieces



This is why I think contamination is bullshit..

I also let all my substrates cool with the lids off, AC on.


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InvisibleToadstool5
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: MikeBearPig]
    #21968454 - 07/20/15 12:48 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

If your house doesnt have insects, rodents, mold, or dirt everywhere i consider it decently clean. Some people live in complete messes with garbage rotting everywhere and wonder why they have contam problems :lol:

Im paranoid  so i deep clean my bathroom and wipe down with bleach but there is even moldy wallpaper near the corner of the window from poor ventilation and i have no issues.

Contamination is a real issue for some rookies but the difficulty of maintaining sterility is overexaggerated in my opinion too


--------------------
If you do not know where the mushroom products you are consuming are grown, think twice before eating them. :badshroom:
- Paul Stamets

AMU Teks :mushroom2: Stro's Write Ups


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InvisibleMad Season
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Toadstool5]
    #21968559 - 07/20/15 12:58 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

I wouldn't say it's difficult. I would however say developing a technique you can depend on, and being able to spot things works wonders. Noobs just need experience.


--------------------
contam and car window art
How to shroomery like a pro! (Seriously, everyone read this!)
Improve your sterile techniques! (A comprehensive guide to agar)
Links upon links of literally EVERYTHING UP TO DATE

AMU Q&A
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.


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InvisibleToadstool5
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Mad Season]
    #21968598 - 07/20/15 01:01 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

:whathesaid:

Exactly!


--------------------
If you do not know where the mushroom products you are consuming are grown, think twice before eating them. :badshroom:
- Paul Stamets

AMU Teks :mushroom2: Stro's Write Ups


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InvisibleMikeBearPig
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Toadstool5]
    #21968674 - 07/20/15 01:07 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

Toadstool5 said:
If your house doesnt have insects, rodents, mold, or dirt everywhere i consider it decently clean. Some people live in complete messes with garbage rotting everywhere and wonder why they have contam problems :lol:

Im paranoid  so i deep clean my bathroom and wipe down with bleach but there is even moldy wallpaper near the corner of the window from poor ventilation and i have no issues.

Contamination is a real issue for some rookies but the difficulty of maintaining sterility is overexaggerated in my opinion too




3 kids 2 adults 2 dogs in a 2 story apartment basically


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Offlinedigdog
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: MikeBearPig]
    #21969805 - 07/20/15 08:54 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

A lot of good input here.

It seems that maybe I am doing things right maybe and the desert helps as well.

I wipe everything down in my work area with bleach water. I clean my SAB well before and after loading it with supplies. I wipe down jars. I turn of AC and fan in work area. I PC jars for 90 minutes etc... so on and so forth.

I guess in a way I am glad that I came into this paranoid about contamination because I am starting out with decent habits and that is a good thing. I will keep up the clean habits, may be a bit of overkill but then again if I want to (at some future point) make the leap from amateur hobbyist to professional (selling mushroom related goods) then I will need to have documented processes for cleaning and safety anyway so may as well develop those habits and processes now and get used to it.

Thanks for all the input everyone :smile:


--------------------
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InvisibleMikeBearPig
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: digdog]
    #21969818 - 07/20/15 08:58 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

digdog said:
A lot of good input here.

It seems that maybe I am doing things right maybe and the desert helps as well.

I wipe everything down in my work area with bleach water. I clean my SAB well before and after loading it with supplies. I wipe down jars. I turn of AC and fan in work area. I PC jars for 90 minutes etc... so on and so forth.

I guess in a way I am glad that I came into this paranoid about contamination because I am starting out with decent habits and that is a good thing. I will keep up the clean habits, may be a bit of overkill but then again if I want to (at some future point) make the leap from amateur hobbyist to professional (selling mushroom related goods) then I will need to have documented processes for cleaning and safety anyway so may as well develop those habits and processes now and get used to it.

Thanks for all the input everyone :smile:




You are doing much better than me buddy, keep it up. 

I am not trying to get people to stop cleaning.. I am trying to get them to stop blaming their contamination on environmental hazards


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InvisibleTheEaglesGift
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: digdog]
    #21973408 - 07/20/15 10:40 PM (8 years, 6 months ago)

You're lucky to live in a dry climate, in regards to molds.

That said, I'm sitting in a house that's 65 percent RH with a moldy bathroom and a pretty filthy fucking sink because my wife won't let anyone but her do the dishes, and she won't do them daily.

My house is like this half the year, and my contamination rate is near 0. Proper sterile technique trumps all, don't rely on the cleanliness of your home, though it is an ally.


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Offlinedigdog
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: TheEaglesGift]
    #21975014 - 07/21/15 10:10 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

The mention here of bacteria contamination has me a bit concerned though.

Can anyone tell be what to watch out for? I will search and read up through the other posts as well.


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InvisibleToadstool5
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: digdog]
    #21975030 - 07/21/15 10:12 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Slime, pooling moisture, discoloration, and sometimes weird smells, it normally happens with improper grain prep or fumbles while culturing like kizzle mentioned.


--------------------
If you do not know where the mushroom products you are consuming are grown, think twice before eating them. :badshroom:
- Paul Stamets

AMU Teks :mushroom2: Stro's Write Ups


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InvisibleMad Season
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: digdog]
    #21975032 - 07/21/15 10:13 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/21865514

The last posts are very good in that thread. Shows you how much bacteria can hide.


--------------------
contam and car window art
How to shroomery like a pro! (Seriously, everyone read this!)
Improve your sterile techniques! (A comprehensive guide to agar)
Links upon links of literally EVERYTHING UP TO DATE

AMU Q&A
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.


Edited by Mad Season (07/21/15 10:14 AM)


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Offlinedigdog
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Re: 0% Contamination (So Far) - Thoughts About Climate [Re: Mad Season]
    #21975102 - 07/21/15 10:39 AM (8 years, 6 months ago)

Well I am having trouble figuring this out.

I have grains in jars that get slimy as they age. See the three spots of grain. They look oily or slimy. Is this contamination?



That is a Reishi on wheat grain jar that I was testing with some added Aspen shavings.

Any help understanding would be appreciated.


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