Culturing Trichoderma for our plants

[Clint]

Has anyone ever tried culturing Trichoderma in a jar as one would culture mushrooms like Shitake or Oyster or something? I'm kindly being sent some granulated Trichoderma (2 subspecies, I think) for my new cephalotus and I was told they can be cultured on cornmeal. Plain or self rising? Lol, really though has anyone got any tips on this? And do I need to keep a strictly sterile seeding area for the spores, considering it's a fungus that preys on other fungi?

Can they be grown in a "mushroom cake" sort of fashion, or should it be cultured flat? I was also wondering if they die if they have no other fungi to eat, or if their symbiotic relationship with the plant keeps them alive?


Now then.. dun dun duuuuuun. If I do culture it, and inoculate other plants with the fungi, and those plants/pots have been sprayed with something like hydrophilic Neem oil in the past, would that zap the fungi right then and there, or does fungicide like neem oil have residual effects but eventually break down again? The mold returns on clay pots after a few days of spraying, so I'm hoping it'll be OK. And yes I know the difference between mineral buildup and mold lol.

Thanks in advance for any help guys. Maybe If I get proficient at it I can write up a guide.

[Clint]

I got my two inoculates today. These are what will be used to start cultures with. Notice my horrific handwriting Those of you who have traded with me know it's miraculous you even get my packages!






It's got a cup of rice in each one, and when I get to the store and the washed perlite dries, will have 2 cups of perlite in each and 2 cups of corn meal in each. Perlite would be so I can have something I can use over and over again to start new batches (instead of recycling old corn meal and rice. YUCK!) and also to loosen up the media a bit.





Air holes




If I get interest in this, I can write up a pictorial how-to. I'm going to use an autoclave sine my mom has like 3 of them for cooking, but I'd venture to guess that you don't need to sterilize the jars/media with an autoclave since dirt is riddled with contaminates anyway.

[Clint]

Yeah it was those kind but I wasn't going to say


All they had was self-rising, and it was raining and I didn't want to go to another store so this kind had to do. It has white flour in it.. damn! Well hopefully it won't hurt the plants. Or maybe I can let the spores settle to the bottom of the liquid when I make a slurry and then just siphon them off. I hope the spores sink... I dunno if they will sink the same way the dry powder did.


My recipe was 2 parts perlite, 2 parts cornmeal (self rising, it had white flour in it.), 1 part rice. I'm really worried about the white-flour that was in the cornmeal. It wont hurt the fungi (it's made from corn afterall) but I'm concerned about the plants. If the spores settle out when I make a solution it should be OK.






Here's the pressure cooker. These things always make me nervous!




And here is a 1cc syringe. I had 4 cc's for each species but a 1 cc syringe was the only size I had.

[n1kt0]

I'd keep away from the self rising cornmeal if I were you, as all the stuff I've seen contains baking soda, which I imagine isn't too good for fungi. Where'd you get the granules, by the way?

[Clint]

From a friend online, but he got them from:

www.ampacbiotech.net/

and from a rootshield supplier somewhere.

[Clint]

The T. atroviride is behind the other. I've got a contamination of some club fungi but it shouldn't matter since the trichoderma is supposed to be a hyperparasite right? I forgot to tell you all that I'm allerigic to mold lmao.

Is the brown fluffy mold botrytis? You can see the fluffy ugly brownish mold, the white cottony mold (I think that's trichoderma) and then the green spots are trichoderma with spores.

[sadsoul]

I have grown cubensis , oysters for a couple of years , you should add vermiculate to keep the sudstrate or media loose, and steralize it with a pressure cooker for atleast 45minutes just add some water atleast to cover half the glass or jar with a loose cap as soon you steralize them and can handle close the caps of the jars or aluminum paper and let cool at room tempature , know you know you have steralized medium or substrate to work with...

Sincerely ............///////////////

[RL7836]

JLAP,
Any update on your cultures?

[Clint]

It got all nasty so I threw it out. I didn't sterilize it for a full 45 minutes so I guess that was the problem.