First Grow Contam ID help.

[Evenfall]

I seemed to have grown a jar of contams on my first try but this wasn't to much of a surprise since the sterilation techniques were minimal and the spores were questionable at best. I thought I would share some pictures and see if we can identify the contams for future reference. This jar is isolated in the garage leaves the premesis on Tuesday (trash day) without being opened. I don't need more loose spores floating around the house.

I know there are a lot of contam threads already but I haven't seen any with pictures detailed enough to make a definitive match. My guess would be the orange is a Neospores (bread mold) and the whiteish-green could be Penicillium. Both of which I am highly allergic too.

Evenfall

[Evenfall]

Also, it may be hard to tell with all the contam. The substrate is verm and BRF from a TEK I printed up a couple of months ago (2/3c verm, 1/4c brf, and 1/4c water).

[Om shanti]

I think you're right that neurospora and penicillin (or maybe trichoderma) are some likely candidates here.

Hope not all your jars went this way?!

And welcome to Mycotopia!

[cattlexing]

go outside
get some goggles and a hospital mask. you Don't want random spores entering your lungs or cornea

break the jar onto the gorund
Just kidding!

Open it up though and break apart the mycel... it will bruise, but knock off any contammed parts, and than spawn it to just a little steril grain or straw, you know, 3 parts mycelium 1 part brown rice and vermiculite. It should come back strong.

[mycowarrier]

Welcome Evenfall.

Contaminates happen to the best of us. I've had every color in the rainbow at one time or another. Aspergillus was one i encountered often. It comes in that color too but more often green. I used to open the bad jars in a bucket of bleach/water. I alway reuse the jars after sterilizing them.

[valleyofmushies]

i did some agar up once and left two jars out some how and didn't do anything after PCing them and one turned pink and yellow...ummmmmmmmm this was during the winter..i thought it was the flu lol..and another one turned just yellow

????? any ideas no pic

[mycowarrier]

The Pink colored one was proly Neurospora[pink or red bread mold ]

Once when i was young and ignorant i isolated some pink mold and transferred it to sterilized rye. Had no contams other than the mold. I ate several spoonfuls of the grain thinking it would have an anti-bacterial effect on an infection i had. Luckily im not allergic to Neurospora.

You can laugh at me. That was years ago and im smarter now.

BTY Stamets book TMC has a great section on the most common contams. GLUK

[mydarling]

Originally Posted by cattlexing

Open it up though and break apart the mycel... it will bruise, but knock off any contammed parts, and than spawn it to just a little steril grain or straw, you know, 3 parts mycelium 1 part brown rice and vermiculite. It should come back strong.

that's not exactly good advice.

with contams that rampant, chances are mold spores are dispersed throughout the jar, even if not concentrated enough to see a visible contamination there. they'd just get transferred to the new substrate.

also, s/he did mention s/he is highly allergic to these molds, so DO NOT OPEN THE JARS... i agree that throwing the jars in the trash on trash day is the best idea here.

[Hippie3]

agreed, given allergies.

[Evenfall]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I am worried about the contamiated jar as contams were expected. I didn't have a pressure cooker nor a spore syringe so I rubbed some spores from a bag someone gave me just to get my feet wet before the real stuff showed up. Two days later the pressure cooker and the spore syringes showed up. I prepared and innoculated six more jars at that time (9 days ago) and all showed growth on day 4 and i can notice changes over just a few hours time now.

Of the six jar four are "A Strain" and two are "Brazil Strain". Both strains seem to have similar growth patterns and times when keeping the jars at 80 to 82 degrees. Growth noticable slowed the two days I kept the jars 75 to 77 degrees.


Each jar has variations in substrate mixture ratio, water content, and strain used during innoculation. Each jar has four innoculation points, the pictures only show the one facing the camera. This is day 9 of these jars and there are no signs of contamination. My guess is growth is exceptional at this point. Does the risk of contam reduce after the first few days or are the chances still high a contam may start growing in the jars after nine days?

[The Truth.]

Originally Posted by Evenfall

Thanks for the warm welcome. I am worried about the contamiated jar as contams were expected. I didn't have a pressure cooker nor a spore syringe so I rubbed some spores from a bag someone gave me just to get my feet wet before the real stuff showed up. Two days later the pressure cooker and the spore syringes showed up. I prepared and innoculated six more jars at that time (9 days ago) and all showed growth on day 4 and i can notice changes over just a few hours time now.

Of the six jar four are "A Strain" and two are "Brazil Strain". Both strains seem to have similar growth patterns and times when keeping the jars at 80 to 82 degrees. Growth noticable slowed the two days I kept the jars 75 to 77 degrees.


Each jar has variations in substrate mixture ratio, water content, and strain used during innoculation. Each jar has four innoculation points, the pictures only show the one facing the camera. This is day 9 of these jars and there are no signs of contamination. My guess is growth is exceptional at this point. Does the risk of contam reduce after the first few days or are the chances still high a contam may start growing in the jars after nine days?

Really the chances go down when the jar is completely colonized with myc.
But even a speck of uncolonized sub/spawn is susceptible to contams.
Your growth looks good on these jars though. Yet only time will tell.

Gluck

[cattlexing]

I said hospital mask!
What I ment was full on gas mask. You don't want to mess around if you have allegries.
With your gas-mask on and your biohazard suit on (or epidermis, whichever you prefer) Remove the contamed part. Incinerate it. Than move on to step two

step two:
Take the colonized mold spore covered cakes and break them up in a bowl, very fine.
mix some sterilized hydrated BRF/vermiculite in with that, so that it has some food. 4 parts spawn to 1 part new substrate.

Cover that with a layver of Vermiculite to keep things off it. Leave it out in the open air in the shade. Cover the bowl with something to block some light and keep a little moisture in. The spores will germinate but won't do so well in the open air. The mycel will be active, and everywhere and will eat up any sprouted mold spores. Just make sure it's in the right shady space with air flow, and make sure it's somewhat hydrated, but not wet.
Let us know what happens. And for god's sake, wear your gas-mask and shower after getting out of your biohazard suit!

[Evenfall]

Hippie3, I agree with you. I was in the hospital for a week a long time ago after taking penicillin the family doctor prescribed. Four days of that time the hospital doctors thought they may be a need to stick a tube down my swollen throat so I could breath. Several years later I had a similar reaction to Doxycycline (tetracycline family antibiotic) but it wasn't nearly as bad. Both of these antibiotics I had taken dozens of times as a child and then SURPRISE!!! Years later I developed other autoimmune problem besides allergies.

Interestingly there were two studies I read a couple of months ago that were completed early this year, one in the UK and the other in Switzerland, that showed significant improvement of symptoms and even a reversal of "disabilities" when psilocybin was given to test groups. The theory being is that psilcybin increases dopamine in the brain and it is thought dopamine plays a role in regulating endorphins. It is also thought endorphins help better regulate that immune system which is the problem in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. It is very common for endorphins and dopamine to be below normal in people with autoimmine diseases. This of course got me thinking about my teenage years wandering through cow pasters.


Fungus on the other has never been a problem. (crosses fingers it stays that way)

[Evenfall]

Cattlexing, I have the six good jars so I am tossing the badly contammed jar. I did'nt expect usable growth from it I just wan't to walk through the tek before I had the good stuff. I am extermely ANALitcal, almost to a fault, when it comes to procedures and I can guaruntee even held the syringe the same way when doing it for real after receiving the cooker and spore syringes.

[Hippie3]

Originally Posted by cattlexing

I said hospital mask!
What I ment was full on gas mask. You don't want to mess around if you have allegries.
With your gas-mask on and your biohazard suit on (or epidermis, whichever you prefer) Remove the contamed part. Incinerate it. Than move on to step two

step two:
Take the colonized mold spore covered cakes and break them up in a bowl, very fine.
mix some sterilized hydrated BRF/vermiculite in with that, so that it has some food. 4 parts spawn to 1 part new substrate.

Cover that with a layver of Vermiculite to keep things off it. Leave it out in the open air in the shade. Cover the bowl with something to block some light and keep a little moisture in. The spores will germinate but won't do so well in the open air. The mycel will be active, and everywhere and will eat up any sprouted mold spores. Just make sure it's in the right shady space with air flow, and make sure it's somewhat hydrated, but not wet.
Let us know what happens. And for god's sake, wear your gas-mask and shower after getting out of your biohazard suit!

that's just nuts.

[cattlexing]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

that's just nuts.

LOL I admit it'd be a little less crazy if you threw some soil in there to keep keep it real. It's an outdoor thing! Things grow in the outdoors! (if you believe)lol

But seriousley, i'm disapointed that you messed up even on your test jar. you're better than that. you gotta know WHY you stick the neddle to the edge of the jar... so when the spores germinate you can watch the mycelia on your bigscreen. (hd microscope not included)l. I'd say the biggest parts are getting the moisture content right- and supplying the o2. Soil ph is probably a concern. Keep rhizin!

[mydarling]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

that's just nuts.

couldn't agree more.

what on earth is the point of going through all of that trouble if you have an extremely serious allergy and probably won't be able to salvage the jar? "removing the contaminated part" is not as simple as it sounds, because there are probably mold spores everywhere in a jar that looks that bad and you'll just keep transferring it around. usually the contam wins, in a fight against mycelium.

it's about 30x easier (and safer) to just make another jar and start from scratch.

[cattlexing]

Originally Posted by mydarling

it's about 30x easier (and safer) to just make another jar and start from scratch.

I kept thinking you said "sexier"

[Evenfall]

I am following the PF Tek on this grow (aside from the slight substrate variations of ingredient ratios). According to the tek when colonization is complete I birth the cake and just put it in the growing chamber on damp perlite. I plan on using the 20g aquarium seen earlier in this thread which is divided into two chambers with plexiglass. I'll use a 6700K 20W (see attache light chart) grow light that I have hanging around about 12 hours a day I think I read. My question is should I do anything else when birthing the cake? The PF Tek I am following does not mention rinsing the cake or dunking it for a period of time. I've read several threads here at Mycotopia that mention things like that but it was not clear if that would be relevant to someone simply following the PF Tek like me.

I have always had fresh mushies and had never come across dried ones until last month. Maybe my memory isn't clear but they were seemed to be nowhere near as potent as the fresh ones we used to collect. I remember a lot more visuals back then whereas the dried ones did not include any visuals. How long could someone expect to keep fresh mushies in the frig before they go bad?

With six jars well on their way and showing no contams yet I may end up with a bigger harvest than immediatly needed. I expected a greater number of failures by this point. I plan on drying some using moving air and then calcium chloride. I happen to have about a 100 lbs of it sitting around (i use it to boost calcium in the reef aquariums but a 100lbs will last me about a 100 years doing only that).

Sorry for the 20 questions on this thread.. I'm stoked to be this far only reading what others have done and following the PF Tek but I don't want to mess things up now because I did something stupid.

[GadgetGuy]

Sounds like you are on the right track. Good job.

[cattlexing]

After birthing you might want to knock off any loose vermiculite from the top layer, put them in water, (dunk) and use a plate to weight them down 24 hours. Dunking lets them drink, they'll need hydration to fruit best.

i agree- street mushies r weak compaired to fresh, home grown.
After drying, store them airtight in the freezer, o2 ahd heat break down the active chemicals

[MLBjammer]

Freezing them will deteriorate the magic. Refrigerate or keep in cool dark place with some dessicant.

[Evenfall]

How long can I keep them in the frig without drying them?

[mydarling]

about a week, in a brown paper bag. do not store in plastic, because condensation will collect and turn your mushrooms into slime.

[Frequency]

Originally Posted by mydarling

about a week, in a brown paper bag. do not store in plastic, because condensation will collect and turn your mushrooms into slime.

Indeed! The freezer will do the same thing. Put your shrooms in a dresser drawer on some newspaper with a fan blowing on them. They'll be crispy in 4 days.