Culturing Trichoderma

[Clint]

Hey guys. I have no idea where to put this.

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 Trichoderma granules 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?


Now then.. dun dun duuuuuun. If I do culture it, and innoculate 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?

 

[Pyro]

Just a quick warning (though it seems every time I give this I get snarked at) Trichoderma produce a toxin that is quite nasty (it is actually classified as a potential bio-weapon) so be careful when working with it.

Now, that out of the way, what advice I can give is this. I have never cultured Trichoderma but I imagine, based on what you have outlined, that it is akin to "raising" slime moulds. Your best bet cornmeal wise would be the plain kind, the self-raising will have yeast in it which might make for problems as yeast are prolific monkies. I do not hink Trichoderma are "predatory" I believe they just form a symbiotic relationship with plants and thereby protect from pathogenic fungi. So I'd try to keep the culture as clean as possible, yet another reason to avoid yeast.

Don't know about caking or flat so I would suggest you try one of each and see which does better.

Neem should break down over time but if you are worried about it you can always repot in fresh media and innoculate that.

 

[Av8tor1]

here is a good article on Trichoderma

yeah I know, everyone is getting tired of me singing the praises of benficial bacteria and fungi



Av

 

[Clint]

Holy hell a bioweapon?

I'm gonna get busted by the feds for this lmao.

 

[Pyro]

I believe the quantities needed to make a bio-weapon are rather prohibitive to the average joe or they would not allow it to be sold to the public I was just more worried about the possibility of accidental self infection/intoxication

 

[rattler]

where do you get this stuff........i remember Joe talking about it when he was on the forum more........been meaning to try it with some of my orchids and such

 

[Av8tor1]

I use ampacbiotech.net's product, it is a cold loving trich and has a much higher spore count then rootshield's products

 

[rattler]

if its cold loving it aint going to like my dart frog tanks :grin:

 

[Pyro]

THe joys of microbiologics and evolution. If you innoculate then the ones that can survive will and they will be the ones to continue to "breed" which will in turn give rise to more heat tolerant survivors. Cycle a few hundred generations in a months time and you should be set for a heat loving varient...

 

[Av8tor1]

cold is relative LOL, i also use another product called sub-culture, it is a combination of the T-22 strain with Pyro's favorite lil critter Bacilius subtilis (sp?) plus a few other critters

there are at least 30 varities of trich, all beneficial to my knowledge, but some do better against this or that.. so the combination gives me a wide spectrum of protection and beneficial to growth

Av

IMHO it made cephs a whole lot easier to grow and grow well

 

[Pyro]

Bacillus... but close enough

 

[Av8tor1]

I figured you would know what i meant

hehehehe I wuz hooked on phonics but im much more better now

 

[nepenthes_ak]

Man this is too cool!

 

[Clint]

Yeah it should be fun. I've grown Kambucha tea cultures before with success. Auctually I've got mother cultures of Kambucha in the fridge lmao.


How would I seperate the spores/fungi from the cornmeal/media when I want to innoculate something? I don't expect to get ALL of the cornmeal out but would it cause a problem in CP media?

 

[Av8tor1]

maybe just drench the cornmeal/trich and catch the run off, should be full of spores I would think...

I know Ive read of more then one reference to a "Corn meal tea"

but in large apps they just spread the cornmeal (golf courses, peanut farms, Texas A&M research project, etc)

I was suppose to try this same experiment a month or two ago, but I really like the granular product and it is cheap enough that well.... ahhhh doh!

 

[Av8tor1]

This is by no means a controlled experiment, but FWIW here is a 5 month (+/-) photo journal of a ceph plant which has/is being treated with Trichoderma, this was my original test subject for the granular

Caveats, I fertilize and I use a unique bulb combo and media mix... this plant's pitchers are now quite a bit larger then those pictured
Of course YMMV

 

[xvart]

Holy hell a bioweapon?

I'm gonna get busted by the feds for this lmao.

That and your metal halide light emissions coming through your windows!

xvart.

 

[Clint]

And the ricin from my mom's castor plants!

Where's rattler and his guns when I need him? JUST KIDDING! lol

 

[Pyro]

Like Av said, if you make a slurry and then drain off the water you should have enough spores in it to innoculate. I would recommend you get a small length of cheese cloth so you can get the most water out. Failing that you can always just use an old coffee pot and filter. And the bonus is that you can respread the conrmeal and any remaining spores will continure to grow.

As far as the cops coming for you based on your HID... Going on 4 years with an HID in my sunroom plainly visible to god and everyone and I have yet to see the cops.

 

[Av8tor1]

.....Going on 4 years with an HID in my sunroom plainly visible to god and everyone and I have yet to see the cops.

(cartoon thought ballon above pyro's head) but these DEA and GBI boys keep walking their German Shepherds up and down the street in front of my house... hmmm and they never have their pooper scoopers

Once upon a time, long long ago (1980-81ish) I had a HID outfit in northern Ga. off of hwy41, I got a lil visit from the boys.. but they thought I was making shine....

they never did see that trap door behind those bales of hay

I think it was somewhere down on copperhead road

ahhh to be that young and dumb again...

Av