I recently purchased a penis envy spore syringe and before inoculating a few grain jars I used a tiny bit in an Agar plate to try and get a culture going. A few days passed and I noticed two small green molds but the rest of it looked ok. After cutting out the two small green molds I checked on it the next day and there is now green mold everywhere and it appears all these separate green molds are in fact the penis envy spores themselves. Does anyone know if this means that the spores themselves are contaminated? This is the first time I have ordered from www.mushrooms.com, anyone ever had any problems with this vendor? Any thoughts guys?
Give it a few more try’s..I’ve ordered from them. I don’t remember what I ordered and don’t remember having any problems with them . There are a lot of things can go wrong. Are you using a flow hood ?
Im still using a still air box but am working on building a flow hood.I have started a few cultures with some Myc and the results are 100% better then using spores from a syringe...but when i only have spores from certain strains i really have no choice. I had contamination before but it was always a few spots here and there separate from the Myc i had growing. This was the first time the spores themselves had started molding.
Sounds like the syringe might be garbage but I agree with redcat, I think it is worth a few more tries if it doesn't work out complain c: it is what I would do
Exactly I would have sent the company a pic of the agarplate and had em send a multipack of syringes. If you were in a SIB that has been successful in the past and following sterile tek then that plate shouldn't have had mold on it unless the syringe itself was contammed. You using potato agar or malt agar? The syringe was MSS or LC?
I know I’m not an expert mycologist however I know enough to say that every bit of mold is where there is a spore. I don’t think that it’s a big reach to say that the spore syringe is contaminated. Only my opinion all you have to do is look at the plate.
I had very bad luck with mushrooms.com, as in nothing grew from ms to grain, and at least one of their syringes was contaminated when I dropped spore solution on agar. They refunded me the money and sent me a couple of free spore syringes, both of which failed to produce anything. Not on my list of reliables, heck I don't know of a good vendor currently. I've not bought anything in several years but I do know mushrooms.com sent me absolute garbage a few years back.
they was awesome but since they went to mushrooms (vs hawk.) they have went down hill. i bet they would replace the syringe though.
How about SouthwestMushroom. I have had very bad luck with their spore syringes. Every agar plate I put the spores from different varieties of cubensis syringes I get mold. Not one spot but every spore is contaminated. I have purchased from them 3 times. After the first time I complained and they sent me two syringes for the five I complained about. So I thought I’d give them another chance. I know, silly on my part, I purchased again and got the same results, contaminated syringes. Now they are just ignoring me. Something needs to be done about SWS. What’s the definition of doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same results. Insanity!!!
