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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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Spawning to shredded water agar (silly experiment) * 1
    #29609224 -

Okay, first of all, eww, boo, yuck - I get it. But I haven't found much info on using water agar as a substrate, so maybe it's worth sharing anyway.

Here's the story.
- Had a few bacterial jars with stagnant cube mycelium on WBS.
- Made water agar (8g agar per 500ml of filtered water) and shredded it with a fork.
- Took a couple tablespoons of colonized WBS and mixed with agar in a 2l jar.
- Left it on the shelf to see what happens.
- Harvested 11g fresh (which is actually not bad considering how little spawn there was).



Very poor FAE, I know, but such small space forces you to choose between low FAE and low humidity.
Also, I forgot to add colorant, but I have fully accepted my stupidity by now, so no regrets.

My observations:
1) Shredding agar releases free water. It would be better to let it dry out a little before mixing.
2) Transparent medium causes pins EVERYWHERE (duh).
3) Mycelium did colonize agar - there were consolidated areas with visible white fluff.
4) Things looked stable at colonization, no new contaminants or anything.
5) When fruiting started, mycelium began digesting agar more aggressively. This released more free water and created small hollow areas.

Further thoughts:
1) I fantasized that water agar as an additive to normal bulk could be a path to self-rehydrating setup, but agar probably soaks things too much too fast. Also, agar has no inert carcass, so it simply DISAPPEARS as it's digested, which could lead to mechanical collapse.
2) This hydroponic shit may be worth another try, I'll do my best to have a cleaner run and post the results (unless I'm banned for being an idiot, which would make perfect sense).
3) Water agar might perform a lot better with TRUFFLES. Just imagine: a see-through medium and nothing to peel off. Sounds like a direction to me!


--------------------
You gave me a wonderful, wonderful world,
And you gave me eyes to see it,
And you gave me LSD to open them.

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Re: Spawning to shredded water agar (silly experiment) [Re: kyu] * 1
    #29609232 -

Pretty cool experiment you got going on lol. I read the title and immediately said “wtf”  I didn’t know what to expect but even more so I didn’t expect it to work like that. Obviously I know agar can grow fruits by itself but never thought what would happen if I did THAT.  Pretty cool man👍

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Re: Spawning to shredded water agar (silly experiment) [Re: Awfullotofshrooms]
    #29616129 -



Second flush - another 8g of skinnies.

I was wrong in my original post - it's definitely not too wet there (except for the free moisture that I introduced initially, but it's gone now). I'd say things go slower than in regular bulk. I'd try reducing agar/liter ratio, maybe it will be easier to digest.

Harvesting fruits is a shitshow, everything breaks apart.

BUT I'm definitely doing this with truffles.
The way I imagine it, it could go like this:
1) Make shitload of water agar
2) Add spawn
3) Harvest truffles, add more spawn as needed
4) Repeat until there's no jelly left.

We'll see how it goes outside my head ofc.


--------------------
You gave me a wonderful, wonderful world,
And you gave me eyes to see it,
And you gave me LSD to open them.

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Re: Spawning to shredded water agar (silly experiment) [Re: kyu]
    #29616132 -

I'm optimistic about re-spawning like that, because I think this setup should be resilient as hell.
In most other bulks, there's always some uncolonized nutrients that contams can race for to nest and give you attitude. But this is totally inert medium. From the moment you spawn, all the nutrients are already dominated by shrooms.

Here's another stupid experiment as a proof-of-concept of what I'm rambling about.

Put a few buckwheat grains in water agar plates. Just completely dry non-sterile grains, straight out of the package.



Left - not inoculated. I suspect contamination. It doesn't spread far, though!

Right - leftover ms germination plate. The grain was colonized as it was hydrating. Looks like that gave the mushroom a head-start. And once it established, nothing went to shit. There's no struggle, no surprises, just a healthy colony.


--------------------
You gave me a wonderful, wonderful world,
And you gave me eyes to see it,
And you gave me LSD to open them.

Edited by kyu (07/03/26 04:25 AM)

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Re: Spawning to shredded water agar (silly experiment) [Re: kyu] * 1
    #29616141 -

Next experiment look into water crystal as a substitute. Easier to measure b.e. that way.


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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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