Redboy -potato/malt agar jars - G2G / Myc Syringes - Mycelium Milking / Super-Inoc
Awhile back I made up a dozen tiny agar jars. The recipe I used was Potato / Barley Malt and I scaled it down considerably because I only needed a tiny skiff in the bottom of each jar. The recipe calls for simmering chunks of potato for about 30 minutes and then straining (eat the taters) and use a portion of the strained water to mix with the Agar and the Barley malt.
Poured that mix when it was hot very carefully into each recipient jar , so as to not have it blurb up the side or put to much in. I was aiming for an eigth of an inch or less (tried for less) ...
The small jars cooled quickly and the mix solidified. Meanwhile I had made lids that had a small hole and then 2 layers of coffee-filter paper that i cut to size in circles. The coffee-filter allows some air-exchange but keeps out many of the bad things. Next I made spore syringes with a print of Redboy that I knew was clean (I am sloppy to say the least). Shot water into the baggie from 2 syringes , massged the spores off the print and sucked back two syringes of spore-water. Wiped the needle with alchol and capped them. After a wait & shake I tried to drip only one drop in each agar-jar , but it was hard to do , and some had way more than enough. In retrospect i should have streaked the agar by sraping it as I squirted a bit.
About this time winter struck round these parts and temps dropped , so the jars didn't do anything for a week to ten days and I started to forget about them. I was pleasantly surprised when i looked at them a couple weeks later and they all had a good amount of mycelium , some better than others , but all alive. I decided that I wanted to either inject the colonized agar jars with water , swish , and suck back mycelium syringes or add sterilized grain to them.
I opted for adding PC'd Popcorn to each jar ... The reason is I have lots of Popcorn around and by adding it to the agar-jars , it almost guarentees quick colonization. when each jar is colonized I will G2G it into larger jars. When you G2G the Popcorn out , the agar-jar is left to recover , which takes a surprisingly short time. Then its ready to go again ! This time you could make mycelium syringes , or add new Popcorn and repeat the above ... or you could combine the two ideas and add more Popcorn , let it colonize , inject water , shake , suck back syringes and then go ahead and G2G that Popcorn as you were going to and let the agar-jar recover for more fun later.
You could do this very nicely and easily to get a good isolate / clone culture going. Get a stalk chuck going on agar and then make mycelium syringes and/or add grain and G2G to expand.
Here's some pictures of the progress so far.
Small jars of Popcorn and even smaller jars for the agar.
That's what the jars looked like are a few weeks of neglect , although the temps were quite cool.
My super-uber-ghetto glove-bag. I use a clear thrash bag to do my transfers and other semi-sterile work. Its very handy and kinda enjoy working in it. I load up all the jars and remove their ring band , loosen the lid if its tight. Then with washed clean hands I do the transfers. Everytime I'm not doing a transfer I make sure the lids are back on the jars. When I'm done I remove everything and put the bag away ...
Freshly added sterilized Popcorn added to the agar-jars.
If I can keep my temps in the 70's these jars will take off immediately and will fully colonize in no time. Then it's the simple matter of doing up a dozen pint or quart jars 2/3 filled with Popcorn , sterelize , cool and G2G a healthy amount of colonized Popcorn ... and then repeat.
Edited by Myc, 24 May 2016 - 02:14 PM.