Muchroom advice please?

[fatmannero]

Last night I saw that my mycelium cake had a touch of mold growing on it after fully colonising.. So very unhappy!!
Question is.. Can I cut of the mold and do some sort of extraction on this bad boy??

Someone please give me some hope... 8)

 

[fatmannero]

anyone????

 

[astralspice]

DO NOT DO THAT!

Is it still in the jar? if it is you must toss it or put it back in the pressure cooker. if you've already spawned it you should spray it with an alcohol/water solution before moving it. The last thing that you want is trillions of mold spores in your home which may cause your future projects to be infected

 

[fatmannero]

no it was out of the jar and in to the perlite tank!! since then iv cut the mold off and wrapped it back up and put it back in to a hot place so hopfuly it can re colonise?? any addvise??

 

[fatmannero]

u said about putting back in the presure cooker... is this possible after so long growing??
intresting idea...

 

[astralspice]

What i meant by that was, pressure cook it to kill everything in the jar including mycelium for the purpose of saving yourself the jar/lid. It's bad news that you have to toss it if its your only cake but beleive me those mould spores get everywhere, including your lungs and continue to grow.

You said you wrapped it back up? what does this mean? A fully colonized cake is fully colonized. when you break it open it will look like its not colonized but it is.

Hot places aren't always that great as it can help sometimes help the mould colonize. I put my jars in the cupboard above the fridge (even in the winter) and it always works

You should make a 20% Ipa 80% water solution and spray down your place with it.

 

[fatmannero]

thanks for the addvise dude!!

 

[obliguhl]

Either throw it out, or try to fruit it.

 

[xantho]

Last night I saw that my mycelium cake had a touch of mold growing on it after fully colonising.. So very unhappy!!
Question is.. Can I cut of the mold and do some sort of extraction on this bad boy??

Someone please give me some hope... 8)

Can you describe the mold a little more? If it was a green/grey colour then it is most likely Trichoderma, commonly known as green mold (and the sworn nemesis of mushroom growers!). I agree with astralspice that your best option is to toss it out, jar and all. I wouldn't even bother pressure cooking it again because if you make a mistake for whatever reason you're just increasing the number of possible contamination points in your setup.

Another question: Did the mold appear while the cake was still in the jar or only after you had it in the fruiting chamber? The answer to this question will help you to understand how and why the contamination occurred. Chances are you need to work on improving your sterilization technique when dealing with the fruiting chamber. Ensure that the fruiting chamber has been thoroughly wiped down with a bleach solution, the same goes for all of your work surfaces. A spray disinfectant such as Lysol is also a must. You also want to be working in a location without any wind/breeze so seal windows and doors if necessary. Lastly, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly. This might sound like overkill but I used to have tons of problems with green mold (one of the joys of living in a 100+ year old house) so I would brush my teeth and shower, sterilize all of my surfaces and tools, and then do the work naked haha just to make sure that no contaminants from my clothes were present. I'm sorry if you know all of this already but even experienced growers get a bit lazy sometimes and it's always best to get the basics right.

I sympathize with your lost. I've cried before over the loss of tubs to trich (nothing worse than the feeling of having failed the fungus). Take this as an opportunity to review your procedures, improve your technique, and strengthen your resolve! Best of luck to you dude

 

[fatmannero]

thanks very much for the time you have taken to reply to me!
it was green and it did appear once i took the cake out of the tub,its strange because the cake ad fully colinised but there was one patch on it that was diffrent from the rest, it was almost like the mycelium was much weaker round this one patch and thats exactly where it appeared.. i have one more cake in the tub in storage and this is the same, it has this one patch that dosent look strong, it is fully colinised tho...not sure what to do with this one!

 

[xantho]

You're welcome, I love this sort of thing.

OK there's a chance that the contamination was already present in the jar and only became fully visible once you put it on the perlite in your fruiting chamber. Are you using the PF Tek (cakes made of brown rice flour and vermiculite)? I would shake the 2nd jar and leave it for a few more weeks to see if the weak patch colonizes evenly before fruiting it.

If the contamination was present in the jar it must have occurred during the sterilization or inoculation steps of the procedure. You might want to consider the following: 1) Did you pressure cook the jars at the correct pressure and for the correct amount of time? (This will ensure that all possible contaminants in the growth medium have been killed) 2) Is your inoculation medium contaminated? (Did you inoculate using a spore print, spore solution, or liquid culture? Were the spores from a reliable source? Did you use a clean syringe and did you swab the needle with alcohol and flame-sterilize it before inoculation?) Eliminating each possible option will get you closer to discovering the source of the contamination and ensuring it doesn't happen again in the future.

The best advice I can give is to not give up. You will improve with practice and experience and the mushroom will reward your perseverance. This is the beginning of a relationship in which you get to know the mushroom and it gets to know you.

 

[fatmannero]

i took the easy option this time and i bought a pre sterilized pre prepared cake, simply to save having to buy lots of equipment.. iv got to more in the drawer that i havent inoculated yet... i steralise them further to be on the safe side! as for my syringe got that on the net i did do all the standard messures..
this is my second time growing and the first time i bagged a few ounces and that lasted 2 years... so i thought it would all be good..

 

[xantho]

OK awesome. I've never used any purchased cakes like that before. Just be super careful with cleanliness and sterilization when you're putting the cake into your fruiting chamber and you should be all good. If you're only doing a few cakes then fruiting ones that you thinking might be contaminated isn't a huge problem since you don't run the risk of loosing a ton of hard work. In addition, even if you fruit a cake and notice that there is a small amount of green mold, you can always just leave it alone (don't open the fruiting chamber) and you might still get a decent yield. I've had tubs with trich before that was fought off by the mycelium and still produced many ounces in yield. The main thing is to quarantine any contaminated cakes/fruiting chambers so that there is a reduced chance of spread.

If you ever feel the urge to step up to a more sophisticated setup I'd recommend inoculating WBS (wild bird seed) and spawning to coco coir in a monotub or double tub. There are a lot of great teks out there. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions in the future.

 

[astralspice]

note..
Some ppl tend to have a serious reaction to trich/moulds (penicellin), which means mushrooms grown in an environment with contaminations will possibly be contaminated and could cause some unlucky soul a tryp to the hospital while flying :?

 

[xantho]

Thanks astralspice. Your word of caution is appreciated and duly noted.