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jambee
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Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars.
#5911902 - 07/29/06 12:22 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Four days ago, I inoculated 3 jars of rye with mycellium in agar petri dishes with z strain and 2 jars with spores of texas strain. I have been incubating the jars in a non working fridge to store heat with a light bulb on a thermostat to provide heat. After four days, the three jars with agar show good signs of mycellium growth, and one texas jar from spores shows small growth. I am posting pictures to show how these are doing. I have a few questions though, for one, do these jars need to be fully colonized before they can be used to inoculate fresh grain jars? Also, I tried to use a liquid medium made from honey to grow mycellium following instructions on a shroomery post, but with no success so far. Does anyone know a better way to make a liquid medium? so that I can decrease colonization time and use less of my spore supply. Any help would be apreciated. The first three pictures are agar inoculated z strain jars, and the last is a spore inoculated texas strain jar.



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beyondsisxth
Title?


Registered: 04/08/05
Posts: 232
Last seen: 12 years, 6 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5911913 - 07/29/06 12:29 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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I sampled some fresh Texas out of my monotub the other night. Wasn't too visual, but the mood was fantastic.
Generally its good practice to wait for 100% colonization. However, I just recently got away with scraping only the colonized portions of roughly 90% colonized jars that I'd packed too full to shake, so I won' t tell you its impossible. You just have to be extremely careful to keep out all uncolonized grains, as they're easier for contams to get a foothold on.
As for a Liquid Culture Tek, I saw that Agar's easy Liquid Culture Tek was bumped to the top page as of today, you may take a look at that.
-------------------- The sun was pulling cheap shots doing commercial body tricks, Behind the back, Under the leg, I think he even did a headspin, On a crossfader that sounded whack, But looked excellent, All of the sudden it gets dim, The crater face steps in, Puts mexican drumbreaks on the Technics, He's like "Let's begin", He conducted an orchestra so dope the sun started sweatin' him, I guess he'd expected to win on pure artistic merit, Composing complex plays with nothin but soundbytes, Burned out the lights, Made MCs too self conscious quit the master mics, For a thousand nights, It continued without a single slip up, Except once the record skipped, But it kinda sounded cool.
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jambee
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Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5927946 - 08/03/06 07:36 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Its been about 9 days now, and everything is looking good. The second Texas that was just inoculated with a spore syringe has good mycelium growth, and looks very rhizomorphic, which is a first for me. I am including pictures, I shook two of the z strain jars cause they looked like they needed it to fully colonize, but have not shaken anything others yet. Please let me know what you think based on the pics, and if I need to shake or do anything else to these jars to keep them moving along. Thanks for any help. The first three jars pictured are the z strain and the last two are texas.




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Yamidude
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Registered: 06/15/06
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Last seen: 15 years, 5 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5928261 - 08/03/06 10:57 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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everything looks awesome man. I would mayyyybe shake the last just but it could standt to wait another day or two first maybe..
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creamcorn
mad scientist


Registered: 03/13/06
Posts: 2,962
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: Yamidude]
#5928283 - 08/03/06 11:06 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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if you're doing grain to grain, and assuming you have the proper procedure (better yet equipment, ie flow hood or glove box) to pull it off without contaminating, then sure, it doesn't really matter if they're 100% colonized. in fact, it might be a little easier to break them up so that you can pour them quicker, if they're not totally colonized. obviously the more colonized they are, the more mycelium, thus the more contact points for your transfer, and quicker colonization in the resulting jars... so i'd let them get close to 100% if you can.
as for LC, the most common failure point is your recipe - how did you determine how much honey to use? 2-4% sugars BY WEIGHT is optimal. if you take suggestions in some of the LC threads like 'a glob of honey' or 'a spoonful' you could end up with too much, which prevents spore germination in the first place, or at the very least causes very slow growth once they do germinate. easy rule of thumb is weigh up 4g of honey per every 100ml of water, works like a charm each and every time.
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jambee
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Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: creamcorn]
#5928455 - 08/03/06 12:27 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Thanks for the tips guys, I guess I will have to wait until I take pics and look at progress tomorrow to shake the last jar. As for LC, thanks for the new recipe, and I have one going that uses corn syrup that is looking promising, with very small mycelium strands forming. I once purchased a LC pre-sterilized medium online and it worked quite well, this seems to have the same characteristics, so I assume all is going ok.
I will be doing grain to grain, in order to increase substrate, but hope to do a small casing as well, perhaps use one jar to inoculate 10 more, and then use the other two for a casing? Please let me know if two jars are enough for even a small casing with a low yield. I have never had a successful fruit before, so I am more looking at success rather than quantity.
And as for casing, what is the most reliable method and casing material to use. I know it is a ways off, but please give me some pointers.
Also, this is a bit off topic, but what is a "monotub", this showed up in beyondsisxth's post, but I have never heard it before and can not find any information on them. Please define this one for me. Thanks.
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shane
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Registered: 01/08/06
Posts: 305
Last seen: 10 years, 5 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5928853 - 08/03/06 03:02 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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my honey lc's did pretty well. one was real dark, and the other was crystal clear, and they both have growth. all you need is one and then you can base all your inoculation off that pretty much, so it is kind of a spore saver if you get it right.
-------------------- Statements concerning my personal actions and habits, and life in general are not to be taken seriously go to familyradio.com
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jambee
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Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: shane]
#5931993 - 08/04/06 04:09 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Unfortunately not the greatest update for today. I did shake the final z strain jar, and it looks good as does one of the others. One of the z strain jars has a brown dust like appearance on the grain, I don't know if this is from a contam or just from shaking. I will include pics. I shook one Texas, and its doing good, unfortunately the other Texas appears to have contams. This is unfortunate cause the mycelium is growing faster than any other jar, and it looks very rhizomorphic. I wonder if there is a way to take mycelium from this jar to keep the strain going but avoid that contam. Please let me know. Still interested in casing ideas and wondering what a monotub is. Thanks. Two good z strain:

 Questionable z strain:
 Good Texas, but still young:
 Green colored contam in Texas:
 Good Texas mycelium from jar with contam, please let me know if I can save this:
 I also just pressure cooked some new jars with grain, how long are these good for before innoculating, I want to wait for full colonization of the z strain jars before I try to do grain to grain, and how long does anyone think it will take to fully colonize based on how far along they look now. Thanks again.
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Liquidkick
H2O
Registered: 05/03/02
Posts: 2,635
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5932003 - 08/04/06 04:11 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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The discolored jars, are done.
CHUCK THEM, and start new ones.
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jambee
Stranger
Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: Liquidkick]
#5944047 - 08/08/06 12:43 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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The Z strain jars appear to be fully colonized now. The remaining two I hope to use to inoculate 4 jars grain to grain and then case what is remaining. What is a good method for a small casing like this, and do these appear ready. I have also included pics of one remaining texas and one new texas jar. Please give me some tips on casing. Thanks. Two good z strain:

 Texas, older then newer:

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jambee
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Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5946037 - 08/08/06 10:44 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Found a decent casing in the archives that uses black solo cups and vermiculite base, and a 50/50 vermiculite and peat moss casing layer. I think I will try this. It says that some people will let the mycelium re-establish after they have broken it up and put it into a container to case, just leaving it growing for 24 hours+ before adding a casing layer. I have also read that some people briefly refrigirate a cake to shock it into fruiting mode. Does anyone have an opinion on either side of these options.
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Antoine
travelling intime

Registered: 06/01/06
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Last seen: 9 years, 4 days
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5947107 - 08/09/06 11:26 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Letting the mycelium re-establish itself for 24 hrs is a good idea. In my opinion I would go with the small aluminum trays used for baking meatloaf because you will have more surface area for fruiting than in a solo cup. Cold shocking is debatable. Some say its worth it, others say its not. Never tried it myself so I'll let someone else answer that question for you.
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jambee
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Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: Antoine]
#5970506 - 08/16/06 06:48 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Alright, sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but in a nutshell, cased Z strain and used some to inoculate new jars, and quite a few of them. One texas jar looks about done, and very well colonized. The casings are doing ok, my terrarium is basicly a plastic tub with perlite, pics included, and I have included a couple pics of the casings, please let me know how these look, and how timeline wise I can expect them to develop as I have never had mycelium break a casing layer before. The new z strain jars' mycelium does not look as strong as some of the other jars I have had, please let me know if this looks out of line, the included pics should cover everything. Also, is 75-79 degrees and 95% humidity good for my terrarium, which btw has 12 hours of light from a desk lamp cfl. Please help me out. Thanks. Two of the six casing cups have mycelium on top of casing layer:

 Texas nearly fully colonized, sorry this is sideways, but I can fix and reupload as my limit has been reached today:
 New Z strain:
 Terrarium:
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jambee
Stranger
Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 23
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: Z strain and Texas strain, starting with Rye jars. [Re: jambee]
#5973236 - 08/17/06 03:28 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Please take a look at the pic of the New Z strain in my previous post, I think it may be a possible colonization of a contam, it seems brown colored compared to my texas jar, please let me know what you think and what I should do, it may just appear brown because its growing on brown grain, I'm not sure, please help me out. Thanks.
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