Treasure Coast albino selection — 4 generations in, here's my results
28 replies · Strain Discussion
I've been doing phenotype selection work on Treasure Coast albino variants for the past eight months. Here's what I've learned from four agar generations of selection.
Starting material: Spore syringe from a reputable vendor. First plate showed about 15% albino expression in the germinating sectors — consistent with TC's reputation.
Generation 1: Selected the most fully depigmented sector visible on the plate. Transferred to fresh agar. The resulting culture fruited with about 60% albino expression.
Generation 2: Tissue culture from the most albino fruiting body (interior stem tissue). Fruiting: approximately 80% albino or near-albino expression. Still seeing some pigmented specimens.
Generation 3: Tissue culture again from most albino specimen. Fruiting: 90%+ albino. Very few pigmented. Mycelium on agar looks slightly different — whiter, slightly slower growth rate.
Generation 4: Current. Tissue culture from G3 most albino specimen. Waiting on first fruits. Agar plates looking good — consistent white mycelium.
What I've noticed: Each generation of albino selection seems to slightly reduce colonization vigor. G1 colonized fast. G4 is noticeably slower. This may be the tradeoff — stronger albino expression at the cost of some cultivation robustness.
This is exactly the kind of documentation this community needs more of. Most people do a generation or two and call it done. Four generations with careful notes is valuable.
The vigor reduction you're seeing in G4 is a known phenomenon with aggressive phenotype selection. You're selecting hard for one trait and potentially trading off genetic diversity that contributed to robustness. Not necessarily a problem — just something to be aware of.
Have you done any potency comparison between the albino selections and pigmented specimens from the same culture? I've always been skeptical of the 'albinos are stronger' claim but haven't seen controlled comparison data.
25 more replies — forum posting coming soon.