Casing question help

Started by bluerunner, September 30, 2010, 06:30:33 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

bluerunner

Hi there,
so I tried to do a casing mix this time for my magic, but I have run into problems....  Let me explain.  I first made my jars etc and they grew fine, a little slow but ok.  Then once the time was right I put them into my casing mix and into the incubator, now they have been in the incubator for nearly a month.  They now seem to be growing very very slowly and I don't know why!  A few of the cakes from what I can see through the bottom of my plastic tray have grown well but others very little.  I'm not sure if its my casing, or temp. or what...  I can see a few places where the myc has grown a little on the top but its pretty weak.  These are B+ which I have done before and they grew much faster and stronger than this... Maybe I have a bad strain, I'm not sure...   
I don't know if I should keep them in the incubator and maybe raise the temp or try and get them to start pinning.   

  any help would be greatly appreciated, and if you have a question for me please ask.

Thanks and peace
Think for yourself, question authority.

dub504

Some of your terminology is lacking information...
Your jars, are they BRF or grains? BRF is always a little slow IMHO.

Assuming you grew fully colonized BRF PF Tek cakes then crumbled and cased (sandwiched the substrate between the casing). You should have only incubated for 4 days or so, just until you see the mushroom mycellium starts to pop though the top casing layer in the low valleys of the surface.

When doing the casing run you want a little more fresh air exchange. That will help keep things fresh and avoid things like the dreaded cobweb mold. A lot of growers don't even bother incubating their casings. They just case and introduce to fruiting conditions. Mid to high 70 deg F is fine always.

The casing should be field capacity: moist and fluffy not soggy. Kind of sounds like your casing is too wet. The mycellium will grow slow if too wet and if you just have wispy stuff on the top of your casing it is probably cobweb mold. Cobweb can be treated with a mix of water and hydrogen peroxide sprayed onto the casing and more FAE. I can't remember the ratio might be 200:1 H2O:H2O2

bluerunner

Ok thanks Dub,  I think I have the temp. and humidity too high.  I may have to start from scratch, maybe plant these guys in the back yard and see what happens.  This was my first casing attempt and I've learned alot through failure.  I'm going to revamp my tek and try to be a little wiser.  Thank you for your insight.

-Peace
Think for yourself, question authority.

dub504

Cool, yes you will get a better pin set following the previous descrip. Hyphal knots will form in the low areas in the humid microclimate. Keep the humidity higher for pin formation and lower it a little for cropping. GL