Jrey16 said:

I'm going to be making my own liquid culture for my first time soon. When I search online I see a bunch of recipes that include malt, dextrose, peptone, corn syrup, etc.
The person I get my liquid culture from told me he only uses powdered brown rice with water for his LCs and he told me that's what I should do also. 3 grams of powdered brown rice with 400ml distilled water. I searched online and I have not seen anyone making LC with powdered brown rice.
I have a 100 percent success rate with his LCs. Harvested a few tubs so far.

What do you guys think about this LC recipe?

Here are some pictures of some of his "oyster mushroom" LC syringes, fully colonized grain spawn from his LC, and one of the grows.

---

koma23 said:

Oh yeah, zip locks are almost like storing in open air :p

Okey, so maybe double vacuum bags? Glass jars are out of the question, there's just too much product to store in glass jars. Maybe some very large tupperware boxes which have a vacuum port, or something in those lines?

Appreciate the info and links!

---

Meanwhile said:

One more question while I'm at it as there seems to be conflicting answers on it when I've thoroughly searched the forums. I recently got my hands on some glass pyrex dishes for cheap and I'm going to use those instead of the cheaper plastic ones I had before. I'm using the pour method and have no interest in doing no pour in a PC.

How do you sterilize them? Should I just pop them in the PC double wrapped in foil with the agar in media bottles for 20-25m or in the oven double wrapped as well at 400f for an hour while I'm doing the agar in the pc? I say double wrap as I like to take a layer off anything I'm working with before placing it in the SAB. Probably paranoid but w/e.

---

Meanwhile said:

One more question while I'm at it as there seems to be conflicting answers on it when I've thoroughly searched the forums. I recently got my hands on some glass pyrex dishes for cheap and I'm going to use those instead of the cheaper plastic ones I had before. I'm using the pour method and have no interest in doing no pour in a PC.

How do you sterilize them? Should I just pop them in the PC double wrapped in foil with the agar in media bottles for 20-25m or in the oven double wrapped as well at 400f for an hour while I'm doing the agar in the pc? I say double wrap as I like to take a layer off anything I'm working with before placing it in the SAB. Probably paranoid but w/e.

---

I dry heat sterilize my glass petris and metal tools. I have metal tins, but wraped in foil works well.



75mm petris


Tea tins for petri sterilization and storage.

ReverendMyc said:

Double bagging, mylar bags, silica packets. Keeping it dry is the key to protecting potency. The o2 reaction is what kills the potency, however, psilocybin is not very reactive with o2 except in the presents of water. So if it is kept super dry, the vacuum is not as important.

I have found that these larger plastic containers with a higher hardness keep moisture out well but get pricey. Food grade 5 gallon buckets work surprisingly well for real volume with a fair amount of desiccants. My garage is full of them for everything from grain to prepared substrate, mush, tools, aged hpoo, spare change...

---

YellowBelly said:

When so I add food coloring when making agar? Added some all-natural blue food coloring to the agar mix before PC. After the PC cycle the agar was back to the normal color and there was some weird gunk floating around (of which I assume is the food coloring that got toasted during the PC).

Was it because I used all-natural stuff?

---

Stuntbum said:

Couple of questions.

What can I use to detect the cleanliness of the air from an ffu?

Also, hypothetically speaking of course, if a person had bid on 4 2x2' laminar flow hoods and before the auctions ended purchased a 4x2' additional unit, then won the other 4...What would that person do with all of them? 6'x4' flow wall?

---

You could do that.
Light incense.
You can watch to see any gaps in coverage.

Stuntbum said:

Couple of questions.

What can I use to detect the cleanliness of the air from an ffu?

Also, hypothetically speaking of course, if a person had bid on 4 2x2' laminar flow hoods and before the auctions ended purchased a 4x2' additional unit, then won the other 4...What would that person do with all of them? 6'x4' flow wall?

---

ThurmanMurman said:

I did my first agar transfer and contaminated the donor plate in the process. I've got a hole in my technique that I think I've patched up, but I'd have preferred the whole process have been faster, and it was a chore to get the donor sample off the scalpel. Has anyone ever snipped the loop off the end of a disposable inoculation loop, flamed the remaining wire stem, and then used it like a fork to transplant a wedge? In my mind, sticking the wedge with a wire at a 45-30 degree angle, setting it on transfer plate and then pulling away seems like there would be enough drag to allow the wire to remove itself from the wedge without a whole lot of coercing. I gotta assume its been done and probably wasnt a winning strategy, but ya never know.

---

If you were to do this then you need to put down your scalpel and plate, and flame the modified loop between transfers, which seems like a pain in the ass and increased potential for stirring up contamination in the SAB.

I would keep persisting with the scalpel, and you will figure it out with more practice.

I do a gentle twist and wipe motion to get the wedge off the tip of my scalpel blade, sometimes the wedge will get a bit cut up if my scalpel blade is a bit deeply planted into the wedge I'm transferring and look ugly, but who cares, a clean plate is all that matters

Dkeppel said:

ThurmanMurman said:

I did my first agar transfer and contaminated the donor plate in the process. I've got a hole in my technique that I think I've patched up, but I'd have preferred the whole process have been faster, and it was a chore to get the donor sample off the scalpel. Has anyone ever snipped the loop off the end of a disposable inoculation loop, flamed the remaining wire stem, and then used it like a fork to transplant a wedge? In my mind, sticking the wedge with a wire at a 45-30 degree angle, setting it on transfer plate and then pulling away seems like there would be enough drag to allow the wire to remove itself from the wedge without a whole lot of coercing. I gotta assume its been done and probably wasnt a winning strategy, but ya never know.

---

If you were to do this then you need to put down your scalpel and plate, and flame the modified loop between transfers, which seems like a pain in the ass and increased potential for stirring up contamination in the SAB.

I would keep persisting with the scalpel, and you will figure it out with more practice.

I do a gentle twist and wipe motion to get the wedge off the tip of my scalpel blade, sometimes the wedge will get a bit cut up if my scalpel blade is a bit deeply planted into the wedge I'm transferring and look ugly, but who cares, a clean plate is all that matters

---

Tri-Polar said:

Stuntbum said:

Couple of questions.

What can I use to detect the cleanliness of the air from an ffu?

Also, hypothetically speaking of course, if a person had bid on 4 2x2' laminar flow hoods and before the auctions ended purchased a 4x2' additional unit, then won the other 4...What would that person do with all of them? 6'x4' flow wall?

---

Open plate tests + smoke tests to ensure it’s laminar

---

ThurmanMurman said:

Dkeppel said:

ThurmanMurman said:

I did my first agar transfer and contaminated the donor plate in the process. I've got a hole in my technique that I think I've patched up, but I'd have preferred the whole process have been faster, and it was a chore to get the donor sample off the scalpel. Has anyone ever snipped the loop off the end of a disposable inoculation loop, flamed the remaining wire stem, and then used it like a fork to transplant a wedge? In my mind, sticking the wedge with a wire at a 45-30 degree angle, setting it on transfer plate and then pulling away seems like there would be enough drag to allow the wire to remove itself from the wedge without a whole lot of coercing. I gotta assume its been done and probably wasnt a winning strategy, but ya never know.

---

If you were to do this then you need to put down your scalpel and plate, and flame the modified loop between transfers, which seems like a pain in the ass and increased potential for stirring up contamination in the SAB.

I would keep persisting with the scalpel, and you will figure it out with more practice.

I do a gentle twist and wipe motion to get the wedge off the tip of my scalpel blade, sometimes the wedge will get a bit cut up if my scalpel blade is a bit deeply planted into the wedge I'm transferring and look ugly, but who cares, a clean plate is all that matters

---

Thank you for your thoughts - I did wonder if the added step and changing of tools would negate the expected benefit. I will try like you suggested on my next go around!

---

LewDoja said:

ThurmanMurman said:

Dkeppel said:

ThurmanMurman said:

I did my first agar transfer and contaminated the donor plate in the process. I've got a hole in my technique that I think I've patched up, but I'd have preferred the whole process have been faster, and it was a chore to get the donor sample off the scalpel. Has anyone ever snipped the loop off the end of a disposable inoculation loop, flamed the remaining wire stem, and then used it like a fork to transplant a wedge? In my mind, sticking the wedge with a wire at a 45-30 degree angle, setting it on transfer plate and then pulling away seems like there would be enough drag to allow the wire to remove itself from the wedge without a whole lot of coercing. I gotta assume its been done and probably wasnt a winning strategy, but ya never know.

---

If you were to do this then you need to put down your scalpel and plate, and flame the modified loop between transfers, which seems like a pain in the ass and increased potential for stirring up contamination in the SAB.

I would keep persisting with the scalpel, and you will figure it out with more practice.

I do a gentle twist and wipe motion to get the wedge off the tip of my scalpel blade, sometimes the wedge will get a bit cut up if my scalpel blade is a bit deeply planted into the wedge I'm transferring and look ugly, but who cares, a clean plate is all that matters

---

Thank you for your thoughts - I did wonder if the added step and changing of tools would negate the expected benefit. I will try like you suggested on my next go around!

---

It takes practice...  try it on blank plates with without risking the donor plate. Just barely poking the wedge with the  scalpel  until you find the right size of wedge that doest fall off while moving to other plate & falls off easy.

Also if the scalpel has been heated to many times it starts to curl the tip and that is the worst to try to get wedge off of.

---