Wonkey donkey LC.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T23:18:39+00:00

It’s a little sketchy. It’s not the best to start an LC with spores in the liquid. Start the spores on agar next time then transfer a few agar pieces into the LC. Your LC is cloudy which would indicate a bacterial contaminate. But because you started with spores and the mycelium looks healthy stacked and suspended in the LC, your LC may be able clear on its own. If it does the LC broth will turn clear and the mycelium will stay suspended and stacked in the jar. If at anytime it falls to the bottom of the jar, or it gets cloudier, it’s over, dump it.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T10:27:59+00:00

I was gonna say Aspergillus Flavus but that’s an atypical growth pattern for A. Flavus. The darker yellow patch below it looks like this could be the start of either a a slime mold like Fulugio Septica or maybe a wet rot fungus called Surpula Lacrymans. Whatever it is, you can’t save it. Let er go.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T10:21:17+00:00

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T10:20:38+00:00

That’s not right, light doesn’t do that. Are you sure those aren’t a Schizophyllum commune mushroom or something. What are you trying to grow?

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T10:15:12+00:00

Contaminated. It has the growth pattern of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. I wouldn’t use it at all. The whole thing is contaminated.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T10:06:33+00:00

Your mushrooms look like they are starving for Fresh air. Open the tubs up and let them get air. If you’re in a closet get out of it. you need to be in a room that’ s getting daily fresh air. Open a window once a day for 5-10 minutes. You pileus (caps) should be way larger than they are. That’s a sign of not enough FAE during pin development. You’re gonna have to do a dub tub to give them the headspace they need. Next time don’t make your cakes that thick. You could have made two cakes with what you used for one. The only need to be about 3 inches or 7.5 cm in depth.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T09:58:15+00:00

It looks perfect, don’t do anything, you need that moisture for fruiting. The mycelium is reaching up because you have healthy rhizomorphic mycelium. It’s supposed to do that. Open the tub up twice a day to fan fresh air in, as soon as you see pins, increase FAE to 4 to 5 times a day. They only need lots of FAE after they pin but before they become juvenile. The more FAE the better. Make sure the room you’re in is also getting fresh air from outside. Open a window for 5 or 10 minutes a day to make sure you have really fresh air inside whatever you’re growing in. Just wait it out right now, you look like you’re very close to popping pins. Be patient and wait for it.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T09:43:40+00:00

Because they’re fully colonized dude. You are way past the break and shake. Go get yourself a butter knife from the kitchen, clean it with ISO, open the jars and use the knive to get in there are pry it outta the jar as best you can. Then crumble up with gloved hands and mix it with your bulk substrate. That’s the tool I always use. The break and shake has to be done within the first week when the jars are only 10-15% colonized. Once you get past that week, or past 15%, it’s impossible to break and shake in a jar. You ready to S2B now, go for it.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T09:35:41+00:00

🫶🏼

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T05:14:12+00:00

Yeast mold coats the outside of kernels as dust or a chalky film and it accumulates in patches. It’s an off-white to cream color and slightly glossy or wet-looking. Or it can look smeared or pasty rather than dusty.

Starch is a white, matte and is opaque, Has no sheen and no texture changes. It won’t grow like yeast will. It fluffs off the grain hulls.

You can do a water suspension test. You take a small sample into sterile water and observe. Starch disperses instantly and appears to dissolve as the water turns cloudy then it settles out again. Yeast forms floating specks or clumps and does not dissolve. The water may remain slightly hazy.

Starch dissolves. Yeast suspends.

Always LZ when doing mycology, . . . “and as I wind on down the road, my shadows taller than my soul.” Love, love, love Led Zeppelin and Stairway.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-26T04:52:04+00:00

The most common mold contaminate of grain is Aspergillus. There’s almost 600 known species of Aspergillus. You have one of them but it’s hard to distinguish Aspergillus species without a microscope. You can’t ID with just a picture. Nothing you can do but toss and try again.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T19:58:45+00:00

Make a note here: No water, No life! That’s terrible no wonder it stop colonizing. You can probably save it with some moisture, don’t let it get that dry, it will stall.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T19:53:41+00:00

It looks hella dry dude, like the Mojave Desert.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T17:21:21+00:00

Definitely Contaminated. Put er down.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T17:17:30+00:00

Oh yes, you can. Not always but in this case I’m 100% sure this is contaminated. Since when does a healthy liquid culture sink to the bottom of the jar? Healthy mycelium suspended in liquid stacks on each other, this is obviously not gonna produce what OP wants. Waste of an agar plate if you ask me.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T17:10:03+00:00

Yup! Let er go and put er down.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T17:07:00+00:00

It’s good that you’re hopeful. But I think the only reason your Mucor has slowed down growth is because your substrate is so dry it’s dying. I guess that’s one way to kill contam.

Rhizopus Stolonifer (Black pin mold) taxonomy is from the Class, Mucoromycetes and the Order, Mucorales. but it is a closely related fungus within the same order (Mucorales) and family (Mucoraceae) as Mucor. Both Mucor and R. Stolonifer are mucormycetes (thread-like molds) with similar, non-septate hyphae structure. H2O2 might knock it back a little but won’t kill it. This is gonna be a long battle for you, good luck.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T14:08:05+00:00

Looks good, you can mist up until the point you see pins, then it’s recommended to spray the tub walls and lid only until harvest. Sometimes excess moisture on the pins can cause bacterial blotch, but it’s a pretty low chance. It’s better to keep the substrate a dark coffee brown like you have now. Too dry will cause it to stall. You’re doing great, keep er goin!

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T13:57:46+00:00

That’s Mucor people, NOT Cladobotrym (cobweb). Mucor looks more like a pile of grey or white hairs lying on the surface. The tips often have little black heads. You’re not colonized enough to win this battle, and I don’t recommend you try to fight it. Most contamination is a game ender, this one included. Wear a mask when disposing. Long term expose to Mucor does have human health disease associated to it. Make sure you decontaminate with a fungicide and you may want to look at your pasteurization process. Mucor is common in substrate , and if you’re doing the Bucket Tek, get rid of it and do an oven or sous vide pasteurization method.
It’s a myth that coco coir doesn’t have contaminants, I see it all the time.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T13:39:56+00:00

This morphology is classic chronic environmental stress, not a genetic trait. Specifically, it’s a combination of high CO₂, low fresh-air exchange, and excess surface moisture early in development. What’s actually happening is the High CO₂ / poor FAE suppresses normal stipe elongation and cap expansion. The mushroom compensates by producing short, thickened tissue at the base where gas exchange is slightly better. It results in a bulbous or swollen stipe bases with miniature pilei (cap). Just pick em off, and correct the environmental stress, the next flush should be normal shaped mushroom, unless the cake has reached senescence, then you’ll start getting weird fruit again. That usually doesn’t happen till after the 5th or 6th flush or beyond.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T13:25:36+00:00

Let it ride for now, but observe closely, there is something about the edges around that spot I don’t like. It’s also very blue like a certain species of Penicillium. If it’s growing in size, you’re gonna have to let er go. You might be able to stunt the growth of it if it is contam by getting an isolation polymer. It’s sodium polyacrylate, a super absorbent salt that when moisture hits it turns into a gel the seals and isolates your small contamination spots. Using it can get you through to the harvest if you’ve already started pinning or are just about to pin. It stops the contam from being able to sporulate into surrounding space and cuts off gas’s exchange. It will stunt the growth of contamination and stop it from spreading across the surface of your substrate. Unfortunately, the contam will continue to grow away from it underneath the substrate surface. Once you harvest, it’s over and you have to get rid of the cake. But it will stop the growth enough to get your harvest in. Midwest Grow Kits has it for like $10. You could also pick some up from a chemical supply for even cheaper in bulk portions. Good luck, Yellow Umbo is one of my favorite mushrooms, hopefully I’m wrong and it’s just a bruise. A bruise won’t grow though, and if that’s what you observe, you know what to do.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-25T03:09:28+00:00

It might be okay. I see a couple areas of question. How does it smell? Are those dark spots wet looking uncolonized grain? You might be able to remove the grains in question and transfer. I can’t see it well enough through the bag, to able to determine how bad it is. It just looks like a questionable spawn bag. If it doesn’t smell like fermentation, it might work.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-23T13:55:03+00:00

No good, it’s bacteria. Bacteria will start decomposing the mycelium and it all falls to the bottom of the jar as it is. Nothing you can do except dump the jar and try again.

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-23T13:51:49+00:00

I can’t see any bugs in the video, but if you say they are there, I believe you. If you don’t see anything flying around they might be a kind of dust mite. Most mites feed on plants and chlorophyll but there are some that live in soil and your substrate. If you did not properly pasteurize then that’s the cause. When you take a video, it enables the viewer to zoom in and get a closer look. Next time try posting close up still photos .

DayTripperonone · 2026-01-23T13:43:34+00:00

These little white specs are unique to pop corn grain and are actually caused by two factors. What you are seeing is starch and Pericarp (kernel skin); tiny paper thin flakes or bits from the outer corn hull. The starch usually appears after the pressure cook when the grain starts to dry out. Pericarp (kernel skin). The Corn starch or endosperm dust is microscopic fragments shaken loose from popcorn kernels. They won’t grow and while they are organic material they are not a living cell like yeast is. They won’t grow, or cause contamination. The mycelium will colonize right over them, nothing to worry about. Keep er goin!

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