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Zsuzsi
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Registered: 03/05/19
Posts: 86
Last seen: 6 months, 15 days
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Question on my first grain / monotub attempt (from MS+Agar)
#27036415 - 11/13/20 05:44 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Hello,
after a first attempt months ago with a pf tek that didn't go well (almost all my cakes didn't fruit), I'm getting into agar and grains. Inoculated BRF agar plates, and I've now transferred my best mycelium candidate into 3 other MEA plates. They're growing great.
Neither oats nor rye berries are easy to find locally, but I did find WBS at a store nearby (and cheap, too). My first question: will that WBS be OK to use as grain ? here's a picture:

It has 7% sunflower seeds, which I know is a lot. It has some corn, but not cracked, it's whole, and there's little of it. It's sold as "feed for wild bird", and contents are listed as: wheat, sorghum, sunflower seeds, millet, corn. I'd say the vast majority of the packet contains millet and sorghum. Will that work properly ? I know removing sunflower seeds doesn't usually matter but with 7% content, maybe I should do it anyway ? at least most of it when it floats ?
Moreover, I'm seeing great growth on my T1 MEA plates, though it's not rhyzo growth. From what I've read here, not only does this not matter, it's to be expected when coming from MS. Correct ? I don't plan to isolate anything here randomly, since it came from MS; I'll do that with a clone later on. Instead, I plan to do a second and final transfer on MEA plates and then use those to inoc the grain. Are two transfers from MS enough before going to grain ?
As a final note, I dearly wish I had started on agar for that first attempt months ago. I used a leftover, half empty syringe I had in the fridge more than a year and 10 (!!) initial plates because I absolutely expected it to fail. Yet all of them took off in a matter of days, and no contams at all are visible in any of the plates. I love agar now - in fact I don't entirely understand why pf tek is still recommended to beginners here if they have a PC; it seems so much less effort to go agar then grain then monotub.
Thanks in advance !
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PBJ710
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Registered: 07/05/19
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Last seen: 18 days, 14 hours
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Re: Question on my first grain / monotub attempt (from MS+Agar) [Re: Zsuzsi]
#27036459 - 11/13/20 06:40 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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I'm no WBS expert so I won't chime in on the nuances of that specific WBS mix, but it should work fine. Sometimes you just have to use what's available and adapt to it.
On a T1 I wouldn't expect much if any rhizo growth. Occasionally 2 transfers will be enough, but it's not something you can put a hard number on due to both the genetics lottery as well as your agar skills to some extent. You make transfers until there is only an axenic culture on the plate. It's extremely easy for undesirables to hide in that mess of growth at this stage.
PFTek is recommended as it tends to be a more successful process for growers even if the yields are low. I'll use PFTek for dirty syringes to get some fruit to take clones from - then off to agar to be cleaned, then to grain.
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Zsuzsi
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Registered: 03/05/19
Posts: 86
Last seen: 6 months, 15 days
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Re: Question on my first grain / monotub attempt (from MS+Agar) [Re: PBJ710]
#27036480 - 11/13/20 06:55 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Oh, so there is a reason to try for rhizo growth even when starting from MS, thanks. Maybe I'll do more than 2 transfers before going to grain, then.
Also another quick question: I'm planning on doing coir for the tub substrate. I've no gypsum but I've still got verm left over; I plant to add a little of that too. Is BOD's insulated coir bucket tek still the de-facto reference here ?
Quote:
I'll use PFTek for dirty syringes to get some fruit to take clones from - then off to agar to be cleaned, then to grain.
Yeah, I really should've done that when my cake fruited months ago; but didn't have dishes yet.
And thanks again !
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PBJ710
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Registered: 07/05/19
Posts: 2,623
Last seen: 18 days, 14 hours
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Re: Question on my first grain / monotub attempt (from MS+Agar) [Re: Zsuzsi]
#27036673 - 11/13/20 09:23 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yeah, stick with Bod's teks and you'll be fine. IME, It's not a big deal to leave out the gypsum. When you start fruiting, you may need to fine tune some of the teks to your environment (FAE with unmodified tubs comes to mind).
When working from a clone you also get the benefit of knowing it's a fruiting culture, which can be an issue appearantly.
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