Questions regarding the cultivation of Physarum aswell as it’s plasmodium state

[Stefan]

I just received the Physarum Polycephalum I’m planning on using for a school project and have some questions I’d greatly appreciate answers for.

1. The sources I’ve seen have varied in their emphasis on watering the blob. How much water should one apply to get optimal growth?

2. When it comes to ventilating it how often should I do it? And for how long at each occasion?

3. How do I (once the blob has grown to sufficient strength) in the most efficient manor cause the blob to “venture out” for new food sources in order to create transport networks?

4. How long can the distance between the nodes in my transport network be without the blob failing to reach said node.

I also want to make sure I got this right: The blob should be in a dark and humid environment. I should cultivate it on agar but not when I want to create the transport networks through its plasmodium state

And for those of you interested I’ll briefly describe said school project. I want to use physarum polycephalum to check the efficiency of the EUs proposed transport network (TEN-T) I’m planning on taking a portion of the proposed network (along the great north European plane) to avoid geographic limitations and use the nodes the EU wants to connect as the nodes where I place food.

Thank you for your time.

[ian]

Hi

First of all, loose the agar, it's expensive, time consuming and a lot worse than paper as a main substrate. The only time you want agar is to make your maps and displays where clear agar looks a lot better than paper. Non nutrient water agar - that's important 

Water - it just needs damp,.submerge Physarum and it'll start to fall apart

Ventilation you can pretty much ignore - opening a container to feed is enough, petri dishes I leave closed and wrapped in foil for days.

Distance - depends on the size of blob you add but a good 10cm or so

I'm updating it at the moment but there's a growth guide here -

Tinyurl.com/slimemanifesto

Cheers

Ian 

[Stefan]

Thanks for the reply.

I just have one question. How often would you say that water should be added?

[ian]

Only when they look dry or when you add food ( assuming you'll be adding dry oats direct to the culture ). If I'm dotting oats out on a map they just a a single drop of water each.