6 replies to this topic

[LIFELESSDEAD]

I hear time and time again not to check on something after i innoculte it but nobody sais why!!! 

do vibrations disturb fressh myc growth?

does a short durration of light trigger different growth?

why shoud i not check on my growth, especially if i need to tranfer asap right?

[FunG]

The only reason you may not want to continuously look at your colonizing jars is because it will make it seem like it's taking twice as long to colonize lol

There is nothing wrong with checking on colonizing jars, the light will not trigger anything, nor will simply handling a jar (just dont go crazy flipping it every which way)

I check on mine quite frequently to monitor for contamination when they first start out and then a little less once growth is established.

[coorsmikey]

If you don't know the it may be hard to understand. The fact is most newbs can't help but to peek way too much. Every time you peek then you run the risk of intoducing contamination to uncolonized substrate. As long as you're not opening it up every time you peek then stare at it all you want.

Edited by coorsmikey, 30 August 2020 - 05:21 PM.

[jrh]

My newbie understanding is that there are two main reasons.

 

1. Completely colonized grain is fairly resistant to contamination, but uncolonized grain is a perfect medium for a bunch of other fungus and bacteria that you don't want. The less you mess with things up front, the fewer opportunities to introduce contams at the most vulnerable stages.

 

2. The hobby, in general, requires patience. The more frequently you check on everything, the greater the temptation to make changes when most likely everything is doing OK and just needs more time.

 

As a newbie, I feel like my biggest risks are that I'm not doing everything from scratch, so I'm trusting quality control to the people I buy kits and spore syringes from. Things could already be fubar before I even get started. This is why people encourage learning the tek and getting the equipment to do things from scratch. In addition, I don't have the experience to know what things should look like at all stages, so I risk annoying people by posting pictures and asking for reassurance.

 

I'm curious to see how the experienced folk answer your question.

 

 

[TVCasualty]

The advice is usually given as "don't love them to death." Which often involves a lot more fussing with them than just checking on them.

 

That said, any time you enter a clean-room lab space (or a sort-of-clean room in the case of home labs) you are bringing in contaminants. Spawn colonizing in jars or sealed bags with proper filters won't be affected by that, but later if you have bulk substrates colonizing in trays then excessive visits might become an issue.

Edited by TVCasualty, 30 August 2020 - 01:33 PM.

[LIFELESSDEAD]

so, since i am learning ive decided to do agar for a month.  Im using a premix PDA and i tried some recipes of coffee, and lme and homemade pda. I definelty get growth, but sometimes they dont like the switch i feel!?

Failing at every part seems to be success as long as i get growth. but yay all my recipes have showed to be sterile for as long forever, i think my sterile tech is decent so i will continue. but unfortunatley my MS syringenge shows contam in the agar like a slime, does this mean i should toss that one, or can I  Isolate  it still?  inject the syringe in to my housepant lol

[LIFELESSDEAD]

ok, so cross contam is the main issue!.  im somewhat lucky i have a still room and a still shelf and then a sab or air scrubber (box fan and filter) but i think i the SAB makes me more comfortable, i only use one or the other! im especially concerned opening a possible trich dish so i stick to the sab to check on things