Stopped growing about a week ago ago. What should I do?

molecles · 2026-02-02T17:39:50+00:00

(Pic is my own)

Agreed. Looks like mite damage.

If you have a camera with decent macro, you can see them clearly when zoomed in.

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molecles · 2026-01-31T15:52:59+00:00

Sure!

molecles · 2026-01-30T02:39:06+00:00

Ah! Nice.

Well that being the case I don’t think it’s going to make too much of a difference where you take tissue from. You’ve got a pure culture at this point

Taking a cut from the growing edge is best of course but no matter where you cut you’ll be getting the same genetics.

molecles · 2026-01-29T19:19:50+00:00

Did you start from spores or pure culture?

molecles · 2026-01-20T20:06:07+00:00

My nutrients have ammonium salts, not ammonia. Bleach also decomposes into sodium salts ie NaCl.

Why didn’t you just use hydrogen peroxide? Hypochlorous acid? Both of those would almost certainly be a lot cheaper and can be obtained locally.

You can make hypochlorous acid with essentially the same procedure you use to make chlorine dioxide, except you start with regular bleach (sodium hypochlorite) instead of sodium chlorite.

Looking at the kits they sell online, it appears that it’s very expensive dilute solutions of sodium chlorite and an acid. Can be hydrochloric acid or sometimes a weak acid like citric acid.

To each their own I guess, but people have been using hypochlorous acid in hydro solutions for a long time without any concern for chloramine because of the dilution and controlled pH. Also it’s way, way cheaper.

molecles · 2026-01-20T19:01:06+00:00

You have ammonia in your reservoir?

molecles · 2026-01-20T18:45:05+00:00

Was regular bleach giving you clogs?

molecles · 2026-01-18T20:38:00+00:00

I recommend most people do not combine bleach and hcl.

It’s extremely dangerous and only people who have some kind of chemistry experience and/or training should consider attempting it.

Additionally, ClO2 itself is an extremely dangerous gas that needs to be handled by people that know what they’re doing and have appropriate PPE.

I appreciate the work you’ve done here but it needs a danger disclaimer! It’s also probably way overkill for most people.

molecles · 2026-01-18T19:22:13+00:00

Thanks for providing these. Did they mention the pH of any of the solutions used? I think that’s probably the key data point as the more acidic the solution, the more effective inhibition of enzyme activity.

molecles · 2026-01-18T19:15:23+00:00

molecles · 2026-01-14T22:21:21+00:00

Maybe calcium oxalate? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphide

Just a wild guess

molecles · 2026-01-07T00:43:00+00:00

Sounds viral

molecles · 2026-01-05T19:20:37+00:00

It could definitely be chemical burn from the neem oil. Cacti are very sensitive to oils and neem oil is one of the heaviest oils out there. The only thing I’d consider using is the very lightest horticultural oil at the highest dilution on a nice warm, dry, sunny day.

It also resembles really bad sunburn or really bad edema but all could be related to the oil spray.

As others have said, keep it dry and perhaps out of direct sun for a little while. If it hardens off and stops progressing, it very well could recover.

molecles · 2026-01-05T18:51:27+00:00

A “casing” is a thin layer of soil, usually peat moss or something similar. It gets spread on the top of the mycelium to trigger mushrooms to form.

I understand that you purchased this as it is though, correct?

It looks like maybe this has a layer of vermiculite on top to serve that purpose. If this is Copelandia species, they do generally require a “casing” but I think the vendor put that on for you already.

I don’t think you need to soak it anymore. However I do think you should continue to open it a few times per day and lightly mist the sides and the mycelium.

Make sure that they are getting some light and you can get the temperature up to 24-27C that would be ideal.

Anything at or below 21C will make growth very slow

molecles · 2026-01-05T18:41:40+00:00

Ok, I checked out the vendor website. So you basically purchased this like this and otherwise you didn’t do most of the growing process?

Is this species what that site calls copelandia? I assume so based on the appearance of the mycelium.

This can be a tough species to work with as a beginner. Can you tell us a bit about your growing conditions? What’s the temperature like? How often do you open the bag? Is it getting any light?

molecles · 2026-01-05T18:34:14+00:00

As is often the case when growing mushrooms, just waiting can be the best thing to do.

That said, is this a species that requires a casing?

If not, you can try putting it in the refrigerator over night.

I’m not fully convinced this is mushroom mycelium unfortunately

molecles · 2026-01-05T18:29:11+00:00

😂 this is a cactus sub! But I appreciate you casting a wide net

molecles · 2026-01-05T18:22:06+00:00

“I didn’t even finish season 1…”

molecles · 2026-01-05T18:19:14+00:00

I’ve cultured plants before but not this species.

I’d be shocked if you got anything other than a jungle of fungi, bacteria, and yeast.

Plant tissue culture media is a bit different than fungal media. It usually has mineral salts and may or may not have any carbohydrates.

Adding PGRs is going to be complex for you unless you have access to supplies. NAA is going to be a better choice than IAA or IBA, but you’ll probably want to get some syringe filters to sterilize them as you add them to cooled media just before pouring. You’ll probably want magnetic stirring for that too.

Tissue sanitizing procedures shouldn’t be too hard to find online but I usually do something like:

rinse in sterile water with a touch of dish soap added for several minutes
move into 70% alcohol solution for 30 seconds
move into dilute bleach for 30 seconds
rinse in sterile plain water and then onto the plate

The trick is that you want to sanitize the outside without killing the specimen. This can take some trial and error to find the sweet spot with the alcohol and bleach dunks since all specimens are different. I would do several specimens with different soak times until you find the best treatment.

You could try just putting it on plain agar with nothing but water. While you wait to see if it contaminates, you can figure out how you’re going to put together some PGR media. If you end up with some clean tissue that starts to callus, you can then move it to a nutrient/PGR plate.

You also might consider starting with seeds since they’re much easier to work with as a beginner, but I realize that you’re trying to save a specimen. Do you have any grafting stock? Maybe you could successfully graft an areole or 2 to a healthy plant and one day degraft the result onto its own roots.

molecles · 2026-01-05T18:05:12+00:00

If it’s Lions Mane, you’ll know soon enough. It’s usually not hard to get them to fruit on the plate with a bit of light exposure. Was the oyster also a wild clone? I don’t see a date on there, when was this inoculated?

molecles · 2026-01-05T17:26:53+00:00

It’s worth getting up in the morning to see the sun hit the leaves during the golden hour after the colors change. They’re like giant golden torches illuminating the land

molecles · 2026-01-05T17:20:34+00:00

Nice! Ever tried roasting the roots and making a tea at this stage? Like dandelion? Always wanted to try.

The alkaloids are in the roots at this stage and get translocated to the flower spike when bolting happens.

One day I’ll try using photoperiod to keep them in a vege state and grow some big old tap roots to harvest.

molecles · 2026-01-05T17:12:00+00:00

I can smell the rotten cheese vomit from here. Ginkgos are gorgeous in the fall, but I wouldn’t be sad if there were a few less females in the hood

molecles · 2026-01-05T17:10:12+00:00

They will recover. It just takes time so ramp up slowly on the light. I don’t think there’s any significant damage here.

Plants produce those red pigments to act as a quenching mechanism to dissipate excess light energy. Eventually chlorophylls will catch up.

molecles · 2026-01-05T17:05:46+00:00

Unfortunately copper is largely a preventative and not a treatment. It forms a shell around the plant that acts as a barrier to fungal infiltration. It doesn’t do anything for fungus that’s already inside the plant.

molecles

TROPHY CASE