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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
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Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas
    #29665475 -

Hello fellow mushroom cultivators.

I am new to this area of agriculture, but have some general growing knowledge, so I started with "try a bunch of different methods at once to see what works".

One of these methods has been taking a tissue clone from grocery store mushrooms, expanding on agar, moving agar to a liquid culture, LC to grain(wild bird seed in this test), and then colonized grain to a verm/coir substrate. This cultivation is portabellas, they are currently in the substrate, but stalled for a few days. Three days ago I noticed a tiny almost purple spot, but thought it was the lighting or the angle, so I monitored for the next 72hr. Slow, but healthy mycelium growth started from the edges of the shoebox so I did not want to disturb the substrate.



Around the 72hr my impulse to remove the purple spots had gotten the better of me, the purple spots had grown but at a much slower rate than the mycelium. I removed the purple spots with a small scoop/shovel with some excess on the edges to be safe.



I have been doing some searching but without much clarity. I also ran the images through an AI consensus and the consumer grade models did not come to a definite answer, it was "lipstick mold", "lilac mold", "Trichoderma Harzianum", Chromobacterium Violaceum" and several other options. So I am here for the real experts on mycology. What is the name of this?!?!


Notes:
- I have isolated the container in a separate room
- Moved 4 samples from different spots onto a petri that is taped and bagged in a separate room from my other cultivations
- Answer or not I will toss the entire tub in the morning



Thank you all in advance for your help! 🍄 ❤️


--------------------
Read the guide, read it again, understand the guide, then start the hobby.

I have no idea what I am doing, but I'm having fun doing it!

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: shroom_fae]
    #29665629 -

I think buttons are always grown commercially on pasteurized compost, and there must be a reason for this. The spawn rate even is low (can be as low as .5%) suggesting most nutrition is from the compost not the grain.

Not saying to lower your spawn ratio but you may want to look into changing your substrate. I think there are probably microorganisms in compost that is only pasteurized which are absent entirely from coir/verm. Your substrate lacking these 'good microbes' may be more contamination-prone. I cant answer what the purple thing is though.

Also keep in mind they always use a casing layer for buttons post-colonization, something like ph-adjusted peat moss. Low nutrition coir might be better for the casing layer than the substrate.

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: CreonAntigone]
    #29665704 -

Thank you very much Creon, that is great information!

I have been thinking about trying a lime/cold pasteurization method for Black Kow I read on here a while back. When time allows I will give it a shot and follow up.


Still super curious about the purple stuff. Not seeing much growth on the petri yet, but it has only been 12hrs.


--------------------
Read the guide, read it again, understand the guide, then start the hobby.

I have no idea what I am doing, but I'm having fun doing it!

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: shroom_fae]
    #29665744 -

I respect your desire to culture the possible contaminant you collected, not a lot of people here do that. Usually it's just toss and forget. But what you're doing is interesting scientifically, for sure. A bit like the work of a pathologist.

Do you have a link to the black kow cold pasteurization tek? I'm curious. My concern would be the substrate ph after the lime was added in that case.

I think you'd have the highest success chance by just doing a steam pasteurization run on the composted manure. But if you want to experiment for the heck of it I'd approve of that too.


Edited by CreonAntigone (09/11/26 09:27 AM)

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: CreonAntigone]
    #29666306 -

Here are the images I took now from the petri:



Hopefully they will be grown out more by the weekend, I would like to get those on glass and take a look with the microscope.


On the topic of the Black Kow "TEK", I did not learn about that here on the shroomery. I chat with a few of the local farmers at the co-op when I can, and have heard about this "cold pasteurization of Black Kow" from the ones that grow the best local fruit trees, they use the finished product to start their saplings for healthier trees and in turn fruits. I made the leap from that to some of the straw pasteurization TEKs I have read here, but replacing the sand with some straw.

I will ask more about the method down at the co-op, and probably take actual notes this time!


--------------------
Read the guide, read it again, understand the guide, then start the hobby.

I have no idea what I am doing, but I'm having fun doing it!

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: shroom_fae]
    #29666384 -

shroom_fae said:
Here are the images I took now from the petri:



Hopefully they will be grown out more by the weekend, I would like to get those on glass and take a look with the microscope.



That looks like some kind of bacteria for sure.

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: CreonAntigone]
    #29666467 -

Yes, it's definitely a bacteria based on the slimy appearance(does not show up well in my images), but I am still determined to find out the taxonomy of it since I was not able to find it yet.


--------------------
Read the guide, read it again, understand the guide, then start the hobby.

I have no idea what I am doing, but I'm having fun doing it!

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: shroom_fae]
    #29667972 -

Would love to see some portabellas grown around here. It's been on my list as well. Such a staple mushroom. Kind of surprised it's not done on a hobbyist scale very often.

Will stay tuned for updates

:camping:


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Pasteurizing Straw with Hydrated Lime
Swiss Cheese Fruiting Chamber

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: Agar Wedge]
    #29668300 -

Well good news, I have a 2nd tub still going with them. The bad news, as pointed out earlier in the thread, I made a poor choice for a substrate, but because I spent the first few weeks dialing in my agar and LC processes, I have at least 500ml of portabella LC on hand, so I may be able to get another tubs going this week 🤞


--------------------
Read the guide, read it again, understand the guide, then start the hobby.

I have no idea what I am doing, but I'm having fun doing it!

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: shroom_fae]
    #29668303 -

:rockon::mushroom: always good to have back up cultures


--------------------





Pasteurizing Straw with Hydrated Lime
Swiss Cheese Fruiting Chamber

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: shroom_fae]
    #29669013 -

The plot thickens, what I believed to be a purple bacteria now has what appears to my untrained eye to be health mycelium growth on top of it.

This is now day 5, the purple has not expanded at the rate I assumed it would on agar. I am beginning to suspect that the purple may be a metabolite that the portabellas produced from being in a suboptimal substrate.



I am regretting not keeping the grow in a sequestration chamber now, instead of tossing it.


--------------------
Read the guide, read it again, understand the guide, then start the hobby.

I have no idea what I am doing, but I'm having fun doing it!

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: shroom_fae]
    #29669135 -

I don't think I'd call that mycelium healthy per se, it seems unhappy with the bacteria it's growing around. But perhaps in a way that still lets it grow. If what you found out was the area had bacteria and not some kinda mold that definitely would be a good indicator for the tub.

Bacterial tubs can still produce flushes and have less of an impact on fitness than the moldy tubs, not to mention because of how bacteria grows it doesn't infect your grow area in the same way by producing aerially-spreading spores. Bacterial tubs can be kept without necessarily 'infecting' another. It's only really molds that are the death knell to a tub since they sporulate, take the same resources and grow faster than mycelium.

It would've been a good candidate for an outside flower pot kind of grow if you have an outside space or a friend with a yard. 55f to 64f is their general wild fruiting temperature.

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Re: Purple Contamination(?) on Portabellas [Re: CreonAntigone]
    #29669166 -

Oh this is all great to know!


I do have a very large yard, and a garden that provides almost all of our fresh produce, so a rogue mushroom bed or two would be great! As well I have recently started preparing a shaded spot on the north side of our shed for an attempt to grow black and gold morels when the temperatures drop a bit more.


What factors should I consider when I find an infected grow to determine whether it should go into a flower pot, compost, or buried? If there is a write up on the subject I would love to read it!


Thank you! ♥️


--------------------
Read the guide, read it again, understand the guide, then start the hobby.

I have no idea what I am doing, but I'm having fun doing it!

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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
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