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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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is weak myc on agar always a nute problem?
    #25144223 - 04/16/18 07:51 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Hey All,

Getting back into the hobby after almost a year and so far I'm disappointed in how its going. a few weeks ago I transfered some spores to agar, only couple plates germinated. I made transfers from those, but my myc growth looks weak and very tomentose. Part of the problem is I forgot to colour my agar, so its impossible to see (duh) but aside from that my plan is to up the nute content for the next batch of plates, probably using grain soak or potato water.

My question is this: will low nute content always cause whispy growth? Could the agar agar powder itself be causing a problem? I bought it on ebay, the package is entirely korean. It seems firmer then usual....but could there be a sugar or something messing up the myc? Maybe I should toss it and go with good ol Golden Telephone?

Thx guys, appreciate it. got the heebiejeebies now (fuck do they ever suck) but ill be rollin out tubs in my new lab in no timeeeee!


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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144232 - 04/16/18 07:55 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

btw my agar recipe was 20 g  agar to  20g potato flakes and a tablespoon of honey. I left the flakes chunky but will grind them up next time.


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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144253 - 04/16/18 08:08 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

20:20: how much water?

I'm usin 1g flakes:1.5g agar:100ml. A few times I boiled out too much water and the agar was hard. Myc grew slow and tomentose on it. Perhaps you're making your plates too stiff?

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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: LtLurker]
    #25144282 - 04/16/18 08:18 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

I go off the ratio of 20g agar, 20g flakes, 1 litre of water. so for this batch I did 5g to 250ml. it was nice and soft but the growth still sucks. I never mix up my agar before pcing. I just put it in a wine bottle, swish it around, and pc it. Maybe i should start boiling n mixing thoroughly.


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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144288 - 04/16/18 08:21 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

I'm sorry to bother you, but I see your on line and was wondering if you could answer a question I posted in my journal?  Thanks

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144296 - 04/16/18 08:25 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Your ratios sound right to me. The preferred way I seen is pouring hot water into a container with the nutes and agar and shake it up well before pc/pour.

Boiling works but I don't always get the agar melted evenly and have to stir it for like 15 minutes.

Either way, maybe your ingredients aren't getting mixed well enough based on your description?

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144315 - 04/16/18 08:32 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Hey Ben!  Telephone brand blows.  It’s bulletproof at 2%....back it down to 1.25% for a stiffness you’re more accustomed to but don’t go lower.  Get new agar, I just decided to give it a second chance as I was out my go to eden brand and it really inhibits normal looking growth leading to a slow moving almost clear culture.  Like this:



I made xfers yesterday onto my regular agar and it’s already white and bouncing back.

Telephone brand =  :cuteshit:


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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado]
    #25144338 - 04/16/18 08:41 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

hey Myc. I've used Golden Telephone in the past reliably, this time I am using some korean stuff (dont even know the brand cuz the package isn't english) and I'm having troubles. good to know your two cents on agar though.

How do you go about mixing yours? I'm really hoping a good mix and some grain soak water helps me out here. Its no fun getting back into something and not knowing if your doing it wrong :frown:


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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144360 - 04/16/18 08:53 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Ha, sorry, I totally misread the end of your post but still stand by my statement.  I’ve gone through several packs of it with a variety of cultures and never had good luck with it.  Anyway, I just add dry ingredients to the media bottle, top up to final volume with room temp tap and sterilize.  I like light malt extract or dog food at 2% for my nutrient sources.    I also like Stamets pda recipe.  Light malt extract is the easiest to use and best all around nute source for agar media and LC in my opinion.

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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado]
    #25144420 - 04/16/18 09:22 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

when you say 2% do you mean 2% to the volume of water? can you explain the calculation?


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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144431 - 04/16/18 09:30 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

2% would be 2g per 100ml of water

1ml=1g i guess?

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25144434 - 04/16/18 09:31 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Yep.  A ml of water weighs a gram.  So for both agar and nutes the typical amount used is 2% of the total volume/weight.

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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado]
    #25144437 - 04/16/18 09:33 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

got it thx myc.


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OfflineMooseShroom
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado]
    #25144523 - 04/16/18 10:15 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

Mycolorado said:
Hey Ben!  Telephone brand blows.  It’s bulletproof at 2%....back it down to 1.25% for a stiffness you’re more accustomed to but don’t go lower.  Get new agar, I just decided to give it a second chance as I was out my go to eden brand and it really inhibits normal looking growth leading to a slow moving almost clear culture.  Like this:



I made xfers yesterday onto my regular agar and it’s already white and bouncing back.

Telephone brand =  :cuteshit:







I thought I was the only one who was having issues with it haha. I ran out of my usual and the only stuff I could find around here was telephone. I've been seeing really slow clear growth with it. Any brand recommendations?

Edit: Just saw you mentioned Eden brand. I'll take a look into that for my next batch.
Double Edit: Giving NOW brand a shot.

Edited by MooseShroom (04/17/18 12:05 PM)

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: MooseShroom] * 1
    #25144562 - 04/16/18 11:07 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

"Now" brand is a decent grocery store agar, as well.


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OfflineRomeoPapa
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: hamloaf] * 1
    #25144637 - 04/17/18 12:27 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

That's a bold statement to make saying telephone agar is shit and not worth using. I know you don't do pasty plates like I do, but I've had great success with telephone brand agar.

300ml water, 3 grams light dry malt extract from the home brew shop, and 3 grams of that shitty agar. Stir that shit up in a sauce pan on the stove for a bit and then pour into my mini rounds. This amount does 12 to 18 plates. However many i have on hand at the time. Cover and PC for 25.

That being said, I'm always down to try different brands of things. If it doesn't work out it goes in the garden usually, so nothing is lost!

Edit. I put my money where my mouth is. Eden agar was $12 per oz on eBay. Not gonna happen. Now agar was $8 for a 2 oz jar. I bought the now brand. We will see how it goes! Cheers everyone.


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Edited by RomeoPapa (04/17/18 12:35 AM)

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OfflineMooseShroom
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: RomeoPapa]
    #25144644 - 04/17/18 12:38 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

RomeoPapa said:
That's a bold statement to make saying telephone agar is shit and not worth using. I know you don't do pasty plates like I do, but I've had great success with telephone brand agar.

300ml water, 3 grams light dry malt extract from the home brew shop, and 3 grams of that shitty agar. Stir that shit up in a sauce pan on the stove for a bit and then pour into my mini rounds. This amount does 12 to 18 plates. However many i have on hand at the time. Cover and PC for 25.

That being said, I'm always down to try different brands of things. If it doesn't work out it goes in the garden usually, so nothing is lost!




What led to the 1%/1% recipe? I've noticed that telephone brand is really stiff, so that could be the difference I've needed in the recipe compared to other brands.

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OfflineRomeoPapa
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: MooseShroom]
    #25144719 - 04/17/18 01:53 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Nothing really. It's just easy to remember and I get good growth with it.



That's from the 12th and personally I think that's good growth. I don't consider myself a noob, but I am a total amature. And if my weights are off a little I don't sweat it.


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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: RomeoPapa]
    #25145093 - 04/17/18 08:45 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

im going to do some experimenting and will update this thread as I do.

I’m also suprised to hear golden telephone has bad results. i used it with pasty plates....maybe the boil/mix step is important?

in my next 3 agar runs ill try

1. upping nutes with same mix (grain water)
2. golden telephone mix with same ratios
3. light malt extract


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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25145101 - 04/17/18 08:49 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Good Luck Man. Hope it goes well. Mix thoroughly :smile:

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OfflineSome Guys Fungi
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: PsilocyBen17]
    #25145133 - 04/17/18 09:06 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Hey ya'll first post, on here! I use MEA, a 1/2 gallon mason jar, 1500ml of cold tap water, 45g light malt, 30g agar from Stamets site.(Bought a lb of that shit iv'e done well over 500 dishes and got a LOT left.) As for mixing, I use a hand blender in the mason jar, get's it nice and even in a couple seconds even with cold water. I then pour about 500ml's each into 3 long neck beer bottle's i got from a local brewery with a plastic lid that I drilled a hole in and melted a filter disc to, it has a  rubber seal and metal latch, it vents out the sides of the cap where the metal latch goes through it so I don't need to throw foil on them when PC'ing. The total recipe does about 60 dishes. I used to use agar crystal shit from the health food store where I'm at but it was more expensive than Stamets even with shipping, but even with Stamets Agar I don't notice much of a quality difference I still get little black bits in my agar that are barely visible, maybe it's because of the malt i'm not sure, but it doesn't seem to affect anything as far as sterility goes so who cares.

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado]
    #25147086 - 04/18/18 12:23 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

Mycolorado said:
Hey Ben!  Telephone brand blows.  It’s bulletproof at 2%....back it down to 1.25% for a stiffness you’re more accustomed to but don’t go lower.  Get new agar, I just decided to give it a second chance as I was out my go to eden brand and it really inhibits normal looking growth leading to a slow moving almost clear culture.  Like this:



I made xfers yesterday onto my regular agar and it’s already white and bouncing back.

Telephone brand =  :cuteshit:







WTF??

I've never heard this before. Telephone has got to be the most common brand of agar used here. I use it, and have never seen this problem.


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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Baby_Hitler]
    #25147440 - 04/18/18 07:10 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

IDK....maybe I got a bad lot but I’ve used a few packs with all the same results.  I started playing with % as well as it’s extremely hard at 2%.  The gel factor would be a bonus as you could use less...and I’ve had decent results at 1.25% as far as hardness goes but then the agar breaks very easily which makes removing the xfer wedge tedious at times.  I hate paying the eden price and there’s no break online but it is fantastic.  I’ll give now brand a shot as it’s half the price of eden.  Just my :twocents:

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado]
    #25147591 - 04/18/18 09:10 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

I'd try some Now agar. It's like twice as much as Telephone, but if it's a lot better it might be worth it. There's no way Eden could be worth $10/oz unless it were literally all you could get.


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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Baby_Hitler] * 1
    #25147628 - 04/18/18 09:35 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Yeah, looks like $.35/g is about the average going rate for lab grade agar agar, though I have found some for half that.  On the flip side of things, you might try the eden brand and wonder how you used the shitty ass telephone brand for so long.  I don't pour a whole lot of plates so it's not really breaking the bank so to speak but it's always nice to save a couple bucks. :hamsterdance:

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado] * 1
    #25147682 - 04/18/18 09:59 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

Mycolorado said:
Yeah, looks like $.35/g is about the average going rate for lab grade agar agar, though I have found some for half that.  On the flip side of things, you might try the eden brand and wonder how you used the shitty ass telephone brand for so long.  I don't pour a whole lot of plates so it's not really breaking the bank so to speak but it's always nice to save a couple bucks. :hamsterdance:




I found NOW brand from a local chain store that was about the same cost at telephone brand. Gonna give that a shot today. If it doesn't show many signs of improvement, I found Eden brand a nearby health food shop. May make a small batch of all 3 to try and compare growth of a clone for science.

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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: MooseShroom] * 1
    #25147684 - 04/18/18 10:00 AM (6 years, 8 months ago)

Please do...I'd be happy to see other results/comparisons.  Thanks, MooseShroom!

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OfflinePsilocyBen17
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Re: is weak myc on agar always a nute problem? [Re: Mycolorado]
    #25160718 - 04/23/18 07:18 PM (6 years, 8 months ago)

hey guys,

Heres an update on my agar situation. Looks like im not lacking nutes after all. My dishes are exhibiting healthy but slow growth. The reason things are going so slowly is because its only 68F or so down in the basement, a little on the cold side until it starts warming up here in Canada. I also havent grown in a while so I think im just being a little impatient.

The dishes previous to this looked real bad, the myc was so thin and transparent that it was hardly visible, but i attribute this to the first batch being on the firm side :shrug: with spores you always want a softer plate.

Agar can be frustrating because of all the factors that go into it....plus the unknowns (never knew golden telephone was crappy for some) thanks for the help!




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Edited by PsilocyBen17 (04/23/18 07:20 PM)

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