Hypothetically, how big can you grow slime mould? - The Slime Mould Collective2024-03-29T07:49:21Zhttp://slimoco.ning.com/forum/topics/hypothetically-how-big-can-you-grow-slime-mould?xg_source=activity&feed=yes&xn_auth=noHi
In principle there ought t…tag:slimoco.ning.com,2019-04-09:3917201:Comment:445272019-04-09T09:41:07.697Zianhttp://slimoco.ning.com/profile/ian
<p>Hi</p>
<p>In principle there ought to be no limit to size - just from the biochemical point of view but maintaining sufficient humidity, hygiene and food becomes hard at large sizes. Square meter is totally possible and not too hard - I've grown on that scale but I tend to stick to 22cm square dishes - you can fill one of those from a starting piece of sclerotium in about six days.</p>
<p>If you want huge use paper rather than agar ( easier to manipulate ), I use chromatography paper which…</p>
<p>Hi</p>
<p>In principle there ought to be no limit to size - just from the biochemical point of view but maintaining sufficient humidity, hygiene and food becomes hard at large sizes. Square meter is totally possible and not too hard - I've grown on that scale but I tend to stick to 22cm square dishes - you can fill one of those from a starting piece of sclerotium in about six days.</p>
<p>If you want huge use paper rather than agar ( easier to manipulate ), I use chromatography paper which is basically a thick sheet of A0 blotting paper. Start in the middle and feed oats in a ring around the slime so it's constantly migrating outward. Oats do not need to be sterile I use them straight from the bag, scooped out by hand and watered directly on the paper using a thumb over the end of a bottle - twice a day by day 4. You'll end up with a big yellow cowpat of slime mould.</p>
<p>If you fold one of these cowpats in 4 and direct the open end of the resulting cone at a fresh piece of wet paper, the slime will migrate off - a few oats on the new paper will encourage it to move. You can merge a load of cultures like this to get to a very large slime.</p>
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<p>One huge warning - there's a lot of mobile biomass in one of the large dishes, miss a feed and they're fully capable of leaving a dish in search of food, they can make one hell of a mess.</p>