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freespeech
disciple



Registered: 12/12/08
Posts: 1,745
Loc: PNW
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Dark coloration in agar culture
#23954348 - 12/24/16 02:07 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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I took some 6 year old Z-Strain spores to agar a while back. Most of the swipes didn't germinate but I did get some growth on one plate. I wasn't sure if that first growth was mushroom mycelium, but it started to look better after the first transfer. I'm on the fifth transfer now, and every single plate has grown dark patches and streaks in the mycelium. It's especially visible from the bottom of the plates. I've transferred away from the dark patches every time, and the initial growth on new plates is more or less pure white, but the dark patches always appear after a while.
Any thoughts as to what this is? I haven't seen anything like this before. Is anyone confident whether I'm transferring a contaminant, in whole or in part, here? I would normally assume this was just contamination growing with no mushroom mycelium, but because of how the mycelium looks, I do feel like this is mushroom mycelium. Maybe a contaminant mushroom? If it really is pure cube mycelium then my only thought is this could be some kind of bluing reaction in the mycelium itself.
This plate is a 4th transfer after the spore plate:

This is the top and bottom of a 3rd generation transfer plate. I believe the striations are from temperature changes in the room where this plate grew:

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enlightenment
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Registered: 08/09/09
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Re: Dark coloration in agar culture [Re: freespeech]
#23954369 - 12/24/16 02:19 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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It looks exactly like the Psi. mexicana Jalisco mycelium I worked with a few years ago. I don't know what caused the discoloration. A contamination is possible but I have never seen this on my plates. Are you sure that it is cubensis?
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freespeech
disciple



Registered: 12/12/08
Posts: 1,745
Loc: PNW
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I'm not sure what it is; I haven't fruited it yet. I put some of the wedges on grain today, so we'll see how that goes.
The spore print was 6 years old and was kept in a box with a ton of other prints, so there have been many opportunities for other things to be introduced. It could certainly be some random spores that got into the print somehow.
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Mycolorado
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Registered: 07/23/16
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Re: Dark coloration in agar culture [Re: freespeech]
#23954391 - 12/24/16 02:32 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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I was gonna say the same but that dark color seems off. Is the agar cracked on the bottom? Not that that's a difinitive indicator but would support the idea.
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freespeech
disciple



Registered: 12/12/08
Posts: 1,745
Loc: PNW
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Re: Dark coloration in agar culture [Re: Mycolorado]
#23954395 - 12/24/16 02:33 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Cracked? Like the plate itself? It's not cracked. And this coloring has occurred on all 15-20 plates I've put this culture on. All 3-section plates, and pretty much every section showing this coloration.
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Mycolorado
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Registered: 07/23/16
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Re: Dark coloration in agar culture [Re: freespeech]
#23954403 - 12/24/16 02:40 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Ha, no, I mean the agar itself.
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freespeech
disciple



Registered: 12/12/08
Posts: 1,745
Loc: PNW
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Re: Dark coloration in agar culture [Re: Mycolorado]
#23954415 - 12/24/16 02:44 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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If you're looking at the horizontal line at 3 o'clock, that is most likely a scratch in the agar where I cooled the scalpel when I did the transfer.
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Mycolorado
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Registered: 07/23/16
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Re: Dark coloration in agar culture [Re: freespeech]
#23954458 - 12/24/16 03:03 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Sorry, I mean mexicana and tamps crack the agar as in the pic I posted....if the agar in your plates was cracking from the mycelium it would support the idea that they were mexicana or tamp since the growth rings and color kinda point that way. Just spitballin...
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freespeech
disciple



Registered: 12/12/08
Posts: 1,745
Loc: PNW
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Re: Dark coloration in agar culture [Re: Mycolorado]
#23954474 - 12/24/16 03:13 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Hm, interesting idea. I've grown one of the sclerotia-producing species before, but I never fruited them, so there shouldn't be any spores like that around which could cause this. Not entirely outside the realm of possibility, but seems unlikely in my case. I'm sort of leaning toward some environmental contaminant mushroom. Or if I'm lucky, an unusual expression of cubensis.
My plan for now is to grow it out on rye and see what that looks like. I'll also keep a few plates around and see if they pin.
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