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beachbum10
beachbum

Registered: 07/06/12
Posts: 83
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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First agar attempt. How does it look?
#23896855 - 12/05/16 01:20 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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So this is my first shot at messing with agar. I was wondering how this dish looks and have a couple questions.

When is it ready for me to take wedges? I will be using these on birdseed in quart jars.
I also think I may try transferring to another dish(s) and work on cleaning it up and isolation. Try to get the best strain out of it. How does that work? Do I literally cut a small chunk of growth off and just place it in the middle of another dish?
When using scalpels. I have individually sealed sterilized blades. Are these a one time use deal? After use can I just flame sterilize the blade right before using again?
Edited by beachbum10 (12/05/16 01:26 PM)
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SporeDaddy
Daddy to my Spores



Registered: 08/20/16
Posts: 92
Loc: Classified
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Re: First agar attempt. How does it look? [Re: beachbum10]
#23896869 - 12/05/16 01:28 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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First off fellow Shroomer good work on the agar, solid growth!
The agar usually should be colonized on top in a matter of 1-2 weeks or 7-14 days. Yours looks to be at about a week almost, i would assume.
I wait up to 14 days on some dishes, it can take longer. It does not matter when you take wedges, if you cut a portion out of the mycilium then it would still continue to grow on the agar as long as you left some on the agar itself. Personal opinion is to wait till petri dish is about 75-90% covered. For one quart of spawn you should only need 2 equilateral triangle wedges, but one is really only necessary.
Reuse blades using a cheap alcohol lamp to sterilize before cutting and reusing on a different occasion.
-------------------- "Mushroom by nature is among the most powerful machines created by nature, people are the only thing to rival the mushroom." - Terrence McKenna  
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Josex
#cheat_code



Registered: 11/13/15
Posts: 8,995
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Re: First agar attempt. How does it look? [Re: beachbum10]
#23896872 - 12/05/16 01:29 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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It's looking good! but if it was me I wouldn't use that plate to inoculate grains yet. I'd transfer a piece of myc from 2 o'clock and 4' o'clock to new plates, and let them grow out.
If you plan to inoculate grains using wedges, allow the culture to colonize at least 80% of the plate.
Yeah you can reuse the blades, I wouldn't do that but you certainly can. Flame-sterilization will kill everything on the blade.
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PirateSwazey


Registered: 12/12/12
Posts: 2,993
Loc: Here, Now
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Re: First agar attempt. How does it look? [Re: beachbum10]
#23896879 - 12/05/16 01:31 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Looks good, you can transfer now. 1 o'clock looks nice and clean.
Just cut a small square about the size of a grain of rice and transfer it to a new plate.
Use one blade per session, flaming the tip until it is red hot between transfers.
I would not suggest isolation at this point; what I would suggest is making a couple more transfers to ensure you have a clean culture, then inoculating grain masters from a few plates of that mycelium. While you are running that spawn, continue transferring and running the mycelium until you get a monoculture - if that is what you would like to do. This will get you growing mushrooms quicker than waiting for an isolate that may perform poorly. There is no way to tell how an isolate will perform once you have it, the only way to know is to grow it out and see.
After you have your first fruit bodies I would clone from a cluster by taking a piece of tissue from inside the stem and placing it on agar. Clones typically perform very well and should produce more stable results than MS or testing isolates. Run clones and more MS cultures going through the same process until you have your monoculture.
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beachbum10
beachbum

Registered: 07/06/12
Posts: 83
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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Re: First agar attempt. How does it look? [Re: SporeDaddy]
#23896888 - 12/05/16 01:37 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Awesome! Thank you everyone for the advice! I've been putting off trying agar, birdseed and bulk for a long time. Just seemed intimidating. I've been growing off cakes for years now lol. I'm excited to take the next step in the hobby and see some results!
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Josex
#cheat_code



Registered: 11/13/15
Posts: 8,995
Loc:
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Re: First agar attempt. How does it look? [Re: beachbum10]
#23896895 - 12/05/16 01:39 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Just don't make isolation your main priority, work with MS and clones and do isolation as a side project, or just avoid it altogether until you have more experience with agar.
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Edmunter
Mr



Registered: 05/01/13
Posts: 5,699
Last seen: 19 days, 6 hours
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Re: First agar attempt. How does it look? [Re: Josex]
#23896933 - 12/05/16 01:55 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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You could take 2 wedges from 2 oclock and 2 from 4 oclock, This way you have potential to inoculate from 2 of the next 4 plates and use the other 2 to find other genetics
HOWEVER an easier way to get a decent culture and really cut down isolation time is to grow asap, clone a coupe of nice mushrooms and you will be much closer to isolation..
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