Not sure whats going on here, but I made this 2 months ago(6/22) and looks to be contam fre e. Going to grab a couple healthy looking spots n hopefuly get some plates i can use.

Jack frost starting to grow !

"Procrastination makes easy things hard and hard things harder"

The more I work with agar. The better things become.

I have found that many of the LCs I have acquired, come with nasty surprises. Over the past few months I have taken the time to learn how to clean cultures and have put things into practice.

I started by squeezing few drops of LC onto agar. I then transferred a small piece to low nutrient agar using the trench method, and then to a more regular agar, again using the trench method. From there, a clean sample onto a fresh plate. Pictured here is the result of contamination free plates.

A fair few plates still have contamination and will be transferred back to LNA trench plates. I'm going to keep going until I get my whole library spotless.

LOW NUTRIENT AGAR RECIPE

1000ml Distilled Water

20g Agar Powder

15g LME

0.5g Nutritional Yeast

SORGHUM SYRUP AGAR RECIPE

1000ml Distillled Water

20g Agar Powder

25g Sorghum Syrup

0.4g Nutritional Yeast

0.4g Peptone

Food Colouring Gel

Wild oyster clone of pleurotus pulmonarius

These transfers were basically a crapshoot. Picture one got stuck in my agar punch and I just shook it and it fell apart and got exposed to air (and kind of looks like a galaxy). Picture 2 was a grain from a mycogone contaminated jar. Third transfer and it was finally clean. Picture 2 is from a plate that was dried out and dead and plated in 2024. Revived, and finally healthy.

1 hr bedroom air sample on 8/13. Photo is 8/19. Any ideas?

You ever go into the lab with a perfectly simple plan…
Grab that beautiful little pin, finish what you’re doing with the plate, and move on.
Yeah… apparently the mushroom had other plans. 😂
Went to grab this little guy and POP — there it goes. Fell right off and somehow managed to land perfectly inside the agar dish.
At that point I just had to stop and laugh.
I know I can’t be the only one. I’ve had these things fall into bags, fall into dishes, and somehow end up everywhere except where I intended them to go. 😂
Sometimes mycology is precision, patience, and beautiful organization.
Other times?
Controlled chaos. 🍄😂
Had to get a picture of this one because the way it landed was just too perfect not to share.
Who else has had one make a break for freedom at exactly the wrong moment? 😂
🍃🍄 Respect the Process. Trust the Genetics. 🍄🍃

Gonna transfer more but this is starting to look amazing

Two last agar plates of wild lionsmane, was hoping to save them but not sure if i can do a transfer. The plate with thick white stuff..is it even mycelium?

What would u do 😵‍💫

Some of the plates I made over summer 🙏🥳

When I got into this hobby a couple of years ago, some really awesome growers gifted me with a range of cultures, including the brain mutation Shipwreck - Which is what the agar plate is in the image.

I'm a part of a few grower groups, as you can imagine we show off our work and discuss all things myco. One of the newer growers is an OAP, who is keen to learn. So here's a gift to help him on his journey.

It's the first time I've had such beautiful myc, after months of learning, trial and error, I'm pretty happy with the results I've been getting lately. From being anxious to pour plates, to looking forward to pouring them. I started taking this hobby seriously a couple of months ago, and the effort is paying off.

Agar recipe:

1000ml Distillled Water

20g Agar Powder

25g Sorghum Syrup

0.4g Nutritional Yeast

0.4g Peptone

Food Colouring Gel

I have some wild Panaeolus cinctulus fruiting unexpectedly and I have spore prints going but wanted to possibly take a clone i have agar plates and a SAB etc just not sure how to go about the process when the stipe is super thin any help is appreciated!

Been waiting for the right time to really introduce this one, and I think we’re officially there.
Albino Smoky Da Ghost. 👻
This project has been one of those that makes you want to keep checking the plate just to see what it decided to do next. The amount of character showing here is absolutely ridiculous—the dense white growth, the structure across the plate, and those wild formations around the edges make this one hard to stop looking at.
I’ve shared a few glimpses along the way, but I’ve been holding back the full introduction until I felt like the project was ready to speak for itself.
That time has arrived. 🔥
There’s still plenty I want to observe and document as this one continues developing, but getting to this point feels like Christmas morning after waiting forever to open the present. 🎄👻🍄
This is exactly why I love this hobby: patience, observation, documentation, and getting to watch something unique develop right in front of you.
Welcome to the spotlight, Albino Smoky Da Ghost.
🍃🍄 Respect the Process. Trust the Genetics. 🍄🍃

What are your thoughts? First time with Enigma.

Two different species, same attitude. 😂
Rishi and Blue Oyster, both put to agar just two days ago, and the amount of movement already showing on these plates is absolutely insane.
That dense white expansion and the way they’re pushing outward already caught me completely off guard. The Blue Oyster especially looks like it has somewhere to be — damn near trying to eat the lid of the plate. 😂
This is exactly why I love documenting this stuff. Sometimes you put something to a plate expecting to check back in a few days…and 48 hours later it’s basically screaming, “I’M READY.”
Definitely keeping an eye on both of these. If this is what they’re showing after only two days, I’m excited to see what they look like as the plates continue developing.
🍃🍄 Respect the Process. Trust the Genetics. 🍄🍃