How much light can the physarum take?

[Dominique Baron-Bonarjee]

Hi there, I am planning to resurrecting a slime mold culture for an installation. I'm weary of lighting the space too much and putting my slime molds into shock (last time I did, they started fruiting). Do you have any tips on how much light or what kind of light i can look at. Your advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[ian]

Hi

I've filmed them for four or five days with lowish light ( desklamp ) and had them out on stands at exhibitions for four days without trouble, in the wild they're always going to get some light exposure so they can put up with it. For physarum it seems to be around 9 days light to trigger spore formation

They can't 'see' yellow light according to the journals ( I've not tried ), you could try that, bit of a limitation though. Your best bet if it's feasible would be to have back up cultures in waiting and swap then every few days. Maybe you could have a light that visitors have to turn on to view if that's possible at the venue, it'd give your slime a rest in quiet periods

[Dominique Baron-Bonarjee]

Thanks so much for the advice Ian! Going to try these things.