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paligap75
Stranger

Registered: 10/04/07
Posts: 4
Last seen: 16 years, 3 months
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no growth w/agar
#7493918 - 10/07/07 10:29 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Hi, I've been reading The Shroomery for almost two years now on and off. Using the info from Shroomery posts and other links I've been pretty lucky cultivating mushrooms. The one problem I have is cultivating anything on agar. I mean I can't even get them to contaminate. Does anybody have an idea what I'm doing wrong? I follow the basic agar teks.
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Andrew47
Servant of allLife



Registered: 04/06/06
Posts: 432
Last seen: 14 years, 3 months
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Re: no growth w/agar [Re: paligap75]
#7494025 - 10/07/07 11:08 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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You should have no problem contaminating agar with a little effort
The only way I could see not being able to get contams is if you are cooking your agar without water??
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waixingren


Registered: 03/14/05
Posts: 2,644
Loc: SW Florida
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Re: no growth w/agar [Re: paligap75]
#7494126 - 10/07/07 11:49 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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what is your recipe?
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greys
OTD Sergeant at Arms



Registered: 07/16/06
Posts: 44,923
Loc: nunya
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Re: no growth w/agar [Re: Andrew47]
#7494129 - 10/07/07 11:49 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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you ARE adding some malt extract or dextrose or SOME kind of nutrient to the agar before you cook it?
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Hotnuts
old hand


Registered: 02/26/05
Posts: 3,436
Loc: Wild Blue Yawnder
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Re: no growth w/agar [Re: greys]
#7494419 - 10/07/07 01:23 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Even a plain water agar will grow fungus and bacteria.
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Hotnuts
old hand


Registered: 02/26/05
Posts: 3,436
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Last seen: 25 days, 12 hours
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Re: no growth w/agar [Re: Hotnuts]
#7495238 - 10/07/07 04:52 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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If you're using water that's been treated from salt for your agar mixture, that could be causing this. That's if you're using a correct agar mixture. There's something in that salt they use for hard water treatment that really has a negative effect on mycelia growth. I had the same problem with a couple of jars of agar and then went to distilled water and haven't had the problem anymore. Absolutely nothing would grow. Not even a cubensis isolate. It's still colonizing the agar and it's been a few weeks. None of the spores that I put on it would grow out at all. Just barely if any. Even spores that are easy to work with.
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paligap75
Stranger

Registered: 10/04/07
Posts: 4
Last seen: 16 years, 3 months
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Re: no growth w/agar [Re: Hotnuts]
#7495442 - 10/07/07 05:43 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Thanks for the quick reply.I live in the Northeast U.S. and the soil is very sandy. So sandy that every 6-7 years it corrodes the hot water tank. So I did a ph test and the water went off the scale past 8.0 which was as high as I could read. So I started using rainwater that I collect, filter and sterilize. I had one success. It was just a drop of spore solution into the large jar of MEA that was left over after I inoculated the smaller ones. The smalls were all failures. But I've never been able to duplicate what I did. I could tell you more about temps and stuff like that but I don't know. I do appreciate your writing back. Thanks again.
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Hotnuts
old hand


Registered: 02/26/05
Posts: 3,436
Loc: Wild Blue Yawnder
Last seen: 25 days, 12 hours
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Re: no growth w/agar [Re: paligap75]
#7495903 - 10/07/07 10:50 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Actually, that cubensis isolate is dated 8-28 and it still isn't even close to colonizing half of the plate.
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