And off they go!

Started by Beauty Seeker, April 17, 2009, 02:02:37 PM

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Beauty Seeker

Ok, so I got my syringes in the mail today.
I still have to buy a few stuff to have my incubation chamber ready but tomorrow will be the day I innoculate my very first jars! I can't wait!
I'll keep you posted as of the results!

heartx

Good luck and don't forget to shake your syringes before inoculating.

Azurascender

Ooooh goodies! What strain did you get?
Chloroform and a dish towel, yeah that will keep them quiet....

Beauty Seeker

Damn, I thought I had answered that question!

Ok, so, last saturday (april 18th), I innoculted 6 jars, 3 with PES Amazonians, 3 with Cambodians.
5 are in my incubator and the 6th, for lack of room in my incubator, is on the kitchen counter next to it. That way I can compare how they do out of the incubator and in it.
Temp° inside the incubator is about 26°C (~79°F). Outside, it must be around 19°C (~66°F).

Right now, I see plenty of little white spots in the jars, I don't really know if it's mycelium or flour but I like to think it's mycelium ;)

I come to think that more than sterility, the key to this hobby is being patient :D I can't wait for myc. spots like those I see on this forum to appear in my jars!

So far everything looks fine.

Just one question: my spore solution wasn't transparent when I got it but black. Anyone knows of such solution?

coyoteyogi

 :mellow: All of the spore syringes from Earthstongue are put in a proprietary solution that is black. That is the only company I've ordered from so I don't know what other products look like. As you stated, the key is patience ( and the standards of care in set out in the TEKs.)

fattrout

#5
man, when you see dime size spot of white fuzz  -_- your on your way....
Cambodians, WOW man your goin to enjoy those. i when camping over the weekend. eat 3 1/2gs and had a great time.
fattrout

Beauty Seeker

Yeah, sweet :)
I really love this hobby. I check on my jars waaaay too often but I just love to see how they evolve, make prognosis on which jar will colonize faster, etc. I'm just so excited! Hehe :)
I definitely see mycelium, only veeeeerryyy small patches of white fuzz but it's there.
Can't wait for it to grow.
I think I'll do more jars very soon.  :ph34r:

Sporetica

Is this your first voyage? If so, here are some helpful hints that no one told me. I screwed up BIG time but luckily my babies still made it through..

1. Make sure the holes in your lids are big enough!! I thought mine were, but then when I tried to innoc I couldnt get the needle in enough at an angle so I had to open the jars, re-punch holes and re-sterilize..Huge pain..

2. Make sure that your substrate comes all the way up to about a 1/2 inch below the top of the jar. I didnt put enough in, and the verm on top was too much. The verm soaked up the solution before it reached the substrate on most of the cakes so I only got 1-2 innoc points on my jars causing them to take FOREVER to colonize.

3. Temp is a big deal. I had it too low for colonizing and in turn it caused me to not have any myc growth for almost 2 weeks.

4. And finally, be gentle (ish) with your jars. As the cake colonizes it will shrink down and if handled too much the top layer of verm will slip down and cover your cake, makes it hard-impossible to see your myc growth. Flipping them upside down is a good thing to do for air exchange..It willl make the bottom of the jar colonize with the rest, otherwise you'll be waiting an extra week for the bottom to go.


Hope this helps..Good luck!!!
<3
*~Alea~*

Beauty Seeker

Hi!
Thanks for all these advice, it is indeed my very first voyage with these fellows.

1. I hopefully had no such problem. I checked if the needle could go through the holes before sterilizing, so I was good.

2. Yeah, I had this one. My first jar was barely half filled with the substrate. I did better with the other ones. I seem to have only one with spores in the dry verm.

3. Yeah, this is strange: my incubation chamber is kept at a temp around 80°F, just a little lower. But as I said, for lack of room, one of my jars is kept outside of the chamber, at room temp, with oscillates between 19°C and 22°C. Why is this strange? Because the one at room temp does way better than the ones in the IC. It even has begun colonizing the bottom (but that's because the spore solution ran under the cake during innoc ;)).
Any idea why?
In fact, out of 3 jars of each strain: I see mycelium growing on 2 of the Amazonians and only 1 of the Colombians (and that's if I look really closely!). I guess it's a question of the strain. My two best jars are Amazonians. One is inside the ic and the other is at room temp and I don't spot any real difference in the speed each of them develop. I'll keep on comparing them and try differently next time (more at room temp, maybe less in the IC).
Another point worth mentionning: the IC is an opaque box with no light pouring in. The jar sitting at room temp is just sitted on my kitchen counter and receives light normally.

4. I wish I had seen that earlier. Now I'm afraid to flip them around. Should I do it or will it traumatize the jar and hinder the process?

I know this post is already too long but I have condensation on the side of the jars, right at the innoc. spots. Is this supposed to happen?

Baphom3t

"I know this post is already too long but I have condensation on the side of the jars, right at the innoc. spots. Is this supposed to happen?"

It is normal.

Baph


Sporetica

Dont be afraid to move the jars around. Just be careful. If you start noticing that the verm is slipping down, them just handle them less. Also if you are going to flip them a lot just do it with one quick flip so that the verm doesnt move too much. And also, the condensation is normal. You will notice that between the condensation and the reflection of some of the verm particles it looks kinda like mold.. Dont worry though. I kept getting paranoid thinking my cakes were bad but in fact thats all it was..

good luck! Post some pics!
<3
*~Alea~*

Beauty Seeker

Ok, I have a problem and now I'm glad I left a jar outside my incubator.

I don't know what happened. Did the heater go berserk, did the inside plastic box sink too close to the heater? Or is it just normal evolution. But at the spots where I have innoculated and where I saw what looked like lively, slightly wet, fuzzy mycelium, I now have a big dry spot, flatter than the rest of the cake.
Is it possible that the mycelium grow too warm and d(r)ied?
Or is it normal evolution? Or is it some kind of sickness?
My jar that was outside the incubator looks like before, healthy and still growing. One of the jars inside the incubator looks unharmed so I took it out of it and it now continues to grow at room temp.
I'll keep a watch on the ones in the incubator. Some parts of the cake seem untouched by the mysterious disease so I'll see how it evolves.
In the mean time I'm preparing new jars (mainly because I'm totally hooked to this hobby and I still have lots of spores I can't wait to innoculate).

coyoteyogi

 :huh: Post some photos and people will be able to help you.

psilocybin warrior

Beuty Seeker, are you a boy/man or girl/woman?

PW

Beauty Seeker

I'm a man :)
Why do you ask?

I tried taking pictures but you can't see the problem I'm talking about on them.

My surviving jar is going well. The myc grows slowly. It will soon be 2 weeks.

Baphom3t

Beauty Seeker,
How warm is it in your house?
If it is 70 degrees or above you don't need a incubator.
People waste money in this hobby thinking they need this and that.

Remember,
The warm you keep the jars the higher the likelyhood of contam to set in, and/or in your case, causing thermal death.

Baph


Beauty Seeker

It's 24°C (75,2°F).
I notice, now, that I don't need an incubator and I'm pissed I didn't notice earlier.
Anyways mistakes are a good way to learn.
New jars are on their way now, without any incubator. And hopefully they'll do fine.

Beauty Seeker

Good news!

The 3 jars i deemed dead because of overheating in the incubator and left in there in the case they would start off again did actually continue to live and this morning I opened the inc. and discovered new patches of mycelium everywhere on the cake.
I'll keep you posted as to how this evolves and send pictures as soon as I find the time to take some.

heartx

I did the same thing. My incubator temperature was too high and I thought I killed everything but I think it need to be really really hot to kill that stuff.