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west coast hunt
west coast hunt



Registered: 04/06/13
Posts: 170
Last seen: 9 months, 18 days
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Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out.
#26950380 - 09/23/20 01:31 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Hello Shroomery Here's an issue my friend has been having I'm posting it here for him written in the first person or some shit.
Let me give you a pre-post warning ---> I'm kind of a fucking idiot so please be patient.
I'm having some serious issues with contamination and its been ongoing for a few months. It has cost me a lot of cash trying to figure it out and its been a real bitch. For months previous to this issue I had colonized many many jars starting from a jar a friend gave me and I had no issues at all. Literally a 0% contamination rate for tubs and jars for months.
Come spring, without changing any of my methods at all, every. single. tub. I try blows up with trich like no ones business. Since then its been hit and miss, mostly miss though. Before anyone says it, I used the search bar, and thoroughly. I went to the list on causes of contamination and checked every single point very carefully and changed my methods to try and solve any potential pin holes in my strategies.
It always occurs early in the spawn run, usually just before the first pins start really going, sometimes right at the tail end of the first flush. Its just BOOM TRICH.
My question is, for the good cultivators out there, how do you trace your contam issues? And also, has this happened to you before?
Here are my methods for reference:
Methods :
Starting off I prep whole oat spawn according to bodhisatta's method, 30 min boil, steam off and drain, 2 hour PC at 15 PSI.
Then jars are inoculated through G2G transfers at a 1 to 10 ratio in a FULLY SEALED GLOVE BOX. I know this will probably be a point of discussion. I use a glove box with extensive isopropyl sterilization before and during procedures. I just don't really believe in the SAB (I had some bad experiences with it early on) and the glove box did work well for a while.
The jars fully colonize without a shake, they are always very very strong rhizomorphic mycelium. About one or two out of every ten however have a grain or two stall out in the bottom (they usually look a little wet, possibly some bacteria), I usually turn it sideways and let it finish colonizing or just don't use it (or scoop it out occasionally). They never show signs of mold.
Bulk substrate is coco/verm pasteurized at 160 degrees in a very high quality cooler box for 2 hours then cooled quickly. Always at field capacity.
Jars are spawned to this bulk sub after it cools at a 10 to 10 ratio (1 to 1) Jars/ quarts substrate. Shortly after this (10-12 days) they are totally fucked and grow mold like they're gettin time and a half for it.
Also if yall want pictures or clarifications on anything to help you figure it out I can post that. And I know someone will say it so I'll just say I AM willing to try a SAB I just think they seem kinda sketch (no real air sterilization, one wrong whip of the hand and you've got spores in your jars) I just don't know how to really do G2G transfers in one or really if they work well or not.
I don't come here for help often I can usually handle things on my own and I do a lot of research (I've been studying cultivation for a long time if you can believe it) but I'm stuck af so I appreciate and input on this shit. Cheers.
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Ovoidhunter
Buttery Crescent



Registered: 09/17/16
Posts: 2,016
Last seen: 2 years, 8 months
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Re: Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out. [Re: west coast hunt]
#26950383 - 09/23/20 01:36 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Is your friend using agar to inoculate and isolating the culture away from contams before he puts it to grain? Multi spore grows tent to contam alot.
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west coast hunt
west coast hunt



Registered: 04/06/13
Posts: 170
Last seen: 9 months, 18 days
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Re: Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out. [Re: Ovoidhunter]
#26950388 - 09/23/20 01:43 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yup, cleaned up on agar before put to grain spawn.
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normalperson
Stranger


Registered: 10/31/19
Posts: 733
Last seen: 7 minutes, 43 seconds
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Re: Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out. [Re: west coast hunt]
#26950430 - 09/23/20 03:12 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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#1,you can't sterilize anything with isopropyl alcohol. #2,always shake your jars,healthy jars always recover. #3 a contaminated jar will not survive being shaken 3 times. You are probably contaminating your jars because you're using a glovebox, it's the 21st century,leave that old school shit in the garbage can of history and move forward.
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mescalinechemist



Registered: 07/02/18
Posts: 189
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Re: Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out. [Re: normalperson]
#26950439 - 09/23/20 03:25 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Isopropyl alcohol will reduce the bacterial and fungal load enough to make it safe to work ASSUMING you are working in a SAB or laminar flow hood. I used to work in a human tissue culture lab and I never once got a contaminated culture, even after I stopped using antibiotics in my media. I would sterlize the hood with UV light, turn it on, wipe my gloves and arms down with alcohol and then soak the hood in alcohol. Everything that went in the hood was sprayed heavily with 70% alcohol. Others who were more slack with sterile workflow got contamination. Alcohol is key, BUT only 1 part. The other part is clean air because while alcohol will cut things way down, endospores and some other things are not sensitive to alcohol and must be kept out with sterile procedure. Remember, early in cultivation we are creating the perfect environment for microbes, we need to exclude them.
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One of Us
Stranger



Registered: 03/12/12
Posts: 1,140
Last seen: 6 days, 15 hours
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Alcohol does not kill mold spores.
Like others said, lose the glovebox and use SAB. 95% of (successful) people here have used one with no issues. No reason to doubt their effectiveness.
Make sure oats are completely dry on the outside before loading into jars. Make sure to properly vent your pc before using it. This will help your problem of bacteria in your jars. Bacterial spawn will slow down the colonization of your substrate and allows mold in
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mescalinechemist



Registered: 07/02/18
Posts: 189
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Re: Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out. [Re: One of Us]
#26950458 - 09/23/20 04:02 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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That's what I said, it won't kill bacterial endospores or mold spores, you need sterile technique for that, but it will drop microbial load enough to make life easier.
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west coast hunt
west coast hunt



Registered: 04/06/13
Posts: 170
Last seen: 9 months, 18 days
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I see what you're saying, a major oversight on my part. But I don't know how to explain why the glovebox worked so well for months then, maybe I just got a little lucky for once but shit I'm never that lucky lol.
Like I said I'm willing to give an SAB a try, I'll do some work with it and see where I get but it seems so error prone being practically in open air. But I know many people swear by it so i'll give it the ol college try.
That is helpful but I'm still worried I've got some other problems going on I've been trying to tackle this for a long time. Could just using a glove box be the source of most of the issues i'm having?
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One of Us
Stranger



Registered: 03/12/12
Posts: 1,140
Last seen: 6 days, 15 hours
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I just thought I would clarify since you said alcohol reduces bacterial AND fungal load.
I mean, sure, alcohol would kill any germinated and growing fungus. But it has zero effect on mold spores.
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One of Us
Stranger



Registered: 03/12/12
Posts: 1,140
Last seen: 6 days, 15 hours
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Re: Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out. [Re: One of Us]
#26950523 - 09/23/20 05:38 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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The glove box could be your problem. There is a much higher spore load in the air in spring an summer, compared to winter. That may be why your troubles started in spring.
Also look at your grain prep and proper venting and sterilizing procedures as I mentioned earlier. The bacterial spawn you referred to can stall your substrate and weaken your mycelium enough for mold to get ahold.
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ttching8475
Spawn

Registered: 03/01/18
Posts: 739
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Re: Contamination is the BIG SUC help me out. [Re: west coast hunt]
#26950576 - 09/23/20 07:09 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
west coast hunt said: Yup, cleaned up on agar before put to grain spawn.
It kind of reads like it is still the same culture from the original g2g. If so, it could have picked up a hitchhiker during a round of transfers. It could also be getting old and less able to fend off competitors after spawning.
-------------------- LAGM 2.022
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