Anybody growing mushrooms willing to talk???

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
I think taking a couple days off from microdosing is a good idea. Might help reset things a bit so tolerance doesn't increase too dramatically.
Yeah. I don’t think you’re supposed to do it continuously.
I did it for a month, my buddy makes them from my strains, i did feel refreshed but i also take enough to trip as often as i can.
But i’d treat micro dosing like shrooming. You take a gram one day. It’s gonna take 2 grams the next day. So maybe 30 days on 30 days off? Then 30 on?
Or just trip balls once a week. That’s about what i do lol.
 

canndo

Well-Known Member
Man. I wish you were dealing with a liquid culture. If you think about it, allot of things need to happen just right if you go squirting some spores in a bag.
I think the smartest thing you can do is squirt what you’re gonna squirt into one spot. Agitate the syringe up as much as you can first.
Yeah, suppress inoculations are pretty hit or miss
 

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
Agar dishes and then sector selection then another dish then liquid culture then test.
Agar dishes and then sector selection then another dish then liquid culture then test.
Nice.
Question. From a swab/spore print, that’s what i do. From a spore syringe you do the same?
Just seems like in a 10cc spore syringe there really isn’t much spores to squirt out on an agar plate. One drop?
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
You could also squirt some of the solution out into a clean shot glass, and use an inoculation loop to stir around in it, and then streak it across the agar surface in a small Z pattern. Or use the T or quadrant methods, etc, which further Isolates any possible contams by spreading it around into multiple different sectors, getting more and more thinned out for each one as you go.

 

canndo

Well-Known Member
You could also squirt some of the solution out into a clean shot glass, and use an inoculation loop to stir around in it, and then streak it across the agar surface in a small Z pattern. Or use the T or quadrant methods, etc, which further Isolates any possible contams by spreading it around into multiple different sectors, getting more and more thinned out for each one as you go.

You can't do sector selection if you swab the dish. Spores need to find complementary spores and make clamp connections. The closer the spores are together the quicker they select their mates and begin mycelium migration across the plate. So you place your drop dead center of the dish.

One can often find distinct sectors from that first inoculation and then ensure distinctions with a second transfer from somewhere near the edge of the plate. This means the mycelium has had a few inches in which to organize and differentiate.

This swab technique is not for such a process. If one is attempting specific genetic transfer, the spore solution should be carefully diluted by halves until you suspect that there are only a few single spores in a ml of water. Then use this to spread the few spores as far apart as possible Using that whole dish swab.

Now you can work with the few colonies that emerge.
 

canndo

Well-Known Member
by the way, the best way to dispurse those clumps is to use an ultrasonic cleaner and imerse the syring in that. A few minutes to hapf an hour works just fine. I always use one with syringes but it has been a while
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
I thought the purpose of streaking the patterns with a loop was to spread as many possible contaminants away from the spores over the surface as possible. The thin loop picks up just the right amount of spores you need, without the extra water if you just dip it in. You can also smear out a drop the same way too.

All MSS should be considered non sterile as is right.. so why not go ahead and streak your first plate every time that way? I suppose it would be the best method if you knew your spore solution or print was in fact contaminated, and trying to salvage anything you can.. In the above gif, you would only transfer from sector 5 towards the middle, which would be the most thinned out. More likely to find something clean to take from in that area right? Then, transfer it to the middle of a new plate as usual...
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
I just watched it again, it's not quite what I described but what is to keep one from simply attaching a needle to the end of the tube and just using that as your inoculation syringe rather than filling individual syringes? Replace the needle after so many innculations.

Kinda like this setup?
 

canndo

Well-Known Member
I thought the purpose of streaking the patterns with a loop was to spread as many possible contaminants away from the spores over the surface as possible. The thin loop picks up just the right amount of spores you need, without the extra water if you just dip it in. You can also smear out a drop the same way too.

All MSS should be considered non sterile as is right.. so why not go ahead and streak your first plate every time that way? I suppose it would be the best method if you knew your spore solution or print was in fact contaminated, and trying to salvage anything you can.. In the above gif, you would only transfer from sector 5 towards the middle, which would be the most thinned out. More likely to find something clean to take from in that area right? Then, transfer it to the middle of a new plate as usual...
Essentially true but it still depends. If I have contamination I "race" the mycelium. This involves germinating a few spores and then placing another "slab" of agar on top sandwitching the grow between the agar. This limits the growth to two dimensions. If the contamination is bacterial (which it most often is) the bacteria will not travel but the mycelium will grow away from the infected spot.

You can then simply cut a small block of pure mycelium out and place it on a new dish. Poof. You have isolated the mycelium from the contam.


If that contam is mold the mold will grow at a different rate, usually slower. You can eventually differentiate the two different mycelium and carefully cut out the one you know to be the good one.
It is usually obvious especially with Cube mycelium.

I use my phone flash as a light source beneath the dish, circle the good spot with a red marker on the bottom of the plate to ensure I get it.

I use this most often though with samples from the wild. Clearly there will be contams in there after the sterilized loop is plunged into the gills.

I rarely get contam from syringes.
 

Chunky Stool

Well-Known Member
Yeah. I don’t think you’re supposed to do it continuously.
I did it for a month, my buddy makes them from my strains, i did feel refreshed but i also take enough to trip as often as i can.
But i’d treat micro dosing like shrooming. You take a gram one day. It’s gonna take 2 grams the next day. So maybe 30 days on 30 days off? Then 30 on?
Or just trip balls once a week. That’s about what i do lol.
'Stamets Stack' works for me.
 

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
And here's the new AIO bag I just got in the mail today. So dry that if you give it a little shake you can actually hear the pieces rattling around. I'm far from an experienced eye, but doesn't look to be anywhere near field cap to me. Just can't fucking win with these things lately.
20240113_122932.jpg20240113_123021.jpg
 

canndo

Well-Known Member
And here's the new AIO bag I just got in the mail today. So dry that if you give it a little shake you can actually hear the pieces rattling around. I'm far from an experienced eye, but doesn't look to be anywhere near field cap to me. Just can't fucking win with these things lately.
View attachment 5360826View attachment 5360827
I imagine that you could hear even moist pieces. You could inject 20 cc or so of sterile water
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
Your not supposed to shake up the AOI bags. They're supposed to stay in separate layers, at least I am pretty sure. Then you inoculate only the grain section. Once that layer colonizes, then you break up the bag and mix it all together.. right?
 

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
I'm not talking about violent shaking. Just moving it around, picking up or sitting down. The spawn is very loose and doesn't seem like much moisture providing surface tension to keep it together as I'm used to seeing with rye grain. In the bags that worked for me in the past, there was typically a decent amount of condensation droplets collected on the sides in the bag. This one looks much less moist than others I've used. I injected the last of my spores in it, but this is the first one where I've been this skeptical right off the bat and I don't have high hopes.
 
Top