Hi!

We've done 3 succesful jars, no contamination, i'm really happy!

But now we gotta put those mycelium into other jars, to get even more cakes ready!

Thing is, I can not break the cakes into small pieces inside of the jar.

So we gotta open it, and somehow cut/break it into small pieces without contamination.

How can I realistically do this without contamination?

Just buy a new knife and burn it/use some chemicals on it then wipe it off?

Or buy some kind of sterile stuff from the pharmacy and use that somehow?

Any idea is much appreciated!

You get the cake out of jar, whole or in pieces, and put it in a ziplock bag. break the crumbs by massaging the ziplock bag.

Cut open the cake with a scalpel and take a small piece from inside the cake to send to agar.

Cakes are a lot of work for a little reward though. Even if you grated up a cake with a cheese grater and then spawned it to coir for a mini tub grow you will get five times the mushy goodness for much the the effort. I've even grated cakes and spawned them to coir outside in a shallow hole, covered with a centimeter of soil, then just just let nature work it's magic.

This is how it all started for me. i got given contaminated cakes. I used a small wardrobe to do it in and i lysoled the heck out of the air and materials. I disinfected the knife and flamed it (but let it cool down a bit before entry). Remove the verm layer and take a tiny slice off (size of a penny) and transfer to new jar.

When you have only a small number of cakes left i would be precautious. Agar has always contammed easier than a brf cake, so perhaps you may want to do one of those at the same time.

Obviously if you are working with agar you either have a SAB, Flowhood or Glovebox. In which case if you have a contaminated cake make sure you lysol the air thoroughly after it is exposed and let the air settle for half an hour again before going to work (opening the new jars or agar).