My first PF tek

Started by bufale, March 05, 2004, 06:05:17 PM

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bufale

Hi, thanks for the forum.  I'm in the 4th day on my first batch of 5 jars.  There is definite mycelium growth in all 5 jars and I'm feeling pretty good about that.  I'll probably start another 5 jars tonight - inoculation tomorrow and then wait and see how it goes.  Thanks so much for the easy to follow instructions!

anno

Good to hear, good luck and make sure to post your results when they are ready.

bufale

I took this picture last night, 4 days after inoculating.  This is one of the better jars though they all had definite growth in them.  I just found out that I'll be leaving town 1 week from today for a period of 1 week.  Any suggestions for my work in progress?

anno

Looks good for 4 days, keep it nice and warm and they will be doing ok.
I don?t think they will be overly colonized in 14 days, so you can leave the in the incubator while you are not there.
If you should notice in 1 week that they are nearly colonized, then take them out and let them finish outside somewhere where they get some light.

bufale

Ok, after 8 days I have Mr/Mrs Slowpoke on the left, and the star athlete on the right.  Anno, I have a coupla ???'s, should I be concerned about the obvious moisture in the star athlete?  And, I've been reading up on casing and it looks pretty straightforward.  I'd like to try casing for 2 or 3 of my cakes, but this is my first time ya know.  Any advice there?  Thanks!

anno

>should I be concerned about the obvious moisture in the star athlete?
No, this is completely normal.


> And, I've been reading up on casing and it looks pretty straightforward.
>I'd like to try casing for 2 or 3 of my cakes, but this is my first time ya know.

Try it, casing is not hard, but as you said, it's better to not try it with all the cakes at once.
The casing section of the Shroomery should give you some pretty good advice:

www.shroomery.org/casing

bufale

I was gone a bit longer than expected, but it was not a problem.  The pictures are of 2 jars out in the light at room temp to pin, 3 jars broken up and ready to be cased, the coco coir and vermiculite casing mixture cooloing from the nuke job, and one of the second set of 5 jars at day 19 which will likely get the same treatment as the first set - 2 as cakes and 3 cased.  Thanks again for the tek, and the help along the way.  I'll add more progress reports as things develop.  Bufale

bufale


bufale

cooling the coco-verm

bufale

1 of 5 more, at day 19 (5 days behind the others, but ready for pinning and casing)

anno

Nice!

Just a word of caution: A translucent casing container will cause the mycelium pining on the sides of the substrate instead on the casing surface.

bufale

Thanks, I read that somewhere also so I wrapped the bottoms and sides of the containers with foil to keep the light out.  Wish I'd known that when I was shopping for the containers... learn as you go!

bufale

The cakes are out in indirect light and a lower temp and are showing some signs of pinning.  In the meantime, the casing has gone well and looks ready to go to fruiting, in my case a large plastic bin with a layer of wet perlite and a lid.  Here's a pic of one of the cased containers with mycelia showing through in spots.  I've read some pros and cons about cold shocking.  Anno, do you have any thoughts on that procedure?

anno

IMO cold shocking is useless with P. cubensis.

bufale

Finally!... I got some serious pins and about 1/2 inch of growth after over a week.  The cakes have very tiny pins - no brown tops yet.  I thought I might have done something wrong, but just needed to be patient.

bufale

Anno, another vacation question.  I'll be leaving again Saturday for about 10 days.  I'm planning to harvest whatever I can before I leave Saturday, but then what would you suggest for the remaining immature shrooms and for future flushes?  I'm kinda thinking leave 'em in a cool dark place until I return, and then give 'em some light and mid 70's again.

anno


Jopo

mmm, lookin good!  Say, where would you happen to get coco core?

bufale

I got mine here off the internet... http://dansgardenshop.com/coccoirfibor.html ; but I also saw it the next day at Lowes (Anchorage, AK)


Jopo

Thanks, i'm more of a store buyer than an online buyer though!