On this sub I see many questions seeking clarification of contamination versus bruising. Frequently I see photos during the stages of spawning to bulk and fruiting. My question is where is this contamination coming from? If the substrate has no nutrients, and the grains were fully colonized before adding them to the substrate, then it must mean one of the following is true:

—contamination entered during the inoculation and colonization stage and simply didn’t show up until a few weeks later

—the grains were not fully colonized before moving to the spawn to bulk stage, thus allowing bacteria to feed on the grain nutrients still existing from colonization

—random bacteria was preexisting somewhere in the setup prior to spawning to bulk and the cleaning step with alcohol wasn’t thorough enough.

What other potential avenues of contamination am I not thinking of?

Every damn plate pins but that really is a good problem to have. If you want my agar recipes just ask.

Looking like this ones contaminated :( I've got 1 other bag which I innoculated at the same time, that one's looking kinda the same, but without the bluey greenie patch. Should I throw this bag out now?

I’m a new grower and I inoculated some UB bags and some pre bought malt extract agar plates with a blue meanie cubensis mss 8 days ago. I inoculated using a diy laminar flow hood and I’m keeping everything stored at a solid 76-78 degrees Fahrenheit using a temperature monitor and a humidifier on low to make sure nothing dries out keeping it at around 55% RH. Nothing. All the plates look the exact same from when they came. I messed up my first plate underestimating the pressure needed to push out the spores and ended up spraying some everywhere, but the rest only got one or two drops straight from the syringe no needle, wrapped in micropose parafilm. I also left two plates empty. One that I immediately sealed after opening the bag they came in, and one I left in front of my flow hood for about two minutes. Absolutely nothing. Nothing from the grain either. I used 3 uncle Ben’s and 3 off brand, all whole grain brown with no other additives, all being stored together with monitored temperature and humidity. I know mss syringes can take a while bc the spores need to germinate but I thought after a week I would’ve seen SOMETHING, even contamination. Any advise? Is it possible I got a dead syringe? There’s very clearly a lot of spores in the syringe and I shook it up pretty good before inoculating and I’ve only ever heard good things about this vendor. Any advise? Is it possible I got a dead syringe? There’s very clearly a lot of spores in the syringe and I shook it up pretty good before inoculating and I’ve only ever heard good things about this vendor. Could it be the agar plates? I don’t have a pc yet which is why I opted to buy the pre poured plates. Honestly I’m just about to get a LC syringe and try again to compare results and colonization speeds

They are not soft like marshmellows yet. When can i harvest? Do they drop spores??

The pins I focused on turned out to be a blob, it never opened..

This is after a good soaking. They’ve been out here for a few weeks.

Some great value microwave rice is made in canada too. the rest is made in mexico. This is just about the microwave ones not the dry ones.

They are not soft like marshmellows yet. When can i harvest? Do they drop spores??

Wish fruits matured at the same time. Will probably do a staggered harvest to maximize yield. Are clusters good? I love the way some boxes look that have individual mushrooms growing out of the substrate, but I most get clusters.

Tried to get myc from dirty spore prints and dried mush, forgot it for a half a year

New ep. of Gnocchi Chronicles out. Substrate is colonizing beautifully since S2B. I had some initial hypothetical concerns, but things are coasting along nicely just as they should with any other clean spawn. So close to surface colonization already. I predict we’ll flip to FC within the next 3 days (although it already does have nice FAE so it could be considered passively in FC already which is fine considering how colonized the cake already is). Stay tuned for the next episode of the Gnocchi Chronicles.

Can this be lc?

On the left I believe is B+, the middle is Lion’s Mane, and the far right is GT. They’re all labeled, of course, but I had to flip them due to some pooling of LC after I shifted all the rice toward the bottom of each bag. This caused them to rest at kind of an irregular shape/angle.

That said, I’m already seeing some impressive growth—except for the Lion’s Mane, which doesn’t seem to be making much progress compared to the others. The room stays around 75°F and doesn’t fluctuate more than about 10°.

Any advice on improvements I could make? I was thinking about shake and breaking the bags that are doing well in maybe a week or two, but I’m also leaning toward just letting them colonize on their own. What do you all think?

This is my first time trying the Uncle Ben's Tek, and I’d love some input from experienced growers.

I inoculated these bags about 2 weeks ago, and most of them have colonized really nicely. One of the bags was mostly colonized in the center only, so I gave it a shake recently to redistribute. It’s now bouncing back slowly.

My main concerns:

• I noticed some bluish-gray areas forming. Is that just bruising or possibly contamination?
• There's yellowish liquid in a couple of the bags. Is that normal myc piss (metabolic waste) or something more worrying?
• Also – do these look ready for the next step (fruiting)? Or should I let them colonize a bit more?

Pics attached for reference!

Any tips or feedback would be greatly appreciated 🙏 thanks in advance!

Lot of side pinnings as well, not sure what to do about that...

Still unsure about the timing of blobby harvest, but pleased.

I’m seeing posts and comments that uncle Ben’s doesn’t work like it used to. What’s a better alternative?

One clean and sanitised bucket with a tight fitting lid. Coco coir weighed and broken up in to bucket, Gypsum weighed and added, Vermiculite weighed and added. Give this a good mix then add the boiling water, fit the lid making sure its nice and tight and allow the mixture to cool down over night. Cakes will be made tommow ✌️

First time growing B+ and noticing these coral reef after about 5 days since introducing FAE. Is this contam? Pins? Having a hard time identifying what this is and if I’m on the right track…thanks fam!

Okay so I harvested my first flush and didn’t want to do more, I come back weeks later to throw away and there’s mushrooms growing again? Is this good still?