A new experiment is made, taking the investigation results from Caicedo around the ideal medium for growing Polycephalum/physarum.
A medium is prepared with the following quantities;
- 100 ml of water
- 12 gr of cooked potatoes
- 12 gr of oat flakes
- (mix together)
- 2gr of agar
- (mix all together and boiled 2 minutes)
The result with this medium is a thick mixture, that is not very malleable in order to put it inside the Petri dish. I tried to use it the best I can and put the samples in different spaces in the Petri dish.
After one week all samples in this experiment have mold and died. NOTE: in some of the samples a pink/red specimen/contamination/mutation appeared, that have also appeared in other samples that I made in another medium, this can be found in the further experiments shown here.
- Day 1: I made a new mixture that has double and a half quantities of water in order to try a new medium, the medium is made like this;
- 100 ml of water
- 4 gr of cooked potatoes
- 4 gr of oat flakes
- (mix together)
- 2 gr of agar
- (mix all together and boiled 2 minutes)
- Day 2: The sample with the new medium is already growing. New samples with the same medium are made in order to have new samples. Growing Polycephalum/physarum in winter is a little difficult because of the temperatures, I have achieved that some of this samples grow in a place with a controlled temperature of around 19°C. Other samples are left in the laboratory inside the incubator with a temperature of 20°C.
- Day 10: The samples left in a place with a controlled temperature of around 19°C growth in a healthy way and fast.
CONCLUSIONS: This medium contains a lot of elements that help the specimen to feed correctly, and because of this, it grows fast and strong. It is an ideal medium to grow the specimen in winter.