A spot of orange and a spot of black

Hello! I'm rather new to this, so expect me to ask you a follow-up or clarifying question or two, if you are kind enough to look at my photos and give me your thoughts on possible contamination.

The first picture/cake has 2 orange spots or bulges along the rim; and the second has one spot of brown/black--again, along the rim. Should I take and upload more pictures? Ultimately, what do you think the best course of action would be? Thanks in advance!

Hello and welcome!

First of all it's time to harvest ALL your mushrooms, including big and small. No worries, they are fine!

After that I need your help – take a few photos of potentially contaminated areas closer and in the right straight direction or from the different angles. Don't afraid to move the cakes (just wear gloves). Make sure to focus your camera on the spot. 'Cause when I zoom in the images, I see the color but I can't see the texture clearly (they become blurry). Do they look powdery to you?

By the way, what is the species/strain do you grow? Are they P. Ochraceocentrata (formely P. Natalensis) or Cubensis strain like Leucistic GT, AA+ or smth else?

New pictures, here we are!

It's been a little while and the orange has turned reddish. They haven't looked powdery to me.

I think in the last few days the bottom of one of them got submerged and now has serious powdery contamination (though this is new). I'll upload that picture last.

Thanks for your help!

And it's the Cubensis GT.

Much better photos now 👍

Is this the first flush produced by these cakes? Or 2nd-3rd?

They are powdery! To see for yourself, do a simple Q-tip test and you'll see colored powder on a swab. I've circled the areas for the test on the pics below.

How to do the Q-Tip Test? Take a clean white cotton swab or sterile Q-tip. Gently swipe it across the suspicious area on your mycelium. Check the swab. If it picks up powder, it’s mold. If it stays clean, it’s fine.

So, the 1st cake with orange spots is 100% contaminated and there are 2 different species of contams. Orange looks like Neurospora (orange bread mold) to me, less likely Aspergillus.

And this cake is also contaminated underneath with green mold (most likely Penicillium or Aspergillus).

The 2nd cake has some Bruising (yellow circles) which is fine. And the Black Spots on mycelium looks like mushroom spores, as you harvested mushrooms a bit late. However, I still can't see it absolutely clear, when zoom in.

Bruising (yellow circles) and most likely spores on mycelium (blue circles)

The small mushrooms that look dry and pointed with black caps you left on the cake are Aborts. They won't grow anymore. Always pick them while you harvest the flush!

Aborted mushrooms

You mushrooms with white gills looks like Leucistic GT rather than ordinary Golden Teacher . It doesn't matter tho :-)

P.S. Check out all the links I left in this answer for more details and examples