36 replies to this topic

[destroy_erase_improve]

i figured id show a pic of what appears to be a contam in my wbs jar. i have a few going so its not a big deal. but maybe someone who views this will remember how it looks and be able to tell if they fall victum to it also.

now the other jars are very nice and white, but if you can see, there is a different taint on some parts of this jar. a greyish color. it kind of has its areas. the myc network seems to not be as strong in those areas. as if its either not myc, or fighting with the contam for that area. its moreso in spots on the side, and at the bottom, as you ride up the jar, the myc looks stronger and healthier.

basically, the history is as follows. the jars where nocced up, this was the slowest to colonize from the get go. as they went along i gave them a nice lil shake, everything is going great, but this jar is still the slowest to recover and then start again. all the other jars are done, this one just doesnt look so healthy. i dont know FOR SURE that its a contam, but my gut is it is, and im just going to bury it with my plant.

the last pic is of some myc up at the top of the jar, its sending out an S.O.S. lol. reaching out for a place to get away apparently.

what do you guys think?

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[sinthetic]

last time i did wbs jars, i had a few that were very very fuzzy and tomentose, not rhizo at all. I thought contam, but after spawning it to some straw it became quite rhizo and looked healthy.

[destroy_erase_improve]

im not so much concerned with it being tomentose, as the color tainting. if you look closely at the first and second picture. see how there are blotches that just look more gray. dimmed. im concerned that that is just a contam that is not sporelating yet.

[Lazlo]

I just had some jars just like that from an old Karo culture. A greyish type of contam. It didn't spread like a mold or mycelical growth. It formed only where i shot karo, which the karo was spread pretty well over the jar. Where ever the karo hit, this type of contam sparked up. I didn't wait to see how the contam would spread because i was afraid that it could be yellow mold. I've never seen this type of mold, but i've heard it that it causes liver cancer within a few years. Don't let me scare you, i'd just toss the jar and all. I'm not even sure if this kind of mold exists. But i wasn't trying to find out.

[destroy_erase_improve]

yeah im not 100% sure its a contam to be honest, but my gut is saying it is, its just gonna go in the plant soil. if i was SURE it was just slow myc, i may be tempted to just make a straw nugg for it and let it do its thing, but im not sure, so, into the soil it goes. :D

[Hippie3]

Even if it's not a contaminant, I would see no reason to use a weak jar. It's too much trouble preparing your bulk substrates to use anything but the best. If one jar is way slower or weaker than all the others, I'd say toss it, contaminated or not.

true dat
and even so
i'd say that jar has multiple contams,
bacteria and mold both.

[destroy_erase_improve]

without sounding totally noobish, can you tell me what are the key indicators that are tipping you off to bacteria contam, and also mold contam. example being, the recessiveness of the myc shows that bacteria has taken hold on those wbs grains. etc.
ty

[destroy_erase_improve]

well the one jar that seemed to be contamed was opened by a bum and put into the soil of a plant in a pot. as he opened it he took a whiff and it smelled totally mushroomy. not one bad scent or sour smell. as he broke it up into the pot it looked ok to him. what he did is he dug about three inches down into the pot, broke apart and buried an 1"-2" layer of spawn and then covered it back up with the soil. he told me the mix for the soil was mostly peatmoss and some topsoil. so hopefully that bum will get a few fruits. all the rest of the jars were dontated to the salvation army. lol hope they can do good things with them. :D

[viraljimmy]

Some questions about bleach dunking:

1. Is it recommended to replace water with
bleach-water for the 12-24 hour dunk?
I have done this, and I think they grew well.

Or should they be dunked normally, then
bleach dunked for only 10-15 minutes?

2. The ideal ratio is 1:200 bleach:water.
That is about 1 tablespoon per gallon.

3. I found posts in the archives that
suggest bleach dunking can lessen the
aborts and make larger healthier shrooms
grow. I have seen that too with my PFC's.

4. This is from a really old post from Hippie3...
Is this still valid, or is there new information?

"i got really big ones, too, after dunking/bleaching.
but only a few. of course they are all 2nd/3rd flush cakes,
so i wasn't expecting many.
i was going to post a pic of my milk-dunked/bleached babies
which were huge but, alas, they weighed so much that they
fell off the cakes when i moved them."

Anything to add at all here? Thanks!

[altered_states]

The ratio of 1:200 = 1.25Tbsp. per Gal.

Don't use bleach for the hydrating dunk. Just water.

Bleach dunk at 1:200 for 10 minutes or so.

Longer than that won't do much more good.

Bleach is only effective for about ten minutes after contact with organic matter.

[python]

<---agreed with "altered states"

[Hippie3]

we still do not understand
the how's and why's
as to the occassional
huge bleach babies.
the phenomenon is not consistent,
and no one seems able to create it
it just happens from time to time.

[Digi7ech]

My friend had done the no heat Lime pasturization but I think they did it wrong or not long enough time/lime.

They have 2 small bins with the straw sitting for later purposes.
On the straw you can see small little pin sized dots of some type of mold/fungus. At first you woudl think it was mushy until you see the pattern(not branching out and spotty).

I'm wondering since it's still relatively soona dn it hasn't overcome the straw fully yet.

Can my friend redo the lime and add in the bleach process?
I'm thinking that since it's started to grow that the bleach will actually do a better job on it now that it's not a spore. Then the lime will help fend off any extras.

This sound doable or should my friend just toss the straw? BTW it's hard to find in my friends area.

[Hippie3]

if you see mold on the straw i'd toss it out