| Well, unfortunately, there is no way to be 100% certain. Next time around, you might consider keeping one or two jars that you don’t inoculate, as controls. That way, you’ll have a better idea when/where the contaminants got into the equation.
My FOAF always flame sterilizes his needles, with a mini butane blowtorch, between jars. The needle is heated red hot and then cooled quickly by dripping a few drops of inoculant out (until the sizzling stops).
VERY frequently, badly contaminated projects can/will still fruit quite nicely out doors. Just bury those suckers (not deep) and keep ‘em moist. You’ll probably be quite pleasantly surprised.
It’s never too early to start playing with poo! Seriously, it’s actually kind of fun. If you’ve never dealt first hand with poo, it is actually WAY less grotesque than you might imagine. I like saying poo. Reminds me of Winnie!
And you think you feel like an uninformed noob now? Wait until you start wanting to know more about fungi life cycle and the mechanics of reproduction/growth. That shit is flat out WEIRD, especially if you have any knowledge of green plants at all. Wanna really blow your mind off the hinges? Go do a little research on slime molds. They are so freakin’ odd nobody has been able to decide for certain if they are plants or animals or some third classification not yet named!
A log of times/temp/etc. is a great idea. Get yourself a notebook and start taking some detailed notes on process, what you are doing and what you expect to happen as well. Firstly, you’ll remember stuff WAY better after you write it down. Secondly, you sometimes think of totally new and interesting things taking notes. Thirdly, who knows how long this information will be easily/readily available? Lots of folks thought Overgrow would be around forever. Nothing is forever.
Some folks are wildly anal about note taking (me, for one). Others absolutely couldn’t care less, they are far less interested in the process than the end result. And that’s cool, by the way. Different strokes for different folks. At this point, my FOAF is having at least as much fun growing them as eating them. And he can play with growing stuff every day, whereas he can only really eat them once (maybe twice) a week. |