ace1928

Hey guys, Sorry i disappeared. Uni caught up to me something fierce. I have sent of an enquiry and am waiting for a response. Not certain on the chances of getting a culture from them but I am also going to look at other alternatives. I will keep everyone updated. Glad that interest has grown, Cheers, Ace

I've cloned a blue oyster from the shops that was actually a sporeless variety. A lot of important commercial strains ARE sporeless to help avoid health issues with workers.

agar should solidify fairly easy at pH 4 as long as you add a bit extra of the agar agar powder. You could potentially add a gelatinous substance such as BRF to increase the solidity of the mix too. I've done that many times before with great success. Quite a wet mix sure but it is alot firmer than without the BRF Ill try and find a full article but can't promise anything. I imagine it is somewhat guarded. I would suggest testing the soil pH of wherever you got the bolete from. In fact try culturing some of the soil sample seperately from teh bolete. It may in fact turn out that its more of a microbial symbiotic reltionship than a mycorrhyzal relationship. It's interesting because there are a few mushrooms that do that. One prime example is the morel mushroom. And it was always thought to be myorrhyzal but is in fact not. Best of luck to you mate. I hope that something happens. ANYTHING. even a failure with minor progress is a step in the right direction. Cheers

This is quite interesting http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1340354010701856 Although it is a completely different species it is still another mushroom thought to be ectomycorrhyzal but is now appearing not to be obligatory that way. If you get some going on agar I'd be quite keen to give it a go myself.

Just on a little side note Have you considered culturing the organisms that are in your soil to make a super large amount of microbes in a dried/spore form? Could quite easily boost the performance in a shorter time that way i imagine. Effectively have super soil in a matter of weeks rather than months. I do it with some simple fungi, even the dreaded trichoderma, and the plants absolutely love it

www.midasmushroom.com Open to trade too if you have anything interesting

Hey mate. Would you be interested in a bit of trading of cultures if I pay the postage for yours to be sent to me? Cheers

You guys are all awesome haha Some grafting stock would be good to have on hand and bridgesii sounds awesome to have a few of :D Thanks everyone Do any of you want some mushroom cultures in return? It's all I can offer at the moment though...

Hey guys Really keen to start building up my collection. Finally keen to give it a go. If anyone has any spare seed or small cuttings or anything at all they wish to give I'd be super appreciative. As far as trading goes I really only have mushroom cultures for the time being. Cheers

Hey guys 2 different specimen of cacti. Can get them very cheaply. Even if not a species of sacred cacti could these potentially make good grafting stock for the future? Cheers everyone in advance

Ok cheers I love cactus with tasty fruit so thats good enough for me haha When i get them ill get some better pics for a more positive ID

Enoki Maitake Shitake Strains Turkey Tail Shaggy Mane Agaricus Species Stropharia RA And anything else that is interesting Have cultures to trade and can afford to buy some cultures Cheers

No problem mate. Looking forward to it. Thanks

I'd love to grab one of each or maybe more. Got plenty of room at the moment and love native species when I can get them haha

I can get all of them except the maitake at the moment If you swing me a pm asking any questions you might have I'll help where I can. I'm sure that there will be others who can help too

Interesting... There would have to be some variation though otherwise the species wouldn't have survived this long. Perhaps you could isolate a strain by being particularly harsh on the algal culture compared to normal. Perhaps gradual increases in pH until you get some cells that are particularly tolerant, even for spirulina. Surely that would work if you were slow and steady about it?

Don't worry not taking it as an attack at all. Loving the information actually haha I have heard of the bioaccumulation of the metals. Did not even think about antibiotics. I suppose they would just pump the water full of chems, much the same as a lot of farming on land -.- Why are the cyanobacterium so hard to breed? Cheers

How do they limit contams so heavily in the outdoor commercial ponds that operate? They are open top and everything. I assume that in a pH 10 environment the spirulina will eventually hit a concentration of cells that causes it to out compete everything else? $28 for 5 would be doable. I'll send them a message over the weekend so they read it sometime next week and when I get their response we can make a decision as to what we want to do. As for the licensing things wouldn't it technically be possible to just get a new strain from the strain you buy from them? That would then be a new set of algae cells and surely not covered by any kind of licence. I also have a feeling that if it isn't for commercial purposes it could be different. Gotta check that out though. Anyways I hope we can get a few more people. Thanks so far to those interested

We definitely don't have 10 people interested yet. I think we have 5 including myself 6 if you include thunderideal (Not sure if actually interested or just commenting on waterboys post though) Halfway there.

Polypropylene wont melt at those temps. Ive chucked PP5 plastic centrifuge tubes from wiltronics into my cooker countless times and at 15psi the temp of the water should be around 125C. The link for the tubes that I use http://www.wiltronics.com.au/catalogue/200182/science/test-tubes-and-centrifuge-tubes/centrifuge-tubes-blue-screwcap-conical I use the 50ml tubes. Have never had one melt and the only deformation has been from vacuum. As soon as air is allowed back in they are no longer deformed. Hope that helps

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37985 Check out that thread. Posted it in the top of it. $140 for 20ml, $250 for 250ml. I think thats what it was. But that thread has the definite price Its expensive. But it grows super fast.

Not sure if this is the right thread to post in or not. Let me know if I'm wrong. Not sure where algae fall into haha But yeh I am looking for a culture of spirulina, preferably one that doesnt cost me a kidney like from CSIRO, so that I can begin growing this little beauty. Got the rest of the equipment I need for it just need the little guy. On that note is there anyone here with experience growing spirulina? It seems like something that a few people here might know a thing or two about (like most everything else) Cheers guys

If the water drops below 20C then it will stop growing and start to die pretty quick. Optimum temperature is 25C. They like salt and they like a pH of 10. Which is awesome because basically nothing else can grow in there with it. Which is a good thing. Other than that an organic fertilizer applied every so often and an iron supplement every so often. From what I can gather it's pretty damn tough. You need to aerate the water too to provide CO2. Heard of an absolutely ingenious way to provide lots of CO2 today as well. Brew your own beer and run a hose from the top of the beer keg/vat into the water that the algae is in. While the yeast is fermenting it will pump HEAPS of CO2 into the algae tank. I reckon its ingenious haha There are a lot of instructions if you google "how to grow spirulina at home"

For an indoor set up you could get a mylar emergency blanket, fish heater and some halogen bulbs as a light source. The mylar can go outside the tank to help stop heat loss and help reflect the light all through the tank set up. Apparently you can get a teaspoon per day from a 15L tank. A heater for a 15L tank uses about 10W power. For a real cheapy perhaps 30W. You could even put that in an esky and then put it in a full sun spot. Just put the lid on the esky each night to keep it really toasty. There are always ways

Awesome. Glad that there is at least one other person interested straight away. Im going to hit up some mates as well see if they are interested. 10 people would make it much cheaper. Even with shipping. I plan to expand it to 10 ml cultures first and then go form those 10ml cultures to 250ml cultures and from them into 2L bottles and then into the 1000L tank. Fingers crossed we can get the people together