how does my liquid culture look?

[obliguhl]

Well, it takes at least a week befoore it starts. Liquid culture is not magic, spores need to germinate and then, mycelium has to grow. So it can take up to 3-4 weeks until there is enough mycelium to use. The advantages are: Faster colonisation times (reduces the changes of contaminations) an the possibility of quickly replicating unlimited amounts of lc from a single print.

Oh, and sometimes it takes longer if you have used too much honey. Seems counterintuitive but too much can stall lq.

 

[jamie]

I could see some myc starting after only like 3-4 days..sure there was not a significant blob or anything for about a week but I could see some mycelium starting. I think I may have used a bit too much honey also.

 

[SHroomtroll]

Ive read about 3-4days in a few places also, i made 4 jars with cambodia lc 4days ago and i also have some nice clouds going on.

Gonna try to spawn some hpoo with it

 

[jamie]

okay here is some pics of my jars from 2 days ago..the first 2 are of the first jar..last pic is a jar I innoculated a few days ago. I am sure there is no contam..you can see the verm a bit still and in the pic it looks like some little yellow spots-I can see though that those are bits of vermiculate and rice..so I assume the jar needs another few days or week? Today it has colonized a bit more than what you see in those pics.

 

[behindthelight]

looks good man....

 

[Bancopuma]

Just wondering how things are going with this grow man... About to embark on a liquid culture adventure myself...

 

[jamie]

I noticed the first fruits yesterday..there is a few small mushrooms now and some primordia. It took some time in the fruiting chamber..15 days till I saw fruits but the cafe was very small and I might have put it in a little eary..

I have another jar ready I am gunna spawn to coir for a bulk grow..

 

[obliguhl]

No, it just takes some time, especially if the fruiting conditions are not perfect for whatever reasons. But now you can pick them in 3-5 days.

One word of wisdom concerning LC i had to learn the hard way: Doesn't matter how good your culture looks, it can still be contaminated. So test jars it is, multiply only healthy lcs. I now have two jars colonizing like crazy, one of them is actually starting to fruit in vitro!!

About coir: Make sure to REALLY drain it...press water out of it like there is now tomorrow! Perhaps just add enough water so it expands. It will feel really dry but it isn't. Wet coir stalls. It just stalls for weeks and then greens. Adding Verm helps a little regulating moisture content.

 

[Dreamwalker]

Live and learn....

I made a few liquid culture jars up. washed the jars, wiped them down with paper towels then filled them up with water and two teaspoons of karo per quart jar.

Pressure cooked for 30 minutes let the jars cooled and shot 2 cc's in each jar.

shook the jars to mix the spores around and noticed A LOT of dust floating around in there with the spores.

Now I would imagine that since I pressure cooked whatever dust that's in there shouldn't
be an issue, just cosmetic.

Now I'm reading all this info about how easily LC's can be contaminated.

Was planning on using this for a bulk grow but I guess its best to try out on some BRF cakes first.

Jamie: Would love to see some pics of your first flush when its ready! Those jars look pretty good to me IME.

 

[obliguhl]

Well, if you have used a sterile syringe and alcohol wiped/flamed the needle before innoculating the jars, there is a very good chance your cultures will turn out great! I also have some kind of "dust" from honey. I think this is some kind of undissolved honey or organic residue. Still, most jars grow something, most what looks like mycelium. Some flat out contaminate with mold, very few show clear signs of bacterial infection. Those who failed to innoculate rye jars smelled either sour or moldy upon opening them so that kinda proves the hypothesis that good looking jars can be contaminated.

The LC jar i posted further back in this topic was contaminated too.

 

[jamie]

here is a picture..this is 3 daysn now after I noticed the first pins..they seem to be growing slow, but growing nonetheless..also you can see the mushroom in the top right has a bit of blueing right under the cap, is that normal?

 

[Dreamwalker]

Looking good!!

did you dunk the cakes after birthing them? Sometimes bruising can occur from lack of moisture. Not a problem though if you didn't. Just mist every so often.

Definitely doesn't look contaminated as far as I can tell.

Those are some nice fat pins!
:thumb_up:

 

[jamie]

I was going to dunk, then I read some stuff at mycotopia that said it was unnecessary to do until the 2nd flush..but after talking with other people I am going to always dunk and roll even for the first flush..

I have been misting often but still there could be lack of moisture..

 

[Dreamwalker]

Well, nothing you can do about it now but keep up the misting and fanning and then dunk for the second flush.

I've always dunked my cakes after birthing them but like you I've heard conflicting info also. Never did a side by side experiment of dunked vs. not.

The important thing here is it looks like your liquid culture is good!
:d

 

[jamie]

so..first cake gave me only 3 mature mushrooms for the first flush. I did not dunk or roll that cake before fruiting..camera was in storage at the time so I got no pictures..

Second cake(I started this one a week after the 1st so it is behind) is fruiting now..I did dunk and roll this one before fruiting so I could tell the difference..this one I think has 14 mushrooms fruiting on it..

here is some pics..