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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Nichrome] * 2
    #28844385 -


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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: RoscoeReturns] * 1
    #28844420 -

RoscoeReturns said:
The biggest problem with getting crystal clear plates is protein. When you vigorously boil malt extract there are proteins that denature and flocculate. Brewers call this the hot break. A quick boil to dissolve your malt won’t get rid of all of it. You also never know how much protein is in your malt extract because it’s not usually listed on the package. Sometimes I get clear agar when I mix the cold ingredients and send them through the PC, sometimes it has solids in it. The only way to ensure clear agar would be to really boil your water/malt extract, allow the proteins to fall out and pour off or filter, then add in your agar powder. Too much work for me, but if you want those sweet clear agar pics you got to put in the work.


Thanks for your understandable information. I'm definitely up to do the work. Perfection doesn't come from lazyness 😄

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: ContactUFO] * 3
    #28844563 -



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“All this buttoning and unbuttoning”

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: ContactUFO] * 1
    #28844994 -

Cold mixed dry malt extract in distilled h2o @ 2 lovibond pc'ed for 45 without any effort whatsoever:


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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Stipe-n Cap] * 2
    #28845069 -

I use your tek Stipe, levibond 1


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The Hitchhikers Guide
Milkboy's French Press Tek
AIO Rescue Thread
Everything about Agar and it's uses
Guide to Surface Conditions


       
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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: meta_mmxxii]
    #28845565 -

Hello my allies in agar, newbie here. If there’s one thing I seem to of mastered and that is contamination! Having fun learning though…I’ve since upped my sterilisation game.

Here’s a few picks from my first pour.

P.Nat strain on agar/potato flakes/corn syrup

What am I looking at here:

Are both mycelium or mold?
What’s the pitting on the right hand side?



More pitting: (and mad contam)

Is this mold or what you would call tomentose or overlay mycelium?



And here:

Is this what would be called cottony growth with a touch of mold circled?



Thanks for your help!

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: salubrious] * 5
    #28845572 -

That's all mold. Also mold is mycelium. Mold is a fungus. Fungi produce mycelium. And if anyone comes at me with yeast, I will kick them in the nuts.


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:pm:Ask about free prints: Ps tampanesis, subtropicalis, cubensis(ESS) and Pan cyanescens:pm:
Balance in life is like running on ice.

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"Mist your balls and fan your asshole" - Pandaskis, 2023

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: SirPsycho]
    #28845604 -

So I just leave it and see what happens?

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: salubrious] * 1
    #28845617 -

its already happening. time for the trashcan.


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:hypnotoad:
Making Liquid Culture :  Go insane with LC
Mushboy likes these teks : Making shroom tea
Dank Education

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: salubrious]
    #28845760 -

salubrious said:
So I just leave it and see what happens?


Sure, if you're looking to grow mold. Most of us are trying to grow mushrooms but hey I'm not gonna judge. I got a couple of penicillin cultures stashed away


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:pm:Ask about free prints: Ps tampanesis, subtropicalis, cubensis(ESS) and Pan cyanescens:pm:
Balance in life is like running on ice.

  🅑🅞🅣🅣🅛🅔 🅖🅐🅝🅖

"Mist your balls and fan your asshole" - Pandaskis, 2023

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: SirPsycho]
    #28845880 -

Sorry thought this was a penicillin thread…didn’t realise most were here to grow mushrooms!

Thanks for letting me know it’s all mold the reason I asked if I should keep it is I didn’t know if the natalensis mycelium would eventually come out and I could reuse some of it. Since your comments I’ve biffed them in the fire for destruction…Thank you!

I’m genuinely looking to figure out what’s healthy on agar and what’s not and to find out what specifically was growing.

I’ve buried my head in studying psilocybin for a few months now and I’m truly fascinated with its healing properties.

Apologies if this was the wrong place to post…feel free to point me in the right direction ✌🏼

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: salubrious]
    #28845900 -

Generally, nothing is going to outrun mold. It's way faster than mushroom mycelium and it sporulates on the plate.

You can transfer away from small amounts of mold, but it's tricky since the mold has probably sporulated by the time you recognize it. Generally only worthwhile when most of the plate is recognizably what you want and there's only a tiny spot or two of mold (and even then I toss unless I somehow don't have a backup).

Your plates don't seem to have any obvious Ps. natalensis colonies. Maybe some of the smaller colonies are, but they also look like mold to me, would not surprise me if they sporulated in the next few days like most of the rest of those plates.

With what and how did you inoculate the plates? And why are the plates missing big chunks of agar? You're almost certainly going to need to start over with new plates.


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LAGM 2026 grow log | My library/trade list

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Tormato]
    #28846803 -

Greetings!

Starting my first grow, with my first try at agar.

Agar recipe was ~250 ml water, ~15g potato flakes (filtered using the coffee press Tek), and 2,5g maple syrup. PC'ed,  poured in the SAB, and then inoculated from a spore syringe using an inoculation loop.

I've inoculated 3 plates with Cubensis Golden Teacher spores on 07/07 , a bit more than 4 days ago now.
For 2 plates, I used the "streaking" technique (starting with a snake pattern, flaming, rotating the dish, streaking out, etc.); 3rd one used the simple "Z"-pattern (Z pattern dish is marked with a Z).

2 out of 3 plates have multiple colonies of what I would say are contams (molds?), due to the dark center.



From what I read so far, especially in the recent replies here:
If it's contaminated with mold early on, and the mold is already producing spores, theres no point in trying to salvage the plate.
I guess I'm just going to observe what else happens with the contaminated plates.
I do see another colony forming on the plate with the 2 visible mold colonies, its barely visible with the naked eye, is about 2mm diameter,  doesn't really have color yet.
Checked it out with a 10x magnifying glass, this is what it looks like:



Anyways - this beginner's experience brought 2 questions to my mind:

  • Is there some kind of best practice on how many plates are recommended to inoculate for the initial/first generation of plates from multispore?
    Seeing as it's something of a numbers game, more plates may mean more chances of clean growth, up to a point.

  • Are there any established figures on how many days it usually takes to start seeing cubensis myc on agar?
    Just wondering if there is still a chance of something showing up on my 3rd plate which has no growth so far, or if it makes sense to prepare a couple of additional plates.

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Ruehrfisch]
    #28846827 -

Your 2 plates with growth are just mold, including the zoomed photo in my opinion. Keep an eye on the third plate, and if you have plates to spare, it wouldn't hurt to streak more of them, spores to agar can be a numbers game so you have to keep going until you see some mycelium growth. You can also look into BRF pucks for germinating dirty spores.

There is no best practice for all scenarios, it all depends on how clean your spores are, sometimes you can get clean growth in 1-2 plates, sometimes it takes more + additional clean up via water agar or other techniques.

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Phaethon]
    #28846861 -

Thanks P….To answer your questions:

With what and how did you inoculate the plates?

Spore print that I had received from a fellow mycologist. From USA to NZ.

Used a blowtorch to sterile blade and scraped spores into agar from Spore print…admittedly it was a limited experience SAB setup. No bottom rack to keep plates off the bench. I wiped hands and inside of box with isopropyl

And why are the plates missing big chunks of agar?

As it’s my first experience with agar I took out what I thought was
Bacteria or yeast…(I now realise every time I open it I expose it to more contam)

You're almost certainly going to need to start over with new plates.

Yeah…definitely. I have upped my game and did a complete reset on sterilisation, poured some new plates and inoculated. Happy with this batch as the condensation is a lot less.

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: salubrious]
    #28847206 -

Next time, instead of scraping, try using a sterile swab (you can buy them in sterile 2-packs or wrap normal q-tips individually in foil and pressure cook in a jar). You can also use an inoculation loop. Rub the end of the swab or loop over a small portion of the print to pick up some spores, then streak the spores in a "Z" pattern on the agar. This way you spread out the spores a bit, so if there are a few contaminants you still have a good chance of a clean colony of what you want. It also makes it really obvious if there is contamination that didn't come from the print itself, because those will be outside the streak pattern.

Sounds like you've picked this up now, but for posterity, we use agar to transfer good growth away from contaminants, not the other way around. Besides the risk of spreading the contamination even further (due to e.g. dropping spores from a moldy section), there is often a leading edge of agar colonization you may not see. It's much more effective to cut a piece the leading edge of good growth far from any visible contamination and put that on a new plate.

Good luck!


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LAGM 2026 grow log | My library/trade list

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Tormato]
    #28848135 -

I've been asking about this in the Q&A thread, but I'll ask it again here. My cultures keep turning teal. Is that a sign that the culture is, or contains, mold?



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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Arctic_Fox]
    #28848171 -

Well if i had to choose between a culture thats teal and a culture thats not, id go with the one thats not.


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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: AspectOfTheCreator]
    #28848172 -

AspectOfTheCreator said:
Well if i had to choose between a culture thats teal and a culture thats not, id go with the one thats not.


They often turn this colour later on. I took transfers from these (though the bit that changed colour was not where I took the transfer from). I'll find out if they too change colour.

But I'd like to know what's going on so I don't waste my time carefully cultivating mold :P


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Edited by Arctic_Fox (07/12/24 09:32 AM)

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Re: AGAR ENVY! (Anything and All things agar!) [Re: Arctic_Fox]
    #28848437 -

Tried to use agar in the plastic boxes and I'm not sure if they're okay, what do you think?
Ps. Papuana and Pan Bispo, T1
Which part you'd use for transfer or they all are bad? Thanks.









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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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