too many aborts

Started by elephant, September 27, 2009, 12:38:41 PM

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elephant

  Hello all,
   my cakes are producing numerous "buds" or baby mushrooms (primordia), but a high percentage of these fail to become full sized, mature mushrooms. They either stall out, die, or they become mature miniatures that open when they are about an inch high. I have tried soaking the cakes for about 4 hrs every week (I live in a dry climate) but this doesn't seem to help.
Any suggestions?
thanks.     

room408

have you been lowering your humidity to the mid 90% once you have your pins?    the pins require 100% and the fruits a little less. i am not an expert but this is my first guess others may know or have better info than me

malabar

Elephant,
  I hate to put you off, but in order to properly diagnose your problem, more info is needed.
  What are your growing conditions?  And what substrate?
If you have been working within all of the "basic" guidelines, and proven parameters, it's likely the source is the Gene pool .
  Bad source material, ( Genes ) will consistently produce large numbers of dwarfs, retards and aborts.
  ~Malabar   :mellow:
My Kung Fu may suck,.....  But, my Shrooms Kick Ass!

elephant

 OK- I guess I'm reaching the limits of my ignorance already. This is my first time through the process. Probably I need to go back and do some more study on "basic" guidelines and such. In the meantime, I will try to reply:

room408 - yes, I have already otherwise established that I was over-watering/ misting. So, I'm trying to correct that. However, I didn't know you could control the humidity within such fine tolerances. How do you drop the humidity by 5% in a controlled way?

malabar - I just bought some prepackaged jars with (I think) rice flour and vermiculite, plus some cambodian type p. cubensis spores. My "fruiting chamber" is just a translucent plastic box big enough for a couple cakes. I open and hand mist it 2-3 times / day. How can I be assured of getting good quality genes? Also what is a reasonable proportion of "dwarfs, retards, and aborts"?.
  thanks all.
  E.

malabar

#4
Elephant,
  I will agree that you might want to do some back tracking in review, a search into these specific but, I will attempt to give you my best.
    Not to be taken personally, and fortunately you are not asking for more than general knowledge, but when or if you run into a problem, ( even for detailed tweaks) a photo of the problem of setup takes all of the guesssing out of diagnosing your dilemma. 

  ** 408 has told you correctly,...  You want to be as close to 100% RH as possible to promote pinning.  When the pins arrive, I maintain 90% - 95% RH consistently.
   Now you ask,...    How to adjust?     I would have to ask,... How are you humidifying?     And you definitely need to have a reliable Hygrometer to monitor the RH. 

      I have nothing to offer on that prepackage jars,......  I don't and never have had interest in BRF and it's been too many years since I have bought anything that I haven't made for myself, other than an occasional syringe, or new strain print.  But, I can make those for myself as well.
 
>>  On the gene issue, I think that may be a bit of the, "Luck of the Draw" .  A majority of the suppliers have good reputations, so unless you have a resident Mycologist at home, ( which may not guarantee anything ) it's about trial and error,......or trials and tribulations.  lol
  Keep your eye on the post, perhaps, PW,  Fattrout or one of your other friends here will have more suggestions to guide you along.
  GL
   ~Malabar   :mellow:
My Kung Fu may suck,.....  But, my Shrooms Kick Ass!

shroomzer

Just an FYI, Trout has big family re-union and has family from out of state visiting.  So he has to be a 'good boy' until they leave on Sunday.  That is why  he hasn't been lurking around the forums the past few days =) ...

fattrout

elephant, what strain are you working with?
also those prepackaged jars suck!! i suggest you read the teks on this site. so you can learn to make your own jars... :mellow:
GL, fattrout
fattrout

MT

Making your own jars is easy and you know exactly what has been done to them when you make your own.