Updated An Introduction to Spore Growth and Reproduction in a Controlled Environment (P1/4 in a Two-Blog Series)

over 3 years ago (Edited)

Welcome,

And hopefully you genuinely enjoy this educational introduction to working with, in the future, colonized mycelium dishes that you will make yourself!

Spore Distribution and Petri Dish Inoculation

Picking up from where we last left off introducing psilocybin mycelium, https://hypnochain.com/hive-163105/@trezzahn/3f3eyz-psilocybe-mycelial-and-their-colonization-on-agar-agar
outlined here - https://hypnochain.com/hive-163105/@trezzahn/general-hypnochain-outline-month-following
Whether from natural means or other not indicated here, the first step to begin on your colonization requires the presence of a fungi. To showcase the simplicity of how easily mycelium can form, such will be examined.

When one has a colonized dish, as showcased last week, the following technique is ideal to utilize.

Wedge Transferring (a.k.a. Wedging)

Or let it be, the squaring off from a portion of colony with a sanitized and sterilized (where, let sterilized hold as: the disinfecting of a material through submersion in isopropyl alcohol [90-99%] or through heat sterilization scalpel to transfer to another petri dish for further isolation/use.

This technique can be seen below, showcasing cut, subsequent growth, and dish transfer from a contaminated source.

To be further explained later however, this examination is meant as an extrapolation on how easily mycelium can colonize, and when in the right conditions, flourish to the point where isolation can be ideal to the point of growth.

You can learn how to grow Agar coming up, and how to prepare your dishes here: https://stemgeeks.com/@trezzahn
and follow my blogging continual here: https://hypnochain.com/@trezzahn

Spore Scraping and Spore Collection

The usage of agar petri dishes for the purpose identification of bacteria contaminant has long been a followed standard when starting with mushroom spores, whether wet or dry.
Seen below, prepared Agar dishes ready for use.

Petri dishes allow a planar top-down view of a surface bacteria or colony opposed to that of a difficult to isolate 3-dimensional surface that one otherwise would be working with if inoculating directly into a substrate container.

Begining, one must first start with a spore.

To be dampened, one accomplishes this through dropping one to two drops of water on the cap, covering of with a sanitized glass – for the sake of terminology, let sanitization hold as: the disinfecting of a material for further sterilization –, and placement on a sterile collection surface such as a paper (for collected/wet fresh specimens) or aluminum (for dry specimens), where gill-side spores can collect to be further utilized.

Forward,

The residue that falls in the first two hours of this collection is contaminated by remnants of other bacteria and as so, the collection material underneath can be replaced with new, the cap dropped gill-side down again with the sanitized glass atop the new collection medium, and the cap itself re-saturated again with one drop of water per and at each quarter portion of the cap approximately one half-length down from the tip, with two more drops again on the tip of the cap. This can be all completed with a medicine/eye dropper.

This method of order is called
Spore Scraping in order to get a
Spore Print ,
allowing particulate from the cap to be scraped onto a planar surface.such as foil.

The resulting colonies that develop can then be further isolated through our new developed knowledge dish transfers and wedging.

Following the formulation of a preferred growth medium explained this following week in StemGeeks (Agar Agar for example) (https://stemgeeks.net/@trezzahn), poured petri dishes are ready to inoculate with these above examined spores that were fallen on the previously explained collection medium, such as foil.

This is done through the process of scraping the medium with a sanitized and flamed (torch to red-hot heated then touched to the agar of the receiving dish to cool for a second), sterilized scalpel to collect this spore residue, and then the placing of these spores with a slight tilt of the scalpel, ensuring minimal exposure to air when the petri dish lid is off, and maintaining physical contact at null.

The result; sometimes a mess such as the below dish:

Nonetheless, upon completion of the distribution of spores, seal the petri dish and medium with parafilm or tape and place in a clear container to reduce any risk of contaminant.

Place the inoculated petri dish in a dark place to begin colonization and growth of the spores that have now been inoculated.
We will examine how to physically prepare petri dishes in StemGeeks later through the usage of a growth medium. First, we learn the shortened science behind bacterial, and mycelial, growth.

Hopefully this was an educational introductory read for anyone interested in mycelial growthx and it's simplicity when distributed on a medium. The examination of preparing for use of this medium will be examined tomorrow.