More contamination than anything else

Hi, my name is Ron. I’m new to mushroom growing. Currently, I have some Reishi and Lion’s Mane mushrooms, but I think I have some contamination in both mushroom cultures. I inoculated some sterilized maize grain spawn 3 months ago.

For the Reishi spawn(first 2 images), I thought it could be Trichoderma after reading this article (https://shroomok.com/en/wiki/Green_mold_contamination_aka_Trichoderma ). However, it does not have a similar green color, it remains the same gray even after a couple of days. It also seems to grow in distinct clusters apart from the Reishi mycelium.

For the Lion’s Mane batch, I have spotted three “irregularities”: one that looks like Trichoderma(third image), something that is black and a little spotted around (fourth image), and then a black, more cloudy-looking growth(fifth).

I’m sure this spawn is unsalvageable, but does anyone have an idea of what this could be? Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any suggestions.

Hello Ron!

You're right about your contaminated jars. Unfortunately, you can't save them. But there is a chance for the last one.

My 2 cents here.

The mold in your jars could also be Penicillium – it starts off bright white, similar to Trichoderma, but gradually turns green, blue-green, gray or even yellowish.

Dark gray and black areas may be Aspergillus. Their species have huge range of colors – not only green, but also blue-gray, gray, black, brown, yellow, orange, pink.

For reference – Aspergillus and Penicillium (only last 2 rows) samples on agar

Or Cladosporium mold that also can be gray, black or dark green-gray. It is difficult to tell them apart by eye.

It also seems to grow in distinct clusters apart from the Reishi mycelium.

Yes, mold tries to occupy bald uncolonized grains. At the same time, mushroom mycelium constantly struggles to seal off the infected area around it. It's a real battle! Sometimes the mycelium wins, especially in the case of the strong and aggressive Reishi mycelium. Just like your last photo 5 – this could be a winner.

In my experience with Reishi, there was a small contaminated patch like yours, but Reishi mycelium literally ate contaminated area, so I'd give it a chance. Things went way harder with LM tho, 'cause it's a more gentle and slow creature.

Let's figure out what your contamination vector is ;-)

Any mold dies after grain sterilization in pressure cooker. At temperatures above 140-160 °F (or 60-70 °C) for more than 30 minutes, all mold spores are destroyed, but we sterilize grain in PC at much higher temps and for longer (we need it to destroy bacteria).

Thus, mold contam usually appears due to contaminated genetics, during the inoculation process, or enters from the air through the air filter (if you removed the jars from the sterilizer immediately after sterilization or if the air filter is not good enough or if you open the lid for inoculation).

1. Did you use liquid culture or spore syringe to inoculate the grain jars? Reishi and LM cultures are usually sold as LC.

2. Are you sure your genetics were contam-free? Did you test it on agar before inoculation?

3. What air filters do you use on the lids? Do you have an injection port?

4. Did you sterilize the grain jars on your own? If so, did you let them cool down right in the pressure cooker without opening it immediately after sterilization?

5. When did you notice mold in the jars? How much time had passed since inoculation?

Hope this will be useful for your future attempts :-)