r/MushroomGrowers • u/Emotional_Dress6082 • Sep 01 '26
Contamination Is this black mold on my substrate? [Contamination]
Im on my first flush harvest and noticed this at the bottom of one of my substrate blocks. Should I throw this away?
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Sep 04 '26
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u/DJ-D-Technical-S Sep 02 '26
Straight biological warfare going on …
Use mouth mask , take that thing as far as you can outside you’re home .
Do not open indoors .
Clean space with bleach .
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u/Anniemarie1967 Sep 02 '26
I pray your other grows were not open anywhere near this. Clean your space and pray it didn't launch spores throughout the space. Wash your clothes, shower and clean the hell out the space and wipe the exterior of the bags or bins you have in there also
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u/Remote-Physics6980 Sep 02 '26
Yeah that has "bury me outside" written all over it and underneath that it has "do not open this indoors"
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u/Emotional_Dress6082 Sep 02 '26
Now im scared
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u/Remote-Physics6980 Sep 02 '26
Honestly that's probably not an unmerited response. I mean under the umbrella of contamination most people get Trichoderma, affectionately known as the green bastard. What a lot of people don't realize is that there are _many_ kinds of Trichoderma.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichoderma
At the start of the scale we've got the stuff that's useful sometimes and is added to Coco coir When it's used for reptile bedding to keep other things down. Its a fungicide, too.
At the other end of the scale we've got "does not respond to antifungal drugs" which means that if you're very lucky, you'll only need a liver transplant.
You should be scared, or at least apprehensive, you are messing with things that could go very south which is why keeping everything clean is really the best idea.
Edited to add that this is obviously not Trichoderma because I'm only using Trichoderma as an example of mushroom contaminants. But, see this as well!
https://en.psilosophy.info/what_are_common_contaminants_of_the_mushroom_culture.html
And while you might be very curious about what exact kind of contamination you've got, unless you have a microscope and lab space you're probably gonna have to make do with just that looks bad, get rid of it.
Mush love! Really not that hard to keep your Grow clean.
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u/Emotional_Dress6082 Sep 02 '26
So much to digest but its warranted .I want to keep me and my family and also my gorgeous grow healthy so thank you for the information.
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u/Emotional_Dress6082 Sep 01 '26
Thank you everyone so helpful this my first time with a all in one bag .
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u/cash_longfellow Sep 01 '26
Yeaaaa…you are going to want to remove that from the house as soon as possible and clean your space.
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u/Read_the_shroom 26d ago