And the winner is.....

[vernon]

A colleague of mine has been in an informal competition with me to see who could cultivate the best growth in a cup or other container over the years. It's been a close run thing with some weird and wonderful fungal growths.

He was rightly proud of this summer's effort - a rampant growth in a cup of coffee left over the summer break and I was envious until today......

I won the cup, plaque and shield with a carrier bag that seven or eight weeks ago contained some fruit and a sandwich box and today, when open contained:

Cider - or something that was brown, slightly viscous and smelled of scrumpy.
Fruit flies - too intoxicated by the cider or sedated by the carbon dioxide to fly out of the bag.
Fruit fly larvae and chrysalises.

It also beats my previous best - a pork pie left in a Belstaff motorcycle jacket pocket for six weeks.

Anyone done better?

 

[CopperCyclist]

In my student days, we once left a cup of coffee/tea in a room that went so moldy we ended up naming it George. Once named of course, no one could then be brought to 'kill him' so he was allowed to fester for far, far too long in one of my flat mates rooms, only finally being subject to execution via Fairy Liquid once he actually started growing out of the cup with bits dropping off him.

It's amazing really that none of us got I'll. I also remember the 'Bin Jenga' rule we had as to who emptied the bin - the one that made the stack fall down when adding new rubbish.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Not a photo thread?

 

[Kiwiavenger]

Not a photo thread?

i was thinking the same!!

 

[vernon]

Happy to oblige.

Not high on the visual stakes but a runaway winner for biodiversity.

 

[srw]

Weedy. That's just a bin. As a teenager I left half a pork pie in a drawer for several months. When I found it again it was still solid, furry and bright green and red. Something like a gonk, but not quite as artificial.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Happy to oblige.

View attachment 12426

Not high on the visual stakes but a runaway winner for biodiversity.

Impressive, and looks like the worst Geocache ever.

 

[vernon]

Weedy. That's just a bin. As a teenager I left half a pork pie in a drawer for several months. When I found it again it was still solid, furry and bright green and red. Something like a gonk, but not quite as artificial.

I can assure you that it's not a bin.

It's a has bin.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I left a sandwich in the glove box of a car for I don't know how long, it was just solid mould when I discovered it.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I remember a carton of orange juice that got left for a very long time, it rattled by the time it went out.

 

[Drago]

A colleague of mine got sacked. When he cleared his locker he left a load of raw meat inside. Within a few days the flies were buzzing, within a week the hum was so bad we all too our kit home rather than brave the locker room. In the end they had to bin the entire locker.

 

[rikki]

When we were teenagers, my sister borrowed my duffel jacket and put it back in the wardrobe with an apple in the pocket.
Months later I found it by putting coat on and stuffing my hands in the pockets. Yuchhh.
And she still wonders why I don't let her borrow stuff.

 

[rikki]

I remember a carton of orange juice that got left for a very long time, it rattled by the time it went out.

At my son's school they removed an unopened 2 litre carton of orange juice from a locker at the beginning of the school year. This had been left for at least eight weeks of summer (in Adelaide).
They accidentally dropped it while carrying it across the quadrangle, and it burst open. The smell was so bad that everyone nearby threw up.
This was hilarious for those observing from further away.