question about saving a contamed jar

[bb2681]

ok, so ive never messed with agar work at all, and ive knocked up a few jars b4 , anyway, ive got some supercakes goin now and all of em look good except 4 this one...i 4got 2 put in the dry verm barrier...anyway 1 side of this jar has a really nice rhizomorphic piece goin on, while the other side is showin some green on top of the myc...im preparing a quart jar of popcorn 2 try and transfer this from the contaminated jar...does any1 have any suggestions, i have a glove box but no flow hood or anything like that, im new here and appreciate all ive learned, so thanx 2 every1 4 all of that

[morbidangel]

dont even try, dump and start over. sorry

[bb2681]

my pics suck...thanx 4 the quick reply...but i gotta try it now my brains in the zone...haha

[Thre365ive]

It has a very slim chance of working, but most likely, you're just wasting your time.

[morbidangel]

you can fruit it just to get you're jollys but DO NOT EAT!!!

[Mushrooms201]

I have tried just about every tech around, best to toss it. However being new and having been there not to long ago, I understand the desire to try to save it. So:

If you cannot throw it out or kill it in the PC (so you can keep the jar.) I would recommend the following.

Do not open it in your room or glove box, the trich spores get everywhere and will haunt you.

Take it outside with an oven "sterilized" plate or metal sheet that has cooled
or use tin foil and tear off the first foot or so and sit aside or another project.

Now outside away from house and windows and doors clean both jars with alcohol as well as your hands, and a knife or craft type razor blade with a handle. I also flame my razor.

Warring: if washing hands with alcohol and then planning to flame razor as your hand might catch fire. I have lit my hands this way many times, during those late nights doing agar work.

Once everything is clean carefully open your contaminated jar and harvest an area as far away from the contam as possible. If needed this is where the tinfoil or plate comes if you need to remove the cake to accomplish this. Take this and quickly and carefully place in your new jar (that hopefully already had its lid loosened.) Once carefully placed, seal the jar. Shake and store after wiping it with alcohol again. Then dispose or clean everything else. When returning inside I also like to change my clothes, so that any trich that might be hanging on to me it hopefully also left behind.

A few other things worth mentioning:

When I do this I like to take a garbage bag outside to place the jar(s) in after they are inoculated, then store away from my other jars.

I feel that its good practice that if you are doing multiple projects with mushroom that day, do this last. I always deal with my clean projects then the dirty ones.

FYI: I am also much more "anal" about being clean than many others that have equal or better success rates.

So this is how I would recommend that a newer grower could approach this task, there are many ways would could attempt to salvage the culture. This is just a way that I thought was easy to explain.

Disclaimer: You will likely just have another contaminated jar after all of your work. However if you are like many others here you can learn a great deal from the failure. I have done similar methods a number of times and have been able to succeed approx 20-50 percent of the time. However when I was getting started I am not sure I ever saved one.

Best of luck, let me know if you succeed.

[bb2681]

i guess maybe i shoulda been a lil more specific 2...i def dont want 2 expose my glovebox 2 that, so i think i will follow ur advice and try it outside...i dont use quart jars they were left in my apt when i moved in and i got popcorn out the ass, only tried it once with a 11/12 success on it...i wont consider to be out anything than a lil time if it doesnt work, and i got a good lady 2 keep me company while i work

[bb2681]

this is huaulta, i also have some maz, treasure coast, and plantasia mystery goin

[DanLarkin]

I would throw it out. Immediatly!

[Leftover Salmon]

Toss it on the compost pile, or in the river, or in the black hole, or...

[Dr.Hallucination.]

Toss it,jar and all.

[Thre365ive]

Originally Posted by Dr.Hallucination.

Toss it,jar and all.

Personally, I wouldn't toss the jar. I'm too poor for all that. Just hit it with bleach before you bring it back in the house.

[MLBjammer]

Inject the jar with bleach or alcohol or water before opening it outside. This will help keep the mold spores from flying everywhere. Like 365 said, wash with bleach/soap/water before bringing the jar back in. Also wash the clothes you had on and take a shower.

[bb2681]

thanx 2 all who gave their advice...i took the contamed jar and my quart jar of popcorn for a nice hour long drive this morning 2 my friends house...took a change of clothes also...being as sterile as i could after shooting pretty much a whole can of lysol in the air and on my clothes lol, i flame sterilized a fork and pulled the nice rhizos from the brf jar and dropped it in the popcorn...i know irt probly wont work but i had 2 try...and ill let everyone know if it turns out...and when i get my hands on a better camera ill throw some pics of my other 71 good jars.....thanx again everyone

[MLBjammer]

The problem with doing that is that the mold spores were all over the mycelium. You have a slim chance of success, but I do hope it works out for you.

[Mushrooms201]

Glad to hear that you made the effort to keep it away from your good ones, IMO that is the only way that you could have really gone wrong.