Thoughts on toadstool propagation

raaden

In Memoriam
I have been noticing/trying things during my last few fragging expeditions, especially with toadstool leathers. It started when I was trying to figure out why some were attaching and some were not. I have been using the donut method for all of them, but in the beginning I was not very conscious of how I was cutting them, i.e. was the cut perfectly vertical or was it lateral to some degree.

I started noticing that when the cut was skewed so that it was exposed on the bottom that the attachment most times was good within 10 days. I have a few where the cut is exposed on the top side and after 6 weeks they still have not attached. The last couple of times I have been trying varying degrees of lateral cuts with some having the angle facing the top and some facing the underside. Almost always the ones with bottom facing cuts have attached within 2 weeks, and almost always the ones with top facing cuts took 4 weeks or longer.

There didn't seem to be any difference in the health of the coral with the exception that the frags growth rates and polyp extension increased tremendously once they were attached.

For reference all frags were housed in the same 600G vat with very little difference in other parameters so I am pretty sure, even though this is completely empirical, it seemed to make a pretty big difference.

Anyone else seen this or something different.
 
how are you attaching them to the frag plug or rock? wedding veil, toothpick, or rubber band? also something to think about is that leathers chemicaly fight constantly. so that could have something to dow with it. But if you are laying them flat on a rock or plug it would make sence that the piece with the cut angled down would attach faster than the one facing upward, because the one that is at a downward angle wil be closer to the rock and not have to grow as much to attach to the rock. as the one facing upward would have to grow down and around itself to get to the rock. that would be my guess about it.
 
I have been using zip ties because you can adjust the tension on them.

I agree it definitely makes sense, but I never really thought to intentionally cut them so that they would have a good edge to attach with.
 
It is very interesting i had never really thought about it either. but i deff will be fraging all my leather on a down ward angle from now on...lol...
 
for my toadstool---I just cut a one inch or so piece from the side of it when I am trimming it. I take a small piece of rock, bury it into the substrate on put the mushroom frag on top--works great
 
when i frag a toadstool i stick a toothpick through the base and superglue both ends of the tooth pick to a piece of dryrock so that the toadstool is barely touching the rock and then break off the ends of the toothpick and stick it in the tank and in a few days it sticks to the rock and eventually grows around the toothpick covering it up...
 
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