UkaUka said:

I have huge temperature swings in the day/night cycle and I suspect that's the reason for growth rings. Every single plate has them and grows like a tree trunk. What would be the ideal temp for growing myc though?

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TheGreatDellion said:

Hey yall.  Need some help seeing if I've got some bacteria on a few plates.  I tried to take the best pics I could but it's a bit hard to see. You can only really notice it if you tilt the plate a bit and get some light to reflect off the area in question.  It looks like its almost clear shiny mycelium at the leading edge of the growth.  I haven't noticed this before so I'm thinking its either normal or bacteria.  For reference these are PDA plates with nutritional yeast added.

Pic 1 - Look at the leading edge of the mycelium from roughly 3-7 position.


Pic 2 - Same position - roughly 3-7 O'clock.


Pic 3 - Tried to take one with the flash on.  Roughly 3-9 O'clock.


Any help would be much appreicated!

Edit: Figured I should add some pics of the plate straight on

Without flash - roughly 12-6 O'clock


With flash - 12-5 O'clock

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Nichrome said:

They both work.

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Shrimps said:

Nichrome said:

They both work.

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They both work great, agreed. I would prefer parafilm for the handling and GE ect... but looking at it from the price side, is clinge wrap the true winner.

I use both. Clingwrap I have always, parafilm sometimes goes out. So, better get both :P But if price is a problem, clearly clinge wrap.

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If the price isn't a problem, clearly send me money

ruawakeyet said:

General update: In the past, I've tried streaking spores in a W or Z pattern with a swab, but the germ plates were always too busy to have a lot of leading edge options to transfer. For one, the swabs created too wide of a streak path. The zig-zag pattern also created colonies running into each other before having a good opportunity to select transfers.

This last time, I tried something different, and I'm really happy with how it worked. Instead of using a swab, I used a knife. Instead of zig-zagging the streak, I simply made one shallow slice right in the middle of the plate, staying away from the edges. The total length of the slice is approximately 1 1/2 inches long, or roughly 4 cm. (I'm using agar jars that have a limited diameter. 90 to 100 mm plates could use a longer slice, so use your best judgment.)

I have leading edge transfer options all the way around! Since the streak path doesn't have inside corners, the colonies can all grow outward without running into each other. It also effectively transferred the majority of spores in the first plate. Second germ plates using the same knife, (without grabbing more spores), only showed a small spot of germination at the very beginning of the slice, and one didn't show any at all.

I did try to take a picture but it's a waste of time when using jars instead of petris.

Anyone else streak spores this way? I don't think I will ever do it another way again I'm so happy with this result!

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CJD said:

I'd love to see photos of this in action.  I haven't had the best of luck with swabs so far but I think that's more my technique than the swabs fault.

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