(I have been known to ramble so if u wanna cut to the chase start at Paragraph 3)
I have been having some real successes with growing mushrooms in the past few months and my knowledge of the subject has increased about 100 fold. I have found Nearly %100 of the knowledge that I have needed or felt that I needed to know, and I owe it all to the knowledge bank and helpful community that is "the shroomery".
That being said, there is one subject that has continued to elude me after hours of searching through old posts and several threads that I have started. That subject of course is the nature of white molds, and how they differ from Cubensis mushroom mycelium, in various ways.
I have learned some useful things about white molds. I have a pretty good idea of how to identify cobweb mold and what conditions cause it. I know that most molds start out white before sporulating, and thus revealing themselves. I know that molds often tend to germinate and grow much faster than cubensis myc. I have seen pictures of some white molds that where not mushroom mycelium and the differences where pretty clear.
After saying all that, I can say what it is that I DONT know about white molds, and what I would greatly appreciate if someone could help me with.
1)what is the prevalence/existence of white molds which share all of the following characteristics with mushroom mycelium, when grown in jars on grain. 1]have a similar rate of growth, or show up after mushroom mycelium has colonized much of the jar 2]are snow white in colour 3]Do not change colour after a month or even longer 4]exhibit rhizomorphic growth 5]Holds the substrate together in one solid mass 2)If no such mold exists then I must conclude that my rye jars are contaminated with cobweb mold and mushrooms mycelium at the same time, with the mushroom mycelium being well established and capable of defending itself against the cobweb mold. 1]Is this possible 2]in such a situation would the cobweb mold consume the cube mycelium over time, or vise versa, or neither? 3]what would be notable characteristics of such a jar 4]If such a jar where left for up to 1.5 months how would the appearance progress
If both of these scenarios are impossible or highly unlikely, then of course my rye jars must contain %100 cubensis mycelium, if so I still have a few questions 1]Is it common in a fully colonized rye jar for more than just a few rye kernels to be visible, Ie the colour of many kernels is visible in spots as if only covered in the thinnest of mycelial coatings, or even not at all. 2]If I spawned from a very old jar (not all jars I'm talking about where spawned, some where from LC and the myc looks much thicker) is it possible the growth would appear thinner or wispier, thusly allowing the colour of the rye to show itself to a much greater degree. 3]How long is mushroom mycelium on rye good for?
The jars do not smell of bacteria (through filter) , and I have smelled it before. I have ruled out bacteria unless someone says otherwise.
This issue has been weighing on me for quite some time. I know it may be that I am just being overly paranoid here, but at this point I feel that I must get to the bottom of it. I would just try using some agar but I have been waiting on plates for going on 3 weeks now and when/if they ever get here I expect to spend some time learning the basics/troubleshooting.
I also currently have a colonized bulk sub that smells like soil (I think it smells like a root cellar to be precise, but a soil smell is much similar.) It was spawned from these same jars and looks fine as far as my untrained eyes can tell. I figure maybe cobweb or maybe it will turn green soon, maybe its fine, but any which way it just adds to my uncertainty and confusion.
Thank you to anyone who read through all that. Extra thank you to anyone that can shed some light on this.
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I have never seen a rhizomorphic or "snow white" white mold. A "white" mold is actually pretty dingy in comparison to mycelia, although in two different places it would be hard to tell the difference unless you knew what to look for. look for thin wisps that are very very slightly dingy colored. It will be hard to notice the subtle color difference if you don't have firsthand experience id'ing it.
-------------------- No. No, man. Shit, no man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' somethin' like that man.
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