Psilocybe tampanensis.

[sobriquet]

WARNING: The post below may be a rumour and contains non-validated information so take it for what it's worth.

I heard that recently a package arrived from overseas containing a spore print of P. tampanensis to someone I know of. They say they prepared some rye grass containers (without gypsum that they didn't find out about till it was too late) by soaking rye grass for 12 hours with a touch of washing detergent to act as a surfactant and increase wettability of the seed. It was pressure cooked for 90 minutes. At the same time some liquid culture Karo medium was prepared and sterilised. In addition to these some potato dextrose agar was cooked up and sterilised. This was a go for broke attempt apparently.

No risks were taken with sterility and everything was done with new materials guaranteed to be sterile. A glove box was used with plenty of antiseptic sprays beforehand.

The idea is to use the liquid culture to innoculate more containers in several weeks. She says she will attempt to case and fruit most of the containers attempting to get spore prints as a priority on this first grow. She innoculated 5 jars and three agar plates + liquid culture (125 mL distilled water with 5 mL of Karo) with a 10 mL spore syringe. She only used 5 mL of solution keeping the remainder in case the rye grass seed turns out to be fungicide treated and another batch of substrate needs to be made. She thinks she will use WBS (Coles budgie mix) if the grass seeds are unsuccessful. The uncertainties are:

1. ?? Fungicide on rye grass seeds (Yates brand lawn mix)

2. PD agar being sufficient in nutrients for P. tampanensis

3. Liquid culture taking.

4. Amount of spore material in 5 mL being sufficient to have successfully innoculated the substrates. The print had 3 small 1 - 1.5 cm prints of moderate purplish look and one full 1 cm print was used leaving two on the print for culturing later if needed. If this attempt turns out completely botched then she will probably sell the remaining print with the 2 larger prints still on it.

What says everyone about this? Any ideas to share with her?

[apothecary]

Sounds good to me!

I reckon should be right for every uncertainty, except maybe number three?

LC is a bit tricky, especially if it's your first time. The problem is it can contam but remain invisible in the liquid (so you think everything is ok).

Try anyway I say.

She should use at least two of the circles, chances are much better that way and once you get started you don't need to ever worry about such things again

[sobriquet]

Sounds good to me!

I reckon should be right for every uncertainty, except maybe number three?

LC is a bit tricky, especially if it's your first time. The problem is it can contam but remain invisible in the liquid (so you think everything is ok).

Try anyway I say.

She should use at least two of the circles, chances are much better that way and once you get started you don't need to ever worry about such things again

Excellent.

The reason there is no photos of this and probably won't be is that she has a crappy camera which requires flash to get a good photo and she believes this constant flashing and light exposure while admiring the grow was a contributor to the failure to fully colonise of a previous grow of a related species.

These have apparently all been put into a styrofoam esky and then in a black garbage bag (fresh) and placed in an out of the way place that is at room temperature.

In terms of liquid culture she used some plastic screw top jars and actually unscrewed the top to innoculate through a very small gap.

She has bought 2 more of the larger 750 mL containers and has now drilled two holes in top and put clear silicone putty on the top and bottom of the holes and plans to do a no open sterile injection with 'airport' style devacuuming with 0.5 mL injection from the spore syringe soon. She plans on doing 500 mL in each one apparently.

Edited February 8, 2007 by ~username

[sobriquet]

Here's a picture of the first agar plate innoculated. This one was streaked with the needle that was used to scrape off the spores from the print. The needle had some residual spores visible and these were streaked rather than discarded. Waste not, want not.

The first signs of life