Hey, I’ve got some isolated spore syringes from ITW that are old. They’ve been siting in a closet for maybe a year now. Are they any good or should I not waste my time?

Clean spawn is king and fruiting isnt a sterile process.

Contams need something to feed on. With healthy and fully colonized spawn, theres no available nutrition for competitors to consume. This is why clean spawn is king. With clean spawn you could fruit in a dumpster. When we mix sub and spawn, we do so in open air. Its safe to do so because our spawn is healthy and fully colonized.

Trich, the most common contam, is everywhere. Its in the air we breathe and on every surface. While mixing sub and spawn, our spawn is being bombarded by trich spores and everything floating around in the air. The good news is that all those airborne competitors do not pose a threat to your spawn since theres no available nutrition for them to consume.

Most of us use a coir based sub which is void of nutrients. This means the sub also has no available nutrition for competitors to consume. I run straight coir, but some people add vermiculite. Verm is very helpful with moisture retention but isnt crucial. Some people add Gypsum to their sub but gypsum plays no measurable beneficial role in your sub. Its also not harmful so its no biggie if you want to use it, despite it being useless.

All the reasons mentioned above is why it doesnt matter how old or dusty your house is. It doesn't matter if you have cats and dogs. Its why tents do nothing to prevent contam, which is a very common misunderstanding. When we rob contam of food, they find somewhere else to eat. Healthy and fully colonized spawn leaves nothing for contams to consume.

Sometimes you may have what appears to be clean spawn, when its actually bacterial. Sometimes bacteria is harder to differentiate from healthy mycelium. The bacteria weakens the mycelium and leaves nutrition available for competitors to consume. This is why sometimes your "healthy" spawn doesnt contam until after it goes to sub. It has nothing to do with your grow area, or your dogs, or that mold growing in your closet. Contam occurs as a result of dirty/uncolonized spawn. Utilizing agar is the best method of obtaining clean spawn.

Having said all that, some people use manure based subs which can actually feed competitors, especially if not properply prepped. IMO, its not worth the elevated risk of contam to use manure. The difference it makes is hardly noticeable and just not worth risk.

I had a syringe from years ago with a tiny bit of left-over liquid and thought I'd give it a go. Grain spawn stage went great. Transferred it over to a tub with coco coir. It colonized well, but before any fruiting began, I noticed some trich. I know the consensus it to just scrap any tubs with contam, but since it's my only tub and I probably wont grow anything for the next few years, I thought I'd see what I can get from it regardless. Low expectations. Just an experiment.

The patch of trich has obviously been spreading and it's now about 1/4th of the topside of the tub. The non-contam'd parts have very minimal fruiting. About six small shrooms starting to grow. I concluded the low amt of fruits was from the contam.

Then I decided to look at the bottom of the tub (the tub is clear and has no lining, so I don't know why I hadn't done this before) and to my surprise I found it's covered in pins and some medium sized fruits growing. Covered like a carpet. No coco coir or contam visible, just a sea of baby shrooms. So it seems like the trich has won the battle on the topside of the tub, but the shrooms are thriving on the underside.

Do I leave things as they are and allow the underside to fruit against the tub floor/walls with no where to go? Or do I pick whatever's up top, and flip the whole cake to give the underside a better chance to grow without running into walls? I'm fine with just having a single flush. I'm just concerned that if I flip it, I'll stress the shrooms that are already used to the microenvironment of the underside and they might all abort. But I'm also concerned that letting them grow squished against the walls might stunt them. I'm not concerned with contaminating my environment with trich at this point. This is likely my last grow in a while, and in this apartment. What do?

I'd like to try using agar plates, but I don't want to set up a whole lab in my kitchen. I don't mind losing some to contamination if the trade-off is just making X% extra plates. Two questions:

1. My understanding is you boil/dissolve the agar powder into water, then pressure-cook the solution to sterilize it, then pour the sterile mixture into plates. I understand that the plates come sterilized, and I assume that you pour the solution into the plates while it is still hot enough to remain sterile, and probably enough to sterilize the rest of the plate. Is that right?

2. Why not buy glass agar plates, dissolve the solution, then pour the dissolved solution into the plates, and pressure-cook the prepared plates? It feels like a more complete solution that avoids having to constantly re-buy plastic plates. I'm sure there's a reason.

3. I don't have a hood, and I don't really plan on getting one. I was going to pour the plates on the stove with the burners going. Is doing this without a hood a pipe-dream?

4. How important is it to use antibacterial plates for cloning from foraged samples, or can I just get by/take my chances with the normal agar plates

Any answers or other direction would be appreciated. Thanks!