Starting a spore collection for microscopy: a beginner's guide to the first five specimens

01Choose specimens that contrast

The most instructive collections are built on pairs: pigmented against albino, isolate against wild, cubensis against another species. A first five that covers those contrasts:

1. A pigmented cubensis isolate. Your baseline for shape, size and purple-brown deposit. DreadMaw or any ISO-tagged cubensis line.
2. An albino line. Translucent spores that teach contrast technique. An APE isolate such as MFH Ape, or a Jack Frost cross.
3. An Ochra line. A different species that looks similar until you measure and print it. ACS Ochra.
4. A documented cross. Something with two named parents you can later add to the collection, such as Blue Vootwo or Toque x Jack Frost.
5. A print. One spore print alongside the syringes, for colour in mass and archival storage.

That set covers two species, both pigment states, an isolate and a cross, and two formats, for roughly a hundred pounds.

02Keep records from the first slide

A collection is only as good as its notebook. For every specimen record the strain name as printed, the LOT, the date received, the collection and breeder, and the lineage. For every slide record the date, the objective, the size range from twenty spores, shape, wall, germ pore and a note on pigment. Photograph the print. Our microscopy guide sets out a routine that keeps this manageable.

03Store it properly

A labelled box in the fridge, syringes capped in their sleeves, prints sealed and dry. Take a slide from every new arrival within the first week so that later comparisons have a baseline. The storage guide has the detail.

04Grow it by lineage

Once the first five are in, add specimens that connect to them. If you have Blue Vootwo, add Blue Voodoo when it is in stock, then Natal Moon, then Blue Ravioli, and you have a family you can compare across three generations. The lineage explorer shows the connections; each strain page links to its parents. A collection built this way stays coherent however large it gets.

05What not to do

• Do not buy ten syringes of similar pigmented cubensis lines at once. They will look the same on the slide and teach you little.
• Do not skip the notebook. A syringe without records is a syringe of unknown provenance within a year.
• Do not let the collection warm up. The fridge is not optional.