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 YourHighness
ruling since1991
Registered: 02/22/02
Posts: 99
Loc: TX
Last seen: 17 years, 10 months
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 Mexicana A questions 
#565859 - 02/28/02 10:24 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Mexicana cult. questions
questions for Workman, Una, et al...
First a bit of info:
Sporeworks Mexicana, Strain A in quart jar with filter disc. Substrate: plain brown rice. Temp kept at 72-76 F. Showing dozens of developing sclerotia after 4 weeks! They range in size from a BB up to a marble.
Now for the questions: ( I don't want this culture to STALL ! )
The "cake" seems to be sweating a lot.
Is the excess water I see collecting on the bottom of the jar a problem?
The entire "cake" is shrinking away from the sides of the jar. I don't see this in the online pics of rye grain cultures. Does this indicate a problem, or is it normal for brown rice cultures to shrink like this?
How long would you estimate I should wait from the 1st sighting of developing sclerotia to harvest? I know 3 months is suggested, but how was this arrived at?
Excess light exposure won't promote pinning, will it? I look at the jars' progress under bright fluorescents several times a day, just to marvel at the developing culture!
Any thoughts on why my rye grass seed experiments with this strain never took off? I mean, not even a hint of mycelia was seen!
Is it harder to clean sclerotia formed from brown rice cultures?
After harvest, can the un-consumed bits of substrate be used to innoculate other substrates?
Sorry for the flood of questions -- blame it on too much coffee, and the thrill of a nicely developing grow.
Thanks for your input!
YourHighness
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Workman
Psilocybe Microscopist
 
Registered: 03/01/01
Posts: 3,566
Loc: Washington, USA
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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Re: Mexicana A questions [Re: YourHighness]
#565966 - 02/28/02 11:55 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Some sweating is normal, but excessive amounts generally indicate overly warm incubation temperatures.
The shrinking might be from using rice but I have never tried it myself. On occasions where I have seen other grains shrink dramatically with large amounts of purging liquid, the cause was bacterial contamination. I doubt that this is your problem. The sclerotia absorbs nutrients and water from the rice and swell against the glass pushing the substrate around. They are in effect replacing a significant amount of the rice with their growth.
3 months was arbitrarily chosen because it was a nice round number and the sclerotia growth had slowed to the point where a harvest seem justified. You could harvest at any time of your own choosing, but waiting longer will increase the final yield per jar. Actively growing sclerotia cycles through two distinct phases. The white rapidly growing phase and the denser dark brown dormant phase. I would seem to make sense to wait until all or most of the visible sclerotia is of the dark form before harvesting. Dark sclerotia can restart the white phase after several weeks of no growth but as the substrate gets used up, more and more of them stay dark.
In my experience, light has no effect on sclerotia growth. I peeked all the time and it never pinned. I have never seen mexicana pin invitro.
I have no idea why your seed experiments didn't work.
The unused seed after harvest could be used as innoculant but depending on the substrate you would have to keep it sterile. You might consider shaking a jar hard prior to harvest and do a sterile grain to grain transfer to new jars with whatever you can shake loose. Trying to innoculate with the leftovers after you have sorted through the rice to get the sclerotia isn't likely to work unless you are very clean. You might try washing some of the very small sclerotia in H2O2 and dropping them in freshly sterilized grain like a seed. You can sort out a great deal of the tiny ones from your substrate.
I doubt that the sclerotia will be hard to clean. You can wash them quickly in water or better yet, brush them off with a soft paint brush. I like the small art brushes. If you use water, dry them well on paper towels in the open air before further processing. With pure rice, I wouldn't worry too much about eating some of the substrate clinging to them. One thing to avoid is vermiculite in the substrate. It worked great for growth but it sticks to the surface so tightly that it is near impossible to remove it all. They look like gold nuggets.
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fig
spore collector
Registered: 10/02/01
Posts: 724
Loc: usa east TN blue ridge mt...
Last seen: 11 months, 10 days
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 Re: Mexicana A questions [Re: YourHighness]
#565989 - 03/01/02 12:18 AM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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well maby i could help ya with a few of these questions.
(The "cake" seems to be sweating a lot.
Is the excess water I see collecting on the bottom of the jar a problem? )
It should be fine but if it starts to puddle up (lots) then you could loosen the lid (Im not sure about those filterdisk ive never used them, but you should be fine.
(The entire "cake" is shrinking away from the sides of the jar. I don't see this in the online pics of rye grain cultures. Does this indicate a problem, or is it normal for brown rice cultures to shrink like this? )
All my brf and br cakes have done this, it is normal.
(Excess light exposure won't promote pinning, will it? I look at the jars' progress under bright fluorescents several times a day, just to marvel at the developing culture! )
as far as stunting the cake It should be fine as long as you dont look at it much, but it may promote pinning so i personaly would keep it in the dark and try to forget about it. *check it maby 1 to 3 times in a full week*
(Any thoughts on why my rye grass seed experiments with this strain never took off? I mean, not even a hint of mycelia was seen!)
the mexicana stran prefers grass seed. *best for this stran i hear*
(After harvest, can the un-consumed bits of substrate be used to innoculate other substrates?)
yes in a glove box or flow hood i have not had much luck with it using the oven tek.
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fig
spore collector
Registered: 10/02/01
Posts: 724
Loc: usa east TN blue ridge mt...
Last seen: 11 months, 10 days
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Re: Mexicana A questions [Re: Workman]
#565990 - 03/01/02 12:20 AM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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dam he beat me to it........;)
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