Where did you obtain the spores from? It's possible the syringe was/is contaminated.

How long did you pressure cook the jars for?
I'd recommend at least an hour at 15PSI (make sure your pressure cooker can reach 15psi, mine can only go to 12, so I have to add 20% to the steriliation time).

You said you noticed a funny smell, did you open the jars? Once pressure cooked you should only be removing the tape from the lid to innoculate with spores and then re-tape.

Sounds like you just need to be more sterile in your process. (wear a mask over your face, shower before beginning, drench your work room/area in Lysol or a 10% bleach/water solution).

Sterility is godly.

jC

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Hungry, Cold, and Hunted - BWP

Sorry to hear of the failure. It seems I was lucky and my first attempt was by the book (PF Tek) and worked surprisingly well. Since then my success has been sporadic, and I'm starting to realize that cleanliness at the very beginning is essential.

It is worth the effort and we all must find a method that works for us. Look into the liquid growth medium for speed. There are people here who have it mastered and have been doing it for many years. I think they almost have a dedicated super sanitary lab set up in a room of their house and a set of materials and routines that work all the time. The one thing they all seem to have in common is a pressure cooker to prepare the substrate in.

Good luck and good night.

[This message has been edited by TriGuy (edited January 13, 2000).]

casings are NOT less resistant to contams than cakes. they are far more resistant because there is far less nutritious material for the contams to grow on. if you left uncolonized cakes sitting exposed they'd contaminate in no time compared to the casing. it's the same reason you wouldn't just inject spores into your casing... there's much less nutrition, therefore slower growth.. probably none at all from the spores. mold would beat it to the punch no problem on an exposed medium

agent orange