Polkahontass said:

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Meanwhile said:

...it's a pain to get all the right angles for pics and still don't feel like its a good pic. If better is needed or tips feel free to say so.

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I usually shoot from near straight above and illuminate from an angle (around 45 degrees, but sometimes a little more or less) at the side. I move light source and/or camera to avoid glare on the plate top from the light.

Important: turn off the auto focus on my phone or camera then manually focus. If you use auto focus it almost always focuses on the top of the plate, not the mycleium on the agar.

I show examples of the difference here:


Acceptable, manual focus, I moved camera up and down until it was focused on mycelium

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bad, autofocus focusing on top of plate or drops of condensation on underside of top of plate

Meanwhile said:

First agar..yay! Honestly super excited. Done my best to read and learn as much as possible. Uploading one pic for now, there will probably be a few more to come as the days go by. Jeez it's a pain to get all the right angles for pics and still don't feel like its a good pic. If better is needed or tips feel free to say so.



All that being said got this bit of agar I got some questions about. I've squared off two areas of interest that to my very novice eye look like good candidates for transfer. What are your thoughts?

Edit: It's impossible to get a top shot because of condensation unfortunately..

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MycCycle said:

A big thanks to all who had the decency to share spores and wedges. You know who you are!

With that I share with you a part of what’s going on from my previous location with a SAB someone dear to me prepared as a gift.

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Meanwhile said:

MycCycle said:

A big thanks to all who had the decency to share spores and wedges. You know who you are!

With that I share with you a part of what’s going on from my previous location with a SAB someone dear to me prepared as a gift.

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Damn that's clean, what's with the what I assume are vents placed on the front wall with tape over them?

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MycCycle said:

However, they work. I think it’s a better option than rolling cling wrap around it every time “I’m going in”.

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Whatcha mean?

Stipe-n Cap said:

Fungi are totipotent. Totipotency is the ability of a cell to regenerate or develop into any other cell or into a complete organism when grown from a single cell or tissue culture. For those of you who propagate cacti pups, you'll recognize the term.

Even in the mature fruitbody, every hypha retains its totipotency which in turn can produce the entire organism from any part of the whole. This is why culture expansion and cloning work, totipotency is the underlying mechanism.

The leading edge is simply a grouping of quickly expanding hyphae. The leading edge is in a state of rapid expansion but is not necessary to select for due to the totipotent nature of the organism, any part will suffice; however, allowing the culture to fill out a bit will allow sufficient time for any lagging contaminants to incubate/grow, while simultaneously allowing the culture time to reveal which growth is most robust/healthy.

Leading growth/edge transfers are best reserved for known pure cultures that have been sufficiently worked to produce the desired outcome.

Here's an excellent example from a germ plate streaked with MS solution:



Leading edge is not necessary, selecting away from contamination is the primary objective at this stage.

The same applies here:



When clean growth is achieved, select for rapid/healthy growth from the leading edge once the morphology has been given time to develop:

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MycCycle said:

I know some people wrap cling wrap around their SABs to seal the holes. I’d prefer having a permanent non-waste solution to simply attach some kind of lid that doesn’t disturb the still air in the box.

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I used magnetic sheets and acrylic disks to make my covers. They slid off easily, not much disturbance.


75 gal aquarium on it's side. Plexi glass front w/ 178mm arm holes and magnetic covers.