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New grower, contam in a PE grow * 1
    #29693493 -

Good evening!

So, I'm a new grower...please go easy on me!

I started this hobby in August, so I'm not very experienced at all. Genetics were obtained from a highly recommended source on this board. Because I have a science background, I both anticipated failures and-if I succeeded- wanted to make some comparisons, so I decided to run a few parallel attempts, and so I wound up starting:

1) Golden Teachers by spore to grain, golden teacher spores to liquid culture ("spore booster") to grain, and golden teacher spores through a couple of agar transfers to grain... each to a shoebox (total 3).

2) PE+ liquid cultures to grain (three shoeboxes, and a grow bag). Grain was directly inoculated, but I did plate the culture a week or two before to evaluate for contamination, and didn't find any by the time of inoculation (though I've since tossed the plates).

I'm having a LOT of fun in terms of nerding out, and as I've had successes I'm making spore prints and swabs as well as clones to agar and liquid culture of my largest and/or fastest growing specimens.

My grain was straight oats in mason jars, and I've followed the coconut coir shoebox tek for growth (I followed it word for word except for doubling the pseudocasing layer for the PE boxes, with a doubling of the initial spraying to account for more pseudocasing media). I've been blessed to not have any grain or substrate contamination- or other problems, short of some drying out which the forum graciously helped me to solve- until now, and my GTs started yielding last month, and before I buried the block remnants in the backyard a couple of days ago I had three flushes in each box which yielded a total of almost 80grams dried between the two boxes. I don't know if that's good or not, but I'm happy about it for a first go.

I've been deliberately patient with my PEs (these were actually my goal, but I knew it would be harder, which is why I grew the GTs concurrently- I had to have some sort of immediate gratification!). Inoculation with LC was 8/26, shake was 9/5, and transfer to bulk was 9/11. They've been doing ok over the last month, even though we've had some wild temperature swings. The grow bag is doing... well, I'm not sure, it's colonized but I'm not sure what I'm looking at but that's a different topic... but I think all of my shoeboxes are about to pin even if the surface is a little patchy, so I cracked the lids and put them in a room with exposure to ambient light yesterday.





When I was inspecting them today, I noticed a greenish discoloration of one of the corners, below the pseudocasing layer.





I'm assuming it's bacterial growth, and since it's beneath the pseudocasing I'm assuming it's been there for a while and just now starting to grow (although since it's on the side I guess I can't exclude that it might've traveled with the condensation down the side of the box). Notably, I did not have ANY contamination in my grain jars, didn't see any when I broke the grain to mix with the coir, didn't seen any in the boxes before a day or two ago, and none of the others show anything. Also, everything else in the sample looks ok.

I've already moved the box to a different building, as I'm hesitant to just toss it with everything else looking good. On the other hand, I would assume that healthy mycellium would be out-competing anything else by now, and that the bacteria contamination extends well beyond what the naked eye can see. So I'd appreciate insight in terms of:

1) Any ID on what this likely is, where it came from, or how to prevent it?
2) Any way to salvage the box? Can I cut out the corner of the block until I reach visibly clear media, and refill it with pasteurized substrate? Or is the contamination already reaching its grubby tendrils into the rest of the block, even if I can't see it?

Thanks so much for any advice! I'm having great fun and am learning a lot!

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: mynameismyc]
    #29693502 -

That’s the green mold.  That tub is toast.  The fact that you see that patch at this stage is evidence the mold’s myclial culture has run through the entire substrate.  I would either trash can tek that substrate or try to fruit it outside

If you go the outside route, I’d leave that particular sub in the tub, cover it with straw and leave the lid off.  Depending on what your ambient climate is like right now would determine how much water I initially water it with.


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How I Get Stuff done. - My Reference Guide. - My Grows.

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: hamloaf]
    #29693704 -

... and stop shooting spores to grain and LC. That'll help.


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Agar Plates and Removing Hidden Contaminants - A Visual Notebook
Recognizing Contamination in Grain Jars - A Visual Notebook
Contaminated Condiment Cup Cleanup v1.0

Green Cap Pheno Isolation
πŸ…ƒπŸ„΄πŸ„°πŸ„Ό ​ πŸ„²πŸ„ΎπŸ„½πŸ„³πŸ„ΈπŸ„ΌπŸ„΄πŸ„½πŸ…ƒ ​ πŸ„²πŸ…„πŸ„Ώ

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: hamloaf]
    #29694367 -

Ugh. I was afraid you'd say that, although that's why I immediately moved it to another building.

Why would it show up 6 weeks later in the middle of a layer of substrate, instead of something exposed to "the outside?"

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: DV8DUG]
    #29694368 -

To be clear, the only spores I shot into grain (or LC) was the GTs... and ALL of those batches did well.

The PE+ came as an LC from the vendor, and I dropped samples on agar to check for contamination, and there was none.

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: mynameismyc]
    #29694516 -

Hello new cultivator :hatsoff::mushroom2: that's likely trichoderma you are seeing. As hamloaf has mentioned, it's in its later phase. The initial phase is white, which is why you didn't notice it on the grain jars. It's easily mistaken as mushroom mycelium by the untrained eye. Contamination is rarely caused in spawning to bulk, almost always the result of contaminated grain.

Some of the only ways you find contamination from going to bulk involves dirty tubs, dirty coir buckets, overly wet/dry substrate or temperatures beyond what the species can handle. In which case the mycelium in outcompeted by the contaminate due to these variables. What you have here is from dirty spawn, a mistake in either your sterile technique or that of the vendor.

Congrats on your recent harvests :cool::mushroom2:

Looking forward to seeing around, thanks for stopping in. Please keep us posted if you have any further questions:mushroom2:

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: mynameismyc]
    #29694600 -

mynameismyc said:
I've been blessed to not have any grain or substrate contamination- or other problems, short of some drying out which the forum graciously helped me to solve



On a side note to all that has been said above, your substrate looks still too dry IMHO.


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πŸ„PANAEOLUS IN MONOTUBSπŸ„
πŸ„OFFICIAL SEMILANCEATA THREADπŸ„



⭐Baba's Write Ups and Link Collection⭐

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: Baba Yaga] * 1
    #29694746 -

Hey, a dry substrate is a vector for contamination too.  All it takes is mold spores to land on a piece of an exposed grain that’s become dry.  Once it gets rehydrated, the spores germinate, and take off faster than the mushroom mycelium has a chance to recover.


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How I Get Stuff done. - My Reference Guide. - My Grows.

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: hamloaf]
    #29694765 -

it does look particularly dry, and it is molded with trichoderma


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⁂ tail-lights, back-pockets, rearview mirrors ⁂

⁂ guides | grows | supreme air box | sporeaddict ⁂

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: Agar Wedge]
    #29694838 -

Agar Wedge said:
The initial phase is white, which is why you didn't notice it on the grain jars. It's easily mistaken as mushroom mycelium by the untrained eye.



That makes a lot of sense, thanks. Although now I'll be paranoid during the rest of the growth of my other two boxes :laugh:

But they look good for now, hopefully they can make it through the next couple of weeks to get at least one flush.

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: Baba Yaga]
    #29694839 -





On a side note to all that has been said above, your substrate looks still too dry IMHO.




I agree.

I was following ShaperDreaming's shoebox and coir teks, which shoot for "just under field capacity," but I got dry enough on my GTs that I had to bottom water just after first flush started because misting the box wasn't cutting it.

For the PEs I doubled the pseudocasing layer, and doubled the initial mist loading accordingly, but it's still been difficult even to keep the ambient humidity at target.

Edited by mynameismyc (10/12/26 01:43 AM)

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: mynameismyc]
    #29695098 -

Happy to help anytime!:mushroom2::smile: I learned from shaperdreamings shoebox Tek also. A note I've made is that going for field capacity in the mix is fine, but the casing should still be a little wetter.

If the mix only allows one drop when squeezing, great, but the casing should allow two drops. I hydrate the coir to field capacity, then just mist the surface once or twice. Works out nicely

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: Agar Wedge]
    #29697318 -

Just an update. Although I've given up on the contaminated box in terms of growing anything, I've been keeping it in a detached garage and observing it just for my own curiosity.

I cut out the section of mold until the sides were visibly mold-free, then I used a different sterilized knife to remove a margin that was another few CM beyond that, and replaced the void with pasteurized coir.

In the space of a couple of days, the mold colonized the new coir with a vengeance- even more robustly than it was before. Yowza :eek: !





And of course, it has to tease me by setting a few scattered pins in the now-ungrowable box :rolleyes:



Oh well. My other two PE boxes look ok.

I do think that I'm going to run this one until it fully collapses, just to see what it's like. I put it in my SAB (I'm getting a new one- the opacity on the plastic sucks, and the spring loaded support has collapsed, so I have one side duct taped to the wall to keep it up) and will do it after I take care of all my other stuff. Will update if I see anything interesting.

And my bag is...well, I think it IS fully colonized and not infected, so I'll research sending it into fruiting conditions tomorrow, and maybe between my boxes and the bag I'll still get at least one crop.

If not, I've learned some valuable lessons. (and I still have the 100+ grams that my Golden Teacher boxes provided me across multiple flushes with none of this drama. No wonder people say patience is the key to success with PEs!)

Edited by mynameismyc (10/14/26 05:46 AM)

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: mynameismyc]
    #29697361 -

Well there's a major problem... Let's fix that... Your sab sounds like one of the flimsy crumplable crappy scam boxes.

Go get a plastic sturdy tote. Make 2 holes u can fit ur arms in comfortable like.

Make the holes bigger than the space needed to stick ur arms in as it helps the still air box,s physics to work by equalizing the air when you don't move

Those flimsy plastic ones literally only cause contam

I use a big sterelite tote with 2 holes in it that's clear plastic

And also don't add gloves or arm sleeves.

:rockon::popcorn:

My still air box I've sat my pressure cooker on it with a full load once it cooled it ain't gonna cause turbulent winds from crumpling every chance it gets 😁


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An enigma some caerulescens n a mono 😎

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: bloodssonnew]
    #29697607 -

bloodssonnew said:
Well there's a major problem... Let's fix that... Your sab sounds like one of the flimsy crumplable crappy scam boxes...

And also don't add gloves or arm sleeves.




It's definitely been nothing but a disappointment. I was on the fence between making a weekend project of a making a crystal clear box out of acrylic sheet with a gasketed hinged lid (what can I say, I'm having too much fun with the hobby lol), or getting a laminar (I've used vertical flow hoods in college and grad school; never used a horizontal one, though).

What's the advantage of not having arm sleeves? it would seem that having two large gaping holes would be more likely to allow air ingress during settling time.

What was the

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: mynameismyc]
    #29697629 -

mynameismyc said:
What's the advantage of not having arm sleeves? it would seem that having two large gaping holes would be more likely to allow air ingress during settling time.


Reasoning behind it is that the sleeves themselves will act as kind of a piston or pump, negating the S - still in the box and will cause air, and therefor all the baddies, to move around in there, whereas otherwise these would drop at the floor and stay there.

Also briefly explained in this post - Box fan flowhoods, Glove boxes, Positive pressure boxes and Automated Mono-Tubs

Edited by eilauver (10/14/26 01:43 PM)

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: eilauver]
    #29698204 -

:whathesaid::amanita2::amanita2::amanita2::amanita2::amanita2:


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An enigma some caerulescens n a mono 😎

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: eilauver]
    #29698678 -




Reasoning behind it is that the sleeves themselves will act as kind of a piston or pump, negating the S - still in the box and will cause air, and therefor all the baddies, to move around in there, whereas otherwise these would drop at the floor and stay there.

Also briefly explained in this post - Box fan flowhoods, Glove boxes, Positive pressure boxes and Automated Mono-Tubs


hmm... I a rabbit hole I need to go down.

I would intuit that the vortex would only happen with "classic" positive pressure laboratory gloveboxes which require gloves to be invaginated during donning, and thus pushing all of that air back into the box in a vortex.

But it would seem that a neutral pressure box in which the gloves are already in "working" position before donning (and might evaginate afterwards, but there's less risk there if everything's already been sealed) would introduce no more air movement than just introducing your arms through working ports, with the benefit of not introducing additional contamination from said arms, gloved or not.

(and yes, it does look like plenty of amateur AND professional SABs just use arm holes...but it's still something that's tickled my 'tism and that I now need to go dive into. Thanks for that, lol.

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Re: New grower, contam in a PE grow [Re: mynameismyc]
    #29698724 -

Apon entry of sab sure maby it's the same. U missed the point your supposed to rest still like in the sab for awhile to let dust settle and be still then you can operate

Though if you have gloves attached to the sab every movement you make in the sab causes eddies small wind currents that don't happen if u just have armholes and use proper sterile techniques

The sab does not make u invincible nor does a ffu

You still gotta be precise and steady with your movements and fairly slow or u end up with contams :popcorn::amanita2:


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An enigma some caerulescens n a mono 😎

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