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somestupidnewbie
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Registered: 10/15/07
Posts: 160
Last seen: 4 years, 11 months
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B+ vs. Contam *PICS* (or, It's metabolites, you moron!)*more PICS*
#7832193 - 01/04/08 02:41 PM (16 years, 28 days ago) |
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Okay, so things have been going pretty well for a stupid newbie, and I have 10 cakes in a shotgun FC putting out fruits. Most of those are from a vendor-supplied syringe of KS, but a couple are from a print of B+ that a friendly person was nice enough to set me up with.
Being a stupid newbie, I naturally fucked something up during the syringe-making process, and only one of the 6 jars I knocked up made it into the FC. Three of the other jars germinated, then stalled, then died. I assume that it was during the syringe-making phase that things went wrong, because 100% of the jars from the vendor are still alive and happy.
Ok, enough background bullshit. Here's the reason I posted: Two of the jars that were from the B+ syringe I made grew a nasty orange-rusty crap all over. -All- over. There were some patches of white myc, but surrounding those patches was this crap:

So I stashed them in a box well away from the rest of the grow. Considering that I am a stupid newbie, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I totally forgot about the damn things in the excitement of my first grow. One day I was rummaging around in my closet and saw the box. I figured that I would have some gruesome biological stew to look at, a reminder of what can happen when it all goes wrong. I was completely shocked, for it seemed that the myc had made a comeback in round 2 and was gaining control of the jars. I figured I must be mistaken, for I have read a bazillion posts on shroomery that once a jar is contaminated, that's it, you fail, game over. So I set it off to one side, with the intention of pressure cooking it before dumping it in the outside bin. Christmas happened, work happened, New Year's happened, and then I finally got back to being able to do something more than mist, fan, and run off to errands. I fired up the ol' PC and went to fetch my contaminated jars, and found this:

There were little shrooms growing everywhere!

(Note, the very top picture was taken at the same time as the other two, and is post-comeback. The last time I saw the jars, the rust-colored crap was the only thing on the bottom)
Now, naturally, I'm not going to put this thing in my FC. But is it worth the effort to do the hobo terrarium with the 3 liter bottle? I've seen it kicked around the boards that perhaps a mushroom grown from a contaminated cake may be poisonous, and have yet to really find the definitive answer. Would these (if fruited) make you sick?
Should I scrap this little novelty, or fruit it out and see what happens?
Edited by somestupidnewbie (01/07/08 01:20 PM)
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somestupidnewbie
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Registered: 10/15/07
Posts: 160
Last seen: 4 years, 11 months
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It's been 3 days since the last post, the little shrooms are now wrapped most of the way around the inside of the jar. I'm still afraid to open it for fear of setting contams loose, but I want to know if these are going to or possibly might be poisonous. Anybody?
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 11 months, 3 days
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That isn't contamination. It's metabolites, and when they build up on the bottom like that, it's usually from 'incubating' rather than allowing the jars to colonize at normal room temperatures. This happens especially when a heating pad or some other method applies heat from below. You can birth those as any normal cake. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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somestupidnewbie
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Registered: 10/15/07
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Last seen: 4 years, 11 months
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Re: B+ vs. Contam *pics* [Re: RogerRabbit]
#7843370 - 01/07/08 12:30 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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wow, metabolites...
Is it possible that this is caused by having a "too dark" syringe? The only thing I did differently with these cakes was make the syringe myself, and instead of the clear fluid like the sponsor-supplied syringe, it was a deep purple color with black flecks in it. I thought it was a contamination because the colors in the jar happened within a day or two of inoculation. I certainly don't have a heating pad or other heating for incubation, due to the fact that I live in the desert and it is way more likely that it will get too warm rather than too cold. Yeah, it's winter now and I have the house heater on, but it's set at 70f and I figured that was warm enough. I'm the good stupid newbie that took heed when RR said "don't bother with incubating unless...." and I don't fall under the "unless..." so I just put the jars up high on a shelf in my closet and let them do thier thing. I'm glad to hear from a reliable source that it is metabolites, I'm going to go rescue that poor ball of myc right now. Thanks RR!!
Edited by somestupidnewbie (01/07/08 12:33 PM)
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RogerRabbit
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Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 11 months, 3 days
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It's not a good idea to make dark syringes. No print is sterile(with the exception of the mushroom spores), so by making a dark print, you get more of the natural contaminants, which germinate and grow faster than mushroom mycelium. A response to these contaminants is an increase in metabolites to counteract them. Since your jars fully colonized and began pinning, they're fine, so go ahead and birth normally. Next time however, use far fewer spores. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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somestupidnewbie
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Registered: 10/15/07
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Last seen: 4 years, 11 months
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Okay, since the general consensus is that following RR's advice is a good thing for a stupid newbie to do, I birthed that cake, and took some pics.
Opened the jar, saw more stringy little miniature mushrooms on top of the mostly colonized verm barrier:

These two are the little guys that are shown in pic #2 of the first post:


A funny looking one, really squiggly with a miniature cap ( the cap is about half the size of a pencil eraser)

There were some aborts with black heads, so I picked those off, and there were some little guys that just couldn't hang on while I was extracting the cake from the jar, and fell off. Here they are:

So, pretty cool. My success rate is better than I thought it was, and I didn't totally fuck up my first attempt at making a syringe. (cue RR telling me that how I made the syringe is responsible for the metabolites)
Thanks for the help!
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somestupidnewbie
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Registered: 10/15/07
Posts: 160
Last seen: 4 years, 11 months
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Re: B+ vs. Contam *pics* [Re: RogerRabbit]
#7843497 - 01/07/08 01:15 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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Quote:
RogerRabbit said: It's not a good idea to make dark syringes. No print is sterile(with the exception of the mushroom spores), so by making a dark print, you get more of the natural contaminants, which germinate and grow faster than mushroom mycelium. A response to these contaminants is an increase in metabolites to counteract them. Since your jars fully colonized and began pinning, they're fine, so go ahead and birth normally. Next time however, use far fewer spores. RR
Awesome stuff, RR, and thank you for all your help. Next time I'm going to use just a little bit of my print and see how that works out. I used about 1/8 of the print that I was sent, and really didn't expect to see it come out so dark, and know now that a little bit goes a long way when it comes to thick, black spore prints.
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