send me a part of a print and i can tellya....

BiO.

#1) How are you sterilizing those syringes?
#2) How careful are you?

Hrm... never did the oven tek, I don't think it's all that great of a tek for making syringes, but is "okay" for innocing jars.

Bleach down room works well for me. As BIO stated it's possible that your print is f*cked. Everything that touches the print must be sterile. That means EVERYTHING you use goes in the pressure cooker before you use it. Bleach down your room, put in the pcooker right after your done cooking, re-bleach the room after about an hour, and then get to work.

This is pretty insane, and I don't do this all the time, just when I screw up a couple times in a row. hehe, but this only happens when I get really sloppy, or got a bad print. (This has happened to me twice..., they were outdoor ones so it wasn't really a bad print per se)

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I feel the urge to take my fist, and violate your every orifice!

Peace & Love, ya'll

Pipes

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Pipes of Pan

First of all. You need to make sure your print is nice and dry. Stick it in a dessicant chamber for a couple days. This should any "living" things, but not spores, etc.

Then put it on some agar. Let it grow out a bit, (once you see both mycelia and contams) and if you see some contams, take a syringe of 100% (yes thats 100) h202. We're only talking 2cc's. And zap the bastards with it. Note that this procedure might have to be repeated several times.

Does it work? Not always. But I isolated the strain of Agrigarius Bisporus that I use for my yummy omellettes this way. Turned out to be one of the most vigorous strains in my collection of edibles. (Correction, the most vigorous)

I did however forever lose a strain of Ps. Cyans from Canada because this tek didn't work. I got some other suggestions, but alas it was too late, all the syringe had been used.

By the way, another great tek is growing some out on agar, and then flopping another agar gel on top of the contammed section. You see mycelia will grow up through agar, but almost nothing else will! Also use of wood chunks on top of the agar, there is an involved tek that stamets discussed, but I can't remember the details. If your interested email me.

[This message has been edited by Prellgott (edited February 10, 2000).]