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EP66
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Registered: 04/24/21
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Looking for a clear "agar" medium for photo purposes.
#27280098 - 04/24/21 05:56 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hello! This is my first post here, so... Greetings.
In short, as the title said: I'm looking for the clearest / most translucent mediums to grow mycelium in. I've hopes to develop photographs (Old school), directly to paper, or to film, through growth mediums. For now, I'm experimenting on thin films of agar recipes but it would be kick ass to be able to make thicker translucent blocks of medium to experiment with.
I'm also considering doing some bulbs of gelatin and nutrients for more sculptural pieces, but cant quite figure aout how to make that work... Is there a reason why just gelatin and honey (or some dextrose) shouldn't work, in similar fashion to liquid cultures? or is it jsut a matter of the ratio of sugars being too low if the desire is to keep it translucent?
Enough rambling. Thanks in advance! :9
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DutchMyco
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Re: Looking for a clear "agar" medium for photo purposes. [Re: EP66]
#27280177 - 04/24/21 08:18 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Gellan gum.
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Smartattack
C'mon man



Registered: 12/21/18
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Re: Looking for a clear "agar" medium for photo purposes. [Re: DutchMyco]
#27280244 - 04/24/21 09:45 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Agar should b pretty damn clear if you use nutes with no particulate and a small amount of it. Just agar water and a bit of clear karo will grow mycelium.
-------------------- * Smarts videos * Planet of the APES   I'm a fungal white supremacist.
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



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Re: Looking for a clear "agar" medium for photo purposes. [Re: EP66]
#27280377 - 04/24/21 12:06 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Gelatin isn't suitable because the mycelium will consume it, turning the plate back to liquid. I don't quite understand why you want clear media as it's the mycelium on top you'll be photographing. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

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Re: Looking for a clear "agar" medium for photo purposes. [Re: RogerRabbit]
#27280879 - 04/24/21 10:15 PM (2 years, 8 months ago) |
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Some people use Low Acyl Gellan Gum, it's really clear. My friend who told me about it uses it all the time and hasn't had any issues with enzymes from the mycelium turning it back into liquid. He says it isn't good for water agar cloning because more stuff can grow in it than just plain agar without nutrient.
Another option is agar that has been purified for plant tissue cloning, it's more clear than standard agar but still not nearly as clear as gellan gum.
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EP66
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Re: Looking for a clear "agar" medium for photo purposes. [Re: RogerRabbit]
#27281175 - 04/25/21 07:00 AM (2 years, 8 months ago) |
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I'm not Photographing them per se. But looking to expose photograhic/photosensitive materials like paper and film throught them. Something akin to a photogram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogram
It gives all sorts of neat spacey effects when depth gets involved.  Just geeking really..
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EP66
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Re: Looking for a clear "agar" medium for photo purposes. [Re: EP66]
#27281187 - 04/25/21 07:08 AM (2 years, 8 months ago) |
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Thanks everyone for your quick input and suggestions! I'll deffinitely have to do some experiments with these leads. So did I understand correctly that mycelium can devour gelatin itself, for nutrients?
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