bubblekarma
God of Plants
Word man I agree. Have to say I'm interested see read about your results!
Wienerwoods' Microscopy Adventure
- Thread starter Wienerwoods
- Start date
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Here we go again. There are a few visible spots of the right mycelium in the grain. This is actually really interesting even if it doesn't work out. The BRF jars will be inoculated soon as well.
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Good news! There's still no mold to be seen and healthy mycelium has started taking over.
Soon it's going to eat Mt. Mold over there!
The BRF cakes are all showing healthy growth, too!
However, I would not be surprised if the cakes were to get infested with something nasty down the road - I reused the foil lids by patching them up with packing tape which trapped a lot of moisture. The micropore tape under it is probably still wet which is like an open invitation to all kinds of party crashers. There's the dry vermiculite layer, sure, but I don't expect it to do any wonders.
Still, as long as I don't cause any disturbance to the dry verm I could be fine.
So I can now say with certainty that either the first syringe was contaminated or the micropore is a huge risk with anything other than BRF cakes.
Soon it's going to eat Mt. Mold over there!
The BRF cakes are all showing healthy growth, too!
However, I would not be surprised if the cakes were to get infested with something nasty down the road - I reused the foil lids by patching them up with packing tape which trapped a lot of moisture. The micropore tape under it is probably still wet which is like an open invitation to all kinds of party crashers. There's the dry vermiculite layer, sure, but I don't expect it to do any wonders.
Still, as long as I don't cause any disturbance to the dry verm I could be fine.
So I can now say with certainty that either the first syringe was contaminated or the micropore is a huge risk with anything other than BRF cakes.
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Fucking LIGHTNING FAST! I don't believe how fast the mycelium is growing... Yeah... that's all I've got to say
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Here's the grain jar today
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
While the second spore syringe I made seems to be mostly clean, I'm still dealing with some odd mold contaminants. So far this weird green mold (I don't think it's trichoderma) has affected two of my six BRF cakes as well as my original grain jar. Bummer.
Still, I've got four seemingly good cakes still going which means I can possibly collect spore prints and live culture if they remain good, get a few nice trips in there too while I figure out the cultivation side of things. Cubensis mycelium is growing nicely and I'm seeing some really gorgeous rhizomorphic growth in almost all BRF jars. The ones with coffee grounds really do seem to be speeding ahead of the others.
Oh, and yes I'm keeping the contaminated stuff around. Even though the mold doesn't seem particularly aggressive I'm not hoping to salvage anything. It's just really interesting to see what exactly happens and how. Here are a few pics of the grain contamination.
Here's when it first appeared a week ago:
Three days later:
Today:
Still, I've got four seemingly good cakes still going which means I can possibly collect spore prints and live culture if they remain good, get a few nice trips in there too while I figure out the cultivation side of things. Cubensis mycelium is growing nicely and I'm seeing some really gorgeous rhizomorphic growth in almost all BRF jars. The ones with coffee grounds really do seem to be speeding ahead of the others.
Oh, and yes I'm keeping the contaminated stuff around. Even though the mold doesn't seem particularly aggressive I'm not hoping to salvage anything. It's just really interesting to see what exactly happens and how. Here are a few pics of the grain contamination.
Here's when it first appeared a week ago:
Three days later:
Today:
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Interesting update this time!
The surviving four of the six drinking glasses that I inoculated a month ago have been consolidating for about a week and today I spotted a small mushroom growing against the glass on one of the cakes.
Disregard the green blotch. It must be bacteria or something. Anyway, it wasn't on the cake, but on the glass. The cakes were all a pristine white color.
I proceeded to dunk all four cakes. It's time to dust off the good old shotgun terrarium and bake some perlite!
And now the story of my first ever grain jar that got contaminated with mold. Twice.
I shook it to break it up a couple of weeks back and noticed the mold had grown inwards. No surprise there, really. Still, I had a fucking stupid idea and I went with it. I filled a bowl with water, spiked it with some 12% hydrogen peroxide for good measure and submerged the jar. I then opened the lid ever so slightly to allow the water to flood in and shook it before opening. I took a few big spoonfuls of uncontaminated, colonized grain and mixed it with some wet untreated vermiculite. I didn't even wash my hands.
The 'cased' spawn colonized for a week or so under a foil lid before I moved it to a sammich bag to hopefully fruit since it had no visible mold anywhere. It quickly started forming hyphal knots and now they're all over the place. No fruits, though.
Interestingly, the first pins chose to show up today.
Now I have a slight crisis deciding whether I should 'birth' that shit or let it go as is.
Again, you can disregard any green stuff you see, as the vermiculite had some green bits in it.
...
And there's more!
I made a second grain jar last month. This time I had the good sense to use gypsum while boiling the oats and I paid attention to moisture content based on my earlier attempt. I used the same stuff that had contaminated oh so many of my other inoculations, but for some reason this time everything seems to have worked out.
I have already broken up the grain once when it was about 80% done, to see if it would re-consolidate without a hitch. Apparently it did. Now I just have to master grain-to-grain transfers and I'm golden! The genetics are probably only so-so since I shook the jar right after inoculating but quite frankly I do not care.
That it?
Nope.
I also made seven more BRF 'jars' since I found some suitable drinking glasses. For these I re-sterilized the two previous syringes, used self-distilled water and still had some mold probs. Three of the jars showed mold straight away but it's been several days now and the other four jars are still looking good. Four must be my new lucky number. And the original spore print must be contaminated.
Those black umm... circles? demonstrate where the first signs of growth were. I actually botched every single one of them at first (well, the original syringes were contaminated AF) so it was into the PC once more with them, hence the four inoculation holes.
Phew. Finally we're getting somewhere!
The surviving four of the six drinking glasses that I inoculated a month ago have been consolidating for about a week and today I spotted a small mushroom growing against the glass on one of the cakes.
Disregard the green blotch. It must be bacteria or something. Anyway, it wasn't on the cake, but on the glass. The cakes were all a pristine white color.
I proceeded to dunk all four cakes. It's time to dust off the good old shotgun terrarium and bake some perlite!
And now the story of my first ever grain jar that got contaminated with mold. Twice.
I shook it to break it up a couple of weeks back and noticed the mold had grown inwards. No surprise there, really. Still, I had a fucking stupid idea and I went with it. I filled a bowl with water, spiked it with some 12% hydrogen peroxide for good measure and submerged the jar. I then opened the lid ever so slightly to allow the water to flood in and shook it before opening. I took a few big spoonfuls of uncontaminated, colonized grain and mixed it with some wet untreated vermiculite. I didn't even wash my hands.
The 'cased' spawn colonized for a week or so under a foil lid before I moved it to a sammich bag to hopefully fruit since it had no visible mold anywhere. It quickly started forming hyphal knots and now they're all over the place. No fruits, though.
Interestingly, the first pins chose to show up today.
Now I have a slight crisis deciding whether I should 'birth' that shit or let it go as is.
Again, you can disregard any green stuff you see, as the vermiculite had some green bits in it.
...
And there's more!
I made a second grain jar last month. This time I had the good sense to use gypsum while boiling the oats and I paid attention to moisture content based on my earlier attempt. I used the same stuff that had contaminated oh so many of my other inoculations, but for some reason this time everything seems to have worked out.
I have already broken up the grain once when it was about 80% done, to see if it would re-consolidate without a hitch. Apparently it did. Now I just have to master grain-to-grain transfers and I'm golden! The genetics are probably only so-so since I shook the jar right after inoculating but quite frankly I do not care.
That it?
Nope.
I also made seven more BRF 'jars' since I found some suitable drinking glasses. For these I re-sterilized the two previous syringes, used self-distilled water and still had some mold probs. Three of the jars showed mold straight away but it's been several days now and the other four jars are still looking good. Four must be my new lucky number. And the original spore print must be contaminated.
Those black umm... circles? demonstrate where the first signs of growth were. I actually botched every single one of them at first (well, the original syringes were contaminated AF) so it was into the PC once more with them, hence the four inoculation holes.
Phew. Finally we're getting somewhere!
Last edited:
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
We have fruits!
This fat guy I think is the pin that appeared while still in the glass.
The grain experiment is also producing some meaty mushies.
The ones growing down below are quite small and fucky. And bruised. For some reason.
And finally, the other cakes are also slowly getting their funk on
I'll probably get to pick the most mature ones in the morning. I really should take prints and biopsies sooner rather than later but dammit I'd like to just gobble them all up
This fat guy I think is the pin that appeared while still in the glass.
The grain experiment is also producing some meaty mushies.
The ones growing down below are quite small and fucky. And bruised. For some reason.
And finally, the other cakes are also slowly getting their funk on
I'll probably get to pick the most mature ones in the morning. I really should take prints and biopsies sooner rather than later but dammit I'd like to just gobble them all up
Wienerwoods
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
First harvest today for approx. 45 fresh grams total, which in my experience translates to just over 3 grams. That's already a nice trip, folks! May not be eating these myself, but there's more on the way.
Also, I'm taking two prints since I got two very decent caps. Better late than never! I'm somewhat nervous about the sterility of the whole process as it's my first time but I suppose anything is cleaner than what I've been working with recently.
EDIT: Here's a picture of the prints drying out. They're not perfect but that was to be expected.
Also, I'm taking two prints since I got two very decent caps. Better late than never! I'm somewhat nervous about the sterility of the whole process as it's my first time but I suppose anything is cleaner than what I've been working with recently.
EDIT: Here's a picture of the prints drying out. They're not perfect but that was to be expected.
Last edited:
Roasty McToasty
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Badass thread Ww! Nice job, you ever gunna spawn to some horse poo? I highly recommend that.
