cap master
Well-Known Member
How to take a print: if u are planning on working with spores u must know how to print. its a great thing to keep your supply up for free. sterile conditions are a must or u will get contaminated spores.
the supplies u will need are quite simple
-a pair of rubber gloves
-a roll of aluminum foil
-scissors
-Petri dishes or small glass cups
-roll of paper towels
-bottle of 90% isopropyl alcohol (75 will work if its all u can get)
-and of course your mature mushroom caps from your current harvest.
first step is to take a clean glass surface get everything u will need together clean your glass surface, scissors, dishes with alcohol, and lastly your hands with soapy water.
next u will want to put on your gloves.
after everything is set up and sterile lay out your roll of aluminum foil and use your scissors to cut 4"x8" sheets and lay them out smooth on your table.
next u will want to take a generously alcohol dampened paper towel and wipe all of your squares to make sure there is no chance of any contaminant left on them. this alcohol will evaporate and will not hurt the prints quality once dry.
once u have as many squares layed out as u will want spore prints u will want to take the mushrooms u have hand selected to spore farm and pop the caps off the stems set the stems aside for drying. the caps u will want to set one cap per square approx. the center of one half of the sheet so within the first 4"x4" side
after u have layed the caps out cover them with your sterilized petri dishes or cups. u do want to leave a bit of a gap to allow air flow so the fungi doesn't mold up. that's why I suggest investing in petri dishes bc they can then sit on top of the caps and the caps themselves will hold them off the foil a tad to allow air circulation.
leave the set up over night and once u have seen that the mushroom has dropped the spores wash your hands and put fresh gloves back on. this can take from 24-48 hours. once u have your gloves on u will want to remove the dish remove the cap and set that aside for drying. u will then take the other side of the foil that doesn't have a print on it and fold it over the spore side making a single 4"x4" square with 3 open sides. u can then fold the 3 open sides like u would roll a bag of chips and put this into a air tight ziplock bag.
repeat the folding for all the successful prints and label them according to strain. keep these in a dark dry place to help retain there quality. once you are ready to grow next season u can take a sterile knife and scrape the print into a distilled water solution inside a sterile cup. (the kind u would use for a piss test) and label this bottle with date and strain information. from there you can use sterile syringes to such up 10ccs each syringe and use them to inoculate your cakes, bags, or whatever substrate being used. happy growing!
the supplies u will need are quite simple
-a pair of rubber gloves
-a roll of aluminum foil
-scissors
-Petri dishes or small glass cups
-roll of paper towels
-bottle of 90% isopropyl alcohol (75 will work if its all u can get)
-and of course your mature mushroom caps from your current harvest.
first step is to take a clean glass surface get everything u will need together clean your glass surface, scissors, dishes with alcohol, and lastly your hands with soapy water.
next u will want to put on your gloves.
after everything is set up and sterile lay out your roll of aluminum foil and use your scissors to cut 4"x8" sheets and lay them out smooth on your table.
next u will want to take a generously alcohol dampened paper towel and wipe all of your squares to make sure there is no chance of any contaminant left on them. this alcohol will evaporate and will not hurt the prints quality once dry.
once u have as many squares layed out as u will want spore prints u will want to take the mushrooms u have hand selected to spore farm and pop the caps off the stems set the stems aside for drying. the caps u will want to set one cap per square approx. the center of one half of the sheet so within the first 4"x4" side
after u have layed the caps out cover them with your sterilized petri dishes or cups. u do want to leave a bit of a gap to allow air flow so the fungi doesn't mold up. that's why I suggest investing in petri dishes bc they can then sit on top of the caps and the caps themselves will hold them off the foil a tad to allow air circulation.
leave the set up over night and once u have seen that the mushroom has dropped the spores wash your hands and put fresh gloves back on. this can take from 24-48 hours. once u have your gloves on u will want to remove the dish remove the cap and set that aside for drying. u will then take the other side of the foil that doesn't have a print on it and fold it over the spore side making a single 4"x4" square with 3 open sides. u can then fold the 3 open sides like u would roll a bag of chips and put this into a air tight ziplock bag.
repeat the folding for all the successful prints and label them according to strain. keep these in a dark dry place to help retain there quality. once you are ready to grow next season u can take a sterile knife and scrape the print into a distilled water solution inside a sterile cup. (the kind u would use for a piss test) and label this bottle with date and strain information. from there you can use sterile syringes to such up 10ccs each syringe and use them to inoculate your cakes, bags, or whatever substrate being used. happy growing!
