AspectOfTheCreator said:

I thought thats how isolating a monoculture/isolate on agar works? By narrowing down genetics.

---

AspectOfTheCreator said:

Stros cleaning and agar mentions mono cultures and transferring too much being counterproductive I think. Dont really remember exactly. Just was under that impression from what ive read. I only get grow info off this site. I realize theres a lot of outdated info.

---

Stro's Cleaning and Isolating on Agar is very solid for learning to do this, and it's in my sig line post I recommended to you.

But it's almost 10 years old,.

Except a few things (most of which I link in that post) I usually recommend finding teks under 5 years old on here, and when I do advanced search I limit to last five years.

Older teks often being replaced by newer info is why it says at the top of old threads and posts here "Some of these posts are very old and might contain outdated information. You may wish to search for newer posts instead."

An old tek that's mostly solid can have info that's no longer considered solid.

It is commonly repeated that transferring too many times is counterproductive, due to senescence (dividing cells degrading with age and many generations, part of the reason all living things age and die), but I think it's overstated, and was more overstated in this hobby in years past than recently.

Several TCs have said that's overstated, and they've transferred many times and still had strong shrooms grow robustly.

My argument for senescence being way overstated in this hobby is that there are a number of clone-based varieties (like Enigma) being widely shared that are incredibly strong are probably 200th generation clones or older by the time people get them now. Those clones are still going strong, grow well, and are some of the strongest cubes in the Psilo Cup for the past few years.

I just re-read the Stro's Cleaning and Isolating on Agar tek (always fine to have a refresher course), and I see nothing it it about too many generations degrading quality. It does say though "it is important that you don't get too wrapped up or concerned about 'sectors'"

Pic tax and example for the "there are no monocultures" idea, this is a plate where I transferred a piece of agar with a single thread of rhizo from a clone culture. It grew into a bunch of threads.

Adas said:

I've heard (from Sidnee Obersingleton on FB - he's a mycologist) that a clone only consists of a single genetic individual - that it's not possible for different cultures to cooperate in creating a fruiting body. At least not within the species we're mostly interested in here.

---