making tidy sclerotia

[ian]

I've got the knack of getting sclerotium to form but my slime mould isn't well behaved. The commercially supplied stuff is a nice smooth even layer when dried. My guys try to escape, bunch up, form great chunks or hide under the substrate. How do I teach them some manners? I've been loosening the lid on a colony and gradually widening the gap each day until they've dried solid over a week.

[Jaden]

According to this page: http://miriam-english.org/files/slime-molds/AmateurScientist_slime-... (about halfway down on the page)
You want to dry the slime out in no less than 24hrs, yet no more than 48hrs. A week is giving them too much time to escape.
When I get my cultures started again I will try a few different methods and post which one works best.

[Heather Barnett]

My method for drying out physarum is to encourage the slime mould to grow onto slightly damp tissue paper, then remove any food, take the lid of the dish and keep it in the dark. It usually dries into sclerota quite neatly. I then cut the dried tissue paper into pieces of sclerota for later resurrection.