gizmo1 said:

I just read through the entire thread start to finish.
So it looks like the bacteria is following your streak pattern to me this means poor sterile technique, dirty inoculation loop or else contaminated innoculant.
Try it like this.
Wipe jar and lid with iso.
Wipe syringe with iso.
Flame syringe needle.
Lift one corner of the lid but don't take it all the way off squirt in one drop 2 tops under the lifted corner of lid without touching the needle to lid or jar edge. Don't even bother squirting out a drop to cool the syringe first. Replace lid and leave it don't use a loop.
Report back with the results if you do it this way and you still get a plate full of bacteria it's either plate preparation which I doubt this is it or it's the innoculant. If you want to rule out plate prep do a 2nd plate from the same batch and leave it untouched if it doesn't contam it's your innoculant.
At least in my head this would narrow it down through process of elimination.
Let us know how it goes and good luck.

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gizmo1 said:

I think I read that excessive clumping of spores that wont break apart could be a sign of a contam syringe and also the spores germinating in the syringe could be a sign of contamination.
From the looks of it the ones pictured to the right are just really dark syringes like overly dark, but your right the color does look a little off. Ive heard of certain vendors putting charcoal and other stuff to dye the syringe and make it look like it had more spores but this could be a rumor.

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KapnDank said:

You could've had bad syringes from the start but what most likely happened is they went bad during storage. You want to store spore solution in the fridge so if there is a mold spore or bacteria spore in that syringe it won't germinate in the water and mess the entire syringe up because it's too cold for them to germinate and get a foothold in the solution. You basically have trich lcs there now with some cube spores mixed in. Had you kept them in the fridge the original contaminant spore mightve only messed up one or two inoculation points. I hope you made some prints from previous grows because that's your best bet now. If not it's time to aquire some more spores. Also it's best to keep spores refrigerated because they start to lose viability a lot faster at room temp even if they're in print form. Hope this helps me if you need some spores and I'll send you a print or two

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KapnDank said:

Then you want to start keeping prints and making the syringes only as you need them(allow them to sit 3 days in solution before use so the spores can rehydrate it increases germination rates.  you could also start growing oysters, reishi, shiitake or whatever edible you might dig and label the spore syringes as them. Example oyster 3015 is actually GT. Blue oyster is actually B+ etc. Grow the edibles on your countertop in bags and they shouldn't question it

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Amycel 3015
They're sure beautiful to grow and the taste is out of this world.

micelio said:

You don't need to hydrate with a syringe before going to agar dish.

Just scrape some spores off the print onto a fresh agar plate..
You don't want a dried up dish.., obviously..
Give it a little time to grow out.. Do a few transfers to isolate and narrow the culture down..
A TC could explain allot better than I can..

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10kVisions said:

thanks for all the continued opinions and help everyone.  i have made new plates using ALL syinges i have (6 total).
from each syringe i did:
1 drop plate
1 Z spread plate

then i also have to agar plates that i didn't knock
1 remained sealed with poly fill
1 i opened inside the SAB for 3 seconds and then closed it again
i figured i would do this as a control for the agar.

i'll keep evyeone posted on the process here.

on a side note, i have ordered new syringes from 2 new vendors and will see how they look when get them. (everyone was out of spore prints)

thanks again
10k

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