Hello mycotopiates,
I would very much like some opinions from those of you who are more experienced in contaminants than me. Please help...
The first two pics are of what I believe to be a Mazatapec strain showing bubble like growths in place of primordia. These were in monotubs in relatively dry conditions. The second two pics are of the same strain in trays fruiting in a greenhouse at a much earlier stage in development. They were in much wetter, more humid conditions. I searched around and have come to the conclusion that it is likely either mycogone or verticillium.
But I am not leaving out the possibility that it is normal PE blobs from a mislabelled strain, or something else entirely.
Am I missing anything? What are your opinions as to what type of growth this is? I already tossed the monotubs thinking it was the casing material, which may have been pasteurized improperly. Details on the process below...
I recently acquired a live culture on agar of Mazatapec from a reliable source. It showed beautiful rhizomorphic mycelium, so naturally I wanted to grow this strain out first. I transferred to a new plate, then to LC with potato water/dextrose, then inoculated grain jars of millet that were expanded with G2G, then I spawned to 60/40 straw/coir, let colonize, and cased with 50/50 peat/verm.
The casing material was limed until a PH of 8 was reached, and then pasteurized a few times using boiling water to achieve saturation, then adding dry verm until it was at field capacity, and finally letting it sit in a cooler. This method achieved nearly 134-140 degrees F for a few hours. Not a very effective method.
So I then switched to oven pasteurization in mycobags at around 200F for 4 hours, same moisture content and PH as above. This method eventually achieved internal temps of 140-160F for 2 hours.
