Identifying mushroom mycelium vs bacteria and the importance of observing plates

Quick update on the breeding project for 2022 and the importance of observing plates during germination of spores.
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[@TheScientist777]

If we see the mycelium colonize the plate despite the contamination-- can we make an argument that this happens in nature and it will work itself out in the end? Could we potentially see that this is causing the mushroom to produce higher concentrations of desirable antimicrobial compounds? The fungi that grows from eating radiation comes to mind. Perhaps the stress from competition, radiation, or extreme conditions is a good thing? The strong survive right? What if we grew out the contaminated culture-- will it ever fruit? What if we tested for the mushrooms concentration of antimicrobial compounds-- compare it to a clean culture of mushrooms and what will we see? What differences do we see when we compare mushrooms from the wild to mushrooms in vitro? Could a clean fruiting body be produced and isolated from a contaminated batch? Could that mushroom have high concentrations of desirable compounds ?

[@toddwmac]

Thanks Gary, a great video. I just nocked up my 1st plates a few days ago and now starting to see things slowly develop. Your visual examples and context help a ton in understanding what might be happening. Seeing the different scenarios and hearing you describe what you are seeing and what you might do is invaluable. Thank you.

[@xxheathenxx6402]

And it's shaped like a sunflower which mycelium really doesn't do. I've had the same contam. When my plates start to contaminate I put them in a refrigerator. So far the mycelium will keep growing slowly and the contamination pretty much stops

[@livewell453]

Damn man interesting tip, I wouldn’t have thought of that - thanks

[@jeffrobinson2358]

Awesome!

[@joshp5737]

thank you gary im in the la right now dealing with this... you're right on time

[@pleaseenteraname.7337]

Literally same😂

[@joshp5737]

@@pleaseenteraname.7337 it's a pain in the ass right !!? Lol taking me a year to dial this process in

[@JOJOJOJOJOJOJOJOanne]

Thank you for this video! I am working on water agar to clean up from what i believe to be lepista nuda (purple mushroom, fragrant, collected in november-december (canada), pale pink spores - very thick layer). I find that the mycelium is aggressive on card board but may be co-existing/contaminated with something extremely fuzzy - possibly mold. Using malt extract + yeast agar, it is hard to see the mold vs mycelium. even on cardboard, i see aggressive mycelium that looks like oyster mycelium, and other parts of the cardboard+tissue is something more hairy. hope to get that cleared up with water agar soon! i've wondered about laying a thick chunk of water agar just to see is the mycelium would grow vertically, leaving behind mold. ahhh agar work is fascinating!

[@garyt3hsna1l82]

I like your style Gary.

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

I like your snail pic! 🐌

[@JACON77]

Thank you for sharing that info! 🫶🏼👌🏽👍🏽🙏🏽😃

[@DMFist]

how does someone like you get bacteria in their petri dish ? Just curious , you seem to have taken every precaution .

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

it happens - from my skin, talking while working through these dishes - about 1% of all my work is contaminated by ambient organisms in the air but Im working on getting that down - it’s hard to eliminate completely that’s why qc and testing is so important

[@tomahawkmissile241]

Loop Daddy - "New mourning Alarm Clock" -try playing the beat and see if the fungus turns into a leaf changing food source to full spectrum light.

[@FacesintheStoneShorts]

Great presentation thanks my man. Love and Light🤍🗿🤍🍄

[@davids11131113]

So mycelium can overtake bacteria that’s cool to know, if you see a bit of discoloration it’s not all over and throw out your jar or whatever which I’ve done before.

[@lewismclean6285]

Does anyone here ever find that excess moisture in their plates after pouring causes some contam or discolouration later on?

[@dariosolano7289]

Thanks for you educational videos ! Really appreciated resource 🎉 Quick question . Is it mandatory to own a microscope in order to run through mycelial breeding journey?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

no but it helps at some stages

[@wolfmangosan539]

Wow thank you your just what I needed ❤

[@carolyn9547]

Question: I inocculated an agar dish with Reishi liquid culture and looking from the bottom I see many little yellowish/orangish dots but from the top of the dish the mycellium is white. I'm trying to figure out if it's contamination or just a feauture of Reishi.

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

try isolating the cleanest mycelium onto a new dish and do it until it is pure white

[@emmyl3216]

So marking the contam then does what? Do you then avoid that section when you transfer to grain?

[@joetomasello9213]

Did you ever get the answer to this?

[@emmyl3216]

@@joetomasello9213 No I didn’t

[@sanukthaiyoga6185]

Thanks Gary

[@williamhollandsworth7648]

I have some plates with good mycelium growth but from the back side there is a pink contaminant?? What is it?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

it can be many things most likely bacteria like an inert bacillus from skin or breath most likely

[@evangann6146]

I have a red contam that I can't get rid of at all. The cleanest plate I have has the red underneath but white on top. The white is growing upwards which seems very odd. If anyone has recommendations I'm open to anything. ❤️🍄

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

try an antibiotic media it sounds bacterial to me

[@kitty9903]

Thank you!

[@momsmushroomsjodyfoster5786]

I always wondered what would happen if you went ahead and transferred contaminated plates anyways. Does the bacteria show up on the mushrooms after they have rooted or what? Or do they simply not grow or what? I always throw anything out if I see contamination

[@dariuszpiwonski5324]

I have the same question but can't find answer anywhere.

[@LoganAddisMusic]

Following

[@bounceurabdelaziz4973]

Thanks very much for your sharing. A question please, in a petri dish partially or entirely colonized by Mycelium, can we have a masked contamination.

[@addammadd]

My question exactly

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

yes this is why it’s important to observe early growth stages and transfer to clean plates before contams are covered - the mycelium once colonized is strong enough to fend off contams but they can persist if they get covered later on - hope that makes sense (there are exceptions and I have seen people get away with a lot and have success but these are my strategies and how I do things)

[@bill6943]

I just started to grow Yellow Oysters from spores. I have been letting the spores fall onto the agar plates

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

nice that will work as well, just higher risk for contamination that way unless the fruits were clean

[@bill6943]

​@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi I have had 5 flushes out of the Yellow. I decided to collect most of the spores. I collected 6 condiment Agar cups , two @ a time over 3 hour periods labelling them P1-0, P2-0, P3-0.

[@Mr.Gandy.]

Danke

[@jeffrobinson2358]

Great explanation!

[@bullfrog9996]

thanks for the wisdom

[@midwestmushroomman1789]

Nice vid thanks for the info fam jam!

[@Apieceofadvice2]

Can you really save the mycelium? I have two little dots that looks exactly like that contamination. What can I do?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

yes you can save the healthy mycelium by cutting and transferring to a new plate. AVOID cutting out the contaminants it will just spread

[@nakefatty9167]

I'd love to know your thoughts on antibiotic agar plates.

[@damianallred3306]

Hey man I have some blue ish green stuff piping up in my agar plate and don’t know what it is can you please help me

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

it’s probably trichoderma or pennecillium mold

[@moisesaramos3229]

Thank you for the advice.

[@vincentwu2848]

Hey Gary, thanks for another educational video! On the plate that looked fully colonized on top, how do you know that the bacteria isn't growing underneath all that mycelium? From the first Oyster dish, it looks like bacteria grows much more quickly than the mycelium so I assume that in the time that it took for mycelium to grow over the whole plate, the bacteria surely should also have done the same? Incidentally, do you have any experience with "embedded" bacteria? I seem to have some mycelium that I just can't separate from bacteria. I'm several agar transfers away from the first plate and still getting unusually aerial looking growth on both agar and grain. Thanks!

[@JorgeMartinez-bruy]

Can the growing mycelium destroy the bacterias colonies?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

I think it depends on a lot. It’s best practice to isolate before it contaminates

[@benlipman]

Would it help to put a drop of peroxide on the bacterial spot hoping to stop it from developing more? Assuming you wanted to let the mycelium grow more before transferring some chunks?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

some people do this - I think transferring to a new plate is better because there may be more present

[@samuelbuendia8926]

Once you transfer your preferred agar sample to another agar dish what do you do with the original dish and mycelium

[@ricardopinzon549]

A lot of times you see what looks to be bacteria in your plates but also see that the mycelium is going to win, it doesn’t look nasty contaminated and if you wait the plates becomes totally healthy by look and smell. In this case is it ok to use this plates to continue growing ?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

it’s best to try to transfer the clean mycelium before it comes into contact with any contamination to keep it sterile. It might look healthy but the contaminant can come out later in the process and waste all that time and effort. I say make sure it’s clean off the bat 👍

[@philipveipert7663]

Good video, a little help needed here. I have an agar cup I innoculated with liquid spores and now half is what I think is mycelium and the other is a bright orange substance. Got any ideas what the orange stuff is?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

could be many things but most likely not mycelium

[@dream.fiiend]

What if early on you spot a colony of yeast contamination and then further on in incubation you see your mycelium eating that contamination..would you use the plate or discard?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

I would transfer the fresh mycelium to a clean dish first and then watch it after for fun, yeast can wreak havoc on LC’s so I prefer to not risk anything being underneath the mycelium 👍

[@johannabis420clubsouthafri4]

thanks bro big help

[@ClownWhisper]

I had to stop growing all together because of the trichoderma in my area was so pervasive that I couldn't grow anything no matter how clean no matter how airtight everything was I was getting massive trichoderma infections I would have a perfectly colonized substrate almost ready to put into fruiting in two days later it would be solid it had perfect primordial knots and then bam it would be covered with trichoderma I gave up growing for all summer because of this! So now I'm going and testing all my jars of liquid culture to make sure that it wasn't coming from them or they didn't get infected So basically I'm I had to suck up liquid culture from the jar and drip tiny drops on to Petri dishes. This is something I've never really done before only with suspected liquid culture it is growing weird though it's growing like little snowballs all over the top with no real spreading of tendrils of mycelium. It's only been 4 days and I got very pervasive white snowball or odd shaped spots I don't know if it's because it's liquid culture cuz like I said I've been doing this for a long timebut I've never really tested at this stage I usually test each jar when I first inoculated and there's more or less spores in it not fully grown liquid culture so maybe this is normal I have no idea. I know eventually time will tell but I want to get growing again and I don't know how long it should wait maybe a couple weeks 3 weeks. What do you think.

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

yes you can also do this under the microscope but it requires more training since you already know what trichoderma looks like on substrates it’s easier to see it on plates. It sounds like it could be coming from the bulk substrate. I would purchase some different brands and see if it goes away then revisit your bulk technique. Just my hunch but yes we have all gone through bumps on the road just step back and think step by step how you can test using controls to figure out the issue 🙏🏻🍄❤️

[@NikkiCarwan-lh5ud]

I have some ape liquid culture on agar and I have a bacteria growing and mycelium. Should I cut that bacteria out or let it overtake it?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

Cut a piece of clean tissue from the leading edge where there is no bacteria and transfer to fresh plates until you have clean tissue

[@joshuashockley7204]

So I am new to my college and I'm recently started learning working with Agar. Can you tell me some tips on storing inoculated plates for a home lab

[@ryanisber2353]

What type of agar do you use?

[@BarackObamaJedi]

Wouldn't it be safer to transfer a couple or more of those mycelium cultures away from contaminants onto a new plate, and have them mate and grow over there?

[@TheBubunoi]

very useful for newbie🙂

[@codyprice6188]

If the contamination is so isolated in the circle you marked, and the mycelium has taken over the entire plate, can you just cut out the bad and use that plate to spawn?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

I would transfer to a clean dish first just to be sure

[@dhaval4570]

@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi better safe then sorry and also saves time :)

[@john-smith.]

Cody

[@wesward90]

Hey gary where can i buy that merch. I love the beanie and hoodie

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

check out our ETSY shop Freshfungi etsy.com/shop/freshfungi also, we have some other products on our youtube shop

[@BadddDoggg-id4po]

Why not just catch it early and cut out that mycelium and move it to a new plate right from the start?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

yes, this is ideal - there is a small chance you can carry over the contamination but it’s easier to distinguish clean mycelium as it grows away from the bacteria which usually is non motile so the mushroom separates itself more quickly

[@mirandabotanical9676]

I started new liquid cultures from nice clean agar plates (lion's mane) that I grew. Assuming there's no obvious contamination in the LC, do I still need to QC the LC on agar before I start using it to inoculate grain? What if I wanted to share or sell LC, should I QC every new LC beforehand? I use a still air box.

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

It wouldn’t hurt to qc every batch, that is what we do. Sometimes contams are hard to detect otherwise

[@addammadd]

Hey Gary trailering onto the question about going from LC straight to substrate; your answer mentioned backlog of substrates etc. that would indicate it was considering the context of a non-home scale. I’d like to reask that question but within the context of a home grower, doing maybe one or two mono tubs as a hobby without a specific necessary timeline and not a commercial activity, would it make sense to skip the grain spawn and just flood a substrate with highly myceliated LC?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

yes in that context it could work you just want to adjust the starting moisture accordingly so you can add enough Lc to get a good kick start but not flood the bottom of the tote/bag 👍 hope that makes sense

[@addammadd]

@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi TOTALLY. in fact, I expect since we're going from an assumed aseptic environment to one that's decidedly not, we can probably "strain" the mycelium in some way, perhaps with some of the substrate over a sieve, to better accommodate the desired hydration. Just thinking out loud, that's probably the direction I'm going to head. Thanks a ton man. These are your cultures I'm going to be applying here by the way. Your videos are 100% the reason I'm using your genetics.

[@antcare2804]

Hey Gary, thanks a lot for the info. I have two questions: 1. I put mushroom in petri dish, i see some bacyrriabgrowing in random places, but I also see ehat i think is mycelium, growing from 3 spots from top of mushroom, but it had bluish center. Is it because they're cubensis or this sounds like contam cuz mycelium is always white? 2. Why go from grain spawn in a jar to bulk substrate? Can I just open lid of the jar for grain spawn and wait for mushrooms to grow from top? Is the only reason for bulk spawn to increase the yeld? Thanks!

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

1. It’s hard to say, if it was from fresh tissue it may be psilocybin oxidizing to psilocin but it could also be pennecillium - you can tell with a microscope or further growth. 2. grain spawn can be used to fruit but it tends to get mutations and not as good of a pinset because of the high nutrients. Genetics is a big factor but usually sparse nutrients in a fibrous matrix makes better flushes. Im not sure if there is science on this but just from experience.

[@wess4664]

Informative as always! I do have a question regarding mating isolates. How long do you typically give them before deciding they're compatible? I've got several 12 day old plates, and each isolate has filled their half of the plate. They have met, but I'm not seeing any obvious signs of connecting. Perhaps it's still a bit early to be seeing this? I'm definitely not seeing a gap in between them, and they don't seem to be trying to avoid each other. Maybe I'm being a bit impatient heh!

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

they should pair relatively quickly- if you don’t see any zone of inhibition they probably mated 👍

[@greatestytcommentator]

I have a few experimental plates. What is the perfect condition to keep them at to encourage Mycellial growth while slowing bacterial growth?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

maybe a bit cooler like 68F

[@jamesalanstephensmith7930]

Useful!

[@jessembs]

You're the best.

[@pineapplepileus8719]

Gary👋👍

[@zacharyswain7034]

Could you do a video on mold va mycelium? They can look almost identical if I’m not mistaken

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

sure I will do one the next time it pops up

[@rafaelr5243]

Mold grows so darn fast. It will start out white put after a day it'll be so gross you'll know what it is.

[@camiloninguem495]

Thank u from Colombia, Im learning english xd

[@dhaval4570]

Garry I had a thought, what if we sterilized (grains + substrate) mixed togather and later inncoulate it with large quantity of LC ? I was thinking it would reduce the time it takes for spawn run.

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

I have tried it and it works but it doesn’t reduce the time as much as you think and causes a back log of incubating substrates - there might be a good ratio but for 5lb blocks it’s better to spawn grains first

[@dhaval4570]

@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi oh I see, thanks for taking the time to reply :) saved me the hassle :p

[@MrPhillip2]

One vendor’s all-in-one grow bags have grain on the bottom, with substrate above. Inject into the grain. Once the mycelium has developed; break it and mix the bag up to set the stage for fruiting conditions. Once recolonized, cut top for air, mist walls and fruit in bag, or move the whole deal to a tub.

[@filax4500]

Gary quick question, can I grow diploid mycelium into LC? I'm copying some of your techniques, I'm not ready to inoculate grain yet. My agar plates are fine but I prefer LC to inoculate. Mush love from 🇲🇽

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

yes it will work but you need to be more careful for contamination

[@lirg123]

Have you consider getting some noise cancelling mic or software? it's hard to listen with background noise.

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

Any recommendations?

[@mikerizzyraw]

@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi apples AirPods

[@lirg123]

@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi nope, but their some free to use software that could reduce the noise, or your basic edit software. you can try and buy some 30$ cardioid type Mic.

[@addammadd]

No noise cancelling is going to make much of a useful difference. That particular noise is going to persist and what you’d have to do to defeat it will noticeably impact the way he sounds when he speaks to such a degree that it wouldn’t have been worth the effort in the first place. A real low volume hum, intermittent might be worth working on but in this case someone without some serious technical skill and a ton of time to spend in post on these videos is going to be wasting their time. My suggestion to the original commenter is to get over yourself and either look for what you’re getting out of this or become knowledgeable on noise cancelling before suggesting to a creator how to change their content to suit your personal needs.

[@gabemesa3921]

Cool man,

[@bluesixr8019]

what kind of bacteria is on the first shiitake dish??

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

not sure from the colony I would need to do more confirmatory tests

[@bluesixr8019]

@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi I have the exact same looking thing but darker growing on 6 different plates i only realized it wasn’t mycelium after i got a different growth on one

[@anitawilson3172]

Hit up this plug I ordered from.he sells psychedelics discreetly. He have shrooms, Dmt, Lsd, and more👽🍄

[@anitawilson3172]

He’s on telegram as”

[@anitawilson3172]

Sleekhub

[@Foxxxxx96]

What about cobweb?

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

I can do a video on that at some point

[@Foxxxxx96]

@@FreshfromtheFarmFungi can't wait! Hopefully I'm not growing cobweb monsters 😂

[@carolyn9547]

Hope to find you on Twitter

[@Akashic_Monk]

I have some plates can u dm on ig to see if it’s bacteria or mycelium

[@FreshfromtheFarmFungi]

we are freshfromthefarmfungi on IG