I have some pink spawn which was being expanded out in jars of rye berries and popcorn kernels. There’s been good growth and since a couple weeks ago the jar appeared to be completely colonized (at which time I left one jar sitting and moved another jar to a couple fruiting bags). It’s been sitting on the basement floor since then, but I’ve noticed some pink coloration that seems to have gone throughout the jar, and there seems to be a bit of the pink also in the fruiting bags.

I prepared some jars of blue oyster spawn at the same time, using the same batch of rye and popcorn, and those jars are still snow white. This has me wondering, could I have possibly gotten contamination ONLY in the pink oyster jars while all of the blue oyster jars somehow escaped contamination? Or is this pink color natural for pink oysters? It just seems like an awful big coincidence that only the pink oysters would get contaminated when everything was prepped together in the still-air box and there was definitely cross-exposure between the jars.

Since this is my first batch of oysters I’m just not sure what I should be expecting.

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzOPEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    That would be awesome to see your pic! Yeah the blue-green mold is pretty common here, I lost a batch of button mushrooms to it recently, but I’ve never seen pink mold here although I know the red stuff can be pretty toxic. This pink is kind of like a strawberry milk pink, maybe leaning more towards an orangish tint(?), and it does seem to be showing up in the places where the mycelium is the thickest which is why I even considered asking if perhaps this might be normal.

    Meanwhile one of my fruiting bags of blue oysters is getting very happy, I might be able to cut it open in another week or two. Getting excited about that, as it will be my very first harvest of mushrooms.