Green mold in one corner

[aragorn]

One week has passed, and the shrooms have grown about 1-1,5 cm. They are white, with very small browninsh or dark orange caps. I think they look normail for this stage.



The problem that worries me is: In one corner of the growing kit (the one that had least sunlight and coldest temperature) the shrooms haven't grown at all, and some dark green mold has formed. Will it make the whole thing uneatable? I hope it won't...



Btw. Today I opened the bag for about 5 minutes to give it some fresh air, but didn't add any water. Also, I've turned around the kit so that the green corner now gets most sunlight (probably this isn't a good idea). Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Droogy]

Direct sunlight is BAD. The kit needs ver little light. 2 hours a day would do and any normal light would do. The green mold is bad. Your kit is infected with breadmold. I am not sure if the whole thing has become uneatable, but if the mold raches the shrooms, than for sure you should not eat them.

 

[aragorn]

I didn't express myself well enough - it isn't exposed to real sunlight but to the artificial light from above (100 W light bulb) which I switch on every night for about 5 hours. During daytime there's very little indirect sunlight (because it's winter here and the sun is heavily clouded). The kit is about 1 meter away from the light bulb. I know it's not good but that was the only available place. The green mold formed in a relatively small area occupying about 2 cm^2. The rest seems to be totally unaffected.



Searching the net I came accross the following advice on another shroom growing kit site:



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NOTICE*** if you see any green mold during any process of growing this mushroom kit apply salt to the green moldy areas ASAP. If the mold persists then you might have some contamination and the kit might not be as successful as it could have. The green mold can start when the casing soil isn't properly mixed or if sterilization of an ingredient was not done properly.

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This seems reasonable enough, but I wonder if it's applicable to sjamaan's kit as well (salt against green mold)?

 

[Droogy]

After I placed my post, I read that you can also cut out the green part and leave the rest to product shrooms. the problem is that micelium is not always visible. So you might not be able to see clearly what you should cut out.

 

[aragorn]

Here's the follow-up to this story...



I cut out the green mold part with a sterilized spoon and poured one teaspoon of very diluted sodium hypochlorite right on the place where the mold (trich) was. I also put some salt there and a little farther from that area. Green mold progressed 2-3 cm more beyond salt, "ate" a few very small mushrooms and stopped growing at the place where the mushrooms are thicker.



There is now a distinct line where trich stopped and where mushrooms take over. It seems that salt has mostly destroyed trich because now the part where the green devil was isn't as green as it used to be, but more like faded darkened green, and there's no growth of either trich or shrooms there. All in all, trich spread maybe to about one fifth of the total growing area.





The stalk of the shrooms is white, and I can't see any suspicious spots except for one very small blue/green (size of a needle) spot on one small shroom. The caps have brown color that I'd say matches the color I saw on pictures of healthy shrooms that can be found on the Net.



However, almost all shrooms have some totally white, cotton-like, fuzzy stuff between their heads and stalks. I don't know how to describe it... it doesn't really look like spider web, since there are no patterns in it. The best way to describe it is that it looks very similar to the white stuff I found on the surface of fresh Psilocybe Mexicana (Truffles) which were, by the way, delicious. Thank you Sjamaan!





Now, after about 14 days, the largest shrooms are about 6-7 cm tall, and their caps seem to have opened. The caps are much smaller than I expected... the largest one has the cap with a diameter of about 2 cm. Since they opened their caps I wonder are they ready to be harvested or should I wait some more?



I'm asking this because they are still very small when compared to the pics of mushrooms from your site.





I am a total beginner as far as mushroom growing is concerned, so please advise me if they my Stropharia Cubensis are safe to eat. I sure don't want to cause myself any permanent health problems or even die. I read a lot of warnings on various forums about a whole range of mycotixins that can be quite fatal. It made me a little bit scared. I thought about eating only a very small piece (size of a pea) and see if I'll feel sick, and if I don't it means it's safe to consume them.. am I right here?



Overall, the shrooms look pretty much normal (though I'm not an expert on this!), and I'm tempted to try them... but, I would like to hear your expert opinion.



Thanks in advance!



P.S. Unfortunately, I cannot post pictures. If it's a must, I'll try to obtain a webcam.. but it would be difficult.

 

[Droogy]

It sounds like your o.k. for now and that the shrooms are o.k. If the caps have starte to open up, you should harvest them. If you leave them for too long, they will start to produce a gas, which will slow down the growth of the small shrooms. If the mushrooms themselves do not show any sign of geen mold, they are quite save to eat. I would start with a small dose as you mentioned.

 

[sickity]

That mold is bad and I would take the crop that is unaffected now and then say good bye to the rest you could always try chopping it away and see if the rest is nto contaminated yet but it spreads fast, I sugget ditching everything within 1 inch of the mold and hope that it hasn't reached the rest...LAter

 

[aragorn]

Yes, the first crop was healthy. On the shrooms themselves there was some green/blue color but it turned out that it was just bruising (psilocybin + oxygen from the air). Unfortunately, the amount was enough only for one strong trip (which was pretty good, thank you . The second flush is unlikely to produce enough mushrooms for one trip, although it's not contaminated with green mold anymore... :\



All in all, I'll have to be more careful with the next kit, to prevent contamination and keep it away from excessive light.