From Burns Bog I collected a sample of water from a stagnant puddle and plated it. The PDA plate is on the left and CMA on the right. On the PDA plate there is plenty of growth with at least 2 types of fungi that can be observed. We know there is at least 2 based on the 2 drastically different colours on the plate (pink and green). The CMA plate on the other hand has no observable fungal growth. Even though we see a lot of fungal growth on the PDA plate and it would be hard to isolate any particular one at this stage it is the better media. It is hard to observe your fungi if it won’t even grow on the media. It is possible to observe the plates earlier and place the PDA plate in the fridge before it gets over run with fungi and you can observe individual fungi.
