I have seen a recurring defect over the course of two separate casings and several flushes each. I cannot tell if this is a contamination or not; I have been unable to find anything that resembles these symptoms online.
The strain is Ecuador, cloned via 9er Tek after an initial run from MS. Substrate is WBS and verm (mixed in after jar colonization), and casing layer is pH balanced potting soil.
The only symptom is the one seen in the photos, namely, that the gills become inundated with a light colored fuzz. The fuzz looks alot like the fuzzy myc that often appears at the base of the stems, but there is no apparent 'trail' leading from the base up to the cap.
I thought at first that it must just be myc because the mushrooms exhibit no decrease in overall health, and because once dried, the fuzz looks exactly the same--just like dried fuzzy myc. The only undesirable side effect (besides the unusual appearance) is that the fuzz prevents the spores from leaving the cap. There is still sporulation, evidenced by clumps of spores which are visible if the fuzz is scraped back.
The defect sets in only after the cap has opened, sometimes immediately and sometimes after several days of sporulation. Additionally, once one cap becomes afflicted the problem quickly spreads throughout the pan and eventually the whole FC. For this reason I suspect it might be some kind of contamination, but as to what kind I have no guess.
I am also open to the possibility of some kind of mutation being the cuplrit, despite the non-mutationlike behavior (i.e. the apparently contagious nature) because all of these projects were cloned from the same initial stock or a second generation of that stock. I have no other projects going which could serve as a control to this effect.
Any ideas as to what I've got? And beside the inability to spore print, is there reason for worrying about it?
Thanks much.
Note: The third picture compares an affected mushroom to a normal one.
