Messages

holy shit, grain seems so much better than BRF cakes... I'm gonna have to buy more jars!

So shake after innoculation... and then there doesn't seem to be much concensus on shaking frequency during colonization.  the video ft posted said shake it pretty much all the time, never let it get cakey; some people say shake it once halfway and no more.  i guess experimentation will have to do... with g2g going on, it seems much more ok if a jar gets fucked up along the way, there's more where that came from.

I have some B+ going on BRF right now- it seems like I should be able to slip a sliver of that myc into a grain jar to keep it going... or not?  worth a shot?

i'm also not clear about g2g, is there a tek for that?

i see... but how can you PC sterilize that?  it won't keep the water out. 

as for innoculation, do just just do one squirt into the top of the grain then tumble it around to mix it in with the grain or do you need to get it on the sides of the jar as in BRF cakes?

Is there a tek somewhere on here for innoculating grain?  grain for simple minds doesn't say anything about innoculation, and I'm a bit lost on this whole idea.  I'm contemplating giving millet a shot but I don't understand... do you use syringes like with BRF cakes?  What's the method?  How much per quart jar, etc?

if I use the first one mentioned (peat hummus, peat moss, sand, verm, perlite) should I still add more verm to it? 

I've read a few mentions that casing isn't really necessary for cubes.  Thoughts?  If it's not really going to influence net yield, I might as well not risk it.

I'm about to start my first casing attempt.  I was going to do 60% peat moss, 30% verm and 10% lime BUT I realized that I have a bunch of peat-based potting soil in my shed already.  One is composed of peat hummus, peat moss,
sand, perlite and verm; another is the same but with pine bark instead of peat hummus.

Are either or these viable for casing?  I'd hate to waste the stuff I already have but I'm definetely willing to buy new stuff if it means better chances of success. 

Thanks!

when dunking before casing, should you refrigerate?  if i remember correctly, cold triggers pinning and you want to have 0 pins when putting a dunked cake into a casing.  can you just dunk out of the fridge?

also, should you dunk a colonized cake before casing it or can you rely on the moisture of the casing layer?

You mist between flushes, yes?  So you don't have to dig them up and dunk them, correct?  I was wondering how that worked...

i humidify with about 3-4 inches of perlite with lots of water... I didn't realize until I scraped some perlite off the top but my water level is almost right up to the top of the perlite.  The FC is covered with a clear plastic sheet, the kind you use to cover the floor when you paint.  The sheet is big so I tuck it under the bottom of the FC except on one side
(the side where my HEPA filter sits).

thank you, thank you.

I'm drying them on a plate in front of a space heater (not too close)... no problem?  I have some of those dessicant packs from used pill jars but I'm guessing that those probably don't work too well since they've already had a lifespan working for the pills.  If they are still good, can I just put the mushies in a ziplock with dessicant packs inside and sit em in the fridge?

I just keep the blinds up in that room, no artificial light.

now i just have to decide what to grow next.  burma?  GT? 

if only growing pot could be this innocuous.

check these out... much better than I was expecting considering that the jars weren't even fully colonized.  This is exactly one week after birth.





and the big one...


the big one had a piece of verm stuck to the top of the cap and the cap split yesterday.  oh well.

A couple veils have broken in those clusters.  Should I harvest the whole cluster now or wait for a couple more veils to break?

thanks again.

so 2 days after birth, this little guy shows up:


the top is pretty dark, it's darker now than it was when i took that picture earlier today.  Is this an abort?  The funny thing is, this cake was way behind the other 5 when I birthed it- still had a quarter-size area with no colonization.

ok all is well, i think

here is the FC while the cakes dunk


and with rolled cakes...


and here's a badly out of focus picture of one cake. 


thanks for all the help!

ok, i just rinsed the cakes and now they are dunking in their jars.  I'm going to let them sit for a couple hours.  The cakes all smelled really good and mushroomy!  yum yum yum.  They popped right out of the jars for rinsing and felt pretty solid.

I'm getting my FC ready now.  Since the cakes still have a little colonizing to do, I'm guessing that I should keep the FC in the dark and at a relatively high temp for another week or two.

I'll take some pictures when I birth these things.

thanks for straightening me out.

so i can dunk even if there are spots that aren't fully colonized?  it seems like if i rinsed or dunked the cakes, and exposed substrate would just crumble away and fall apart... no?

let me make sure i got this straight before i do it-

i take off the jar lids, then pour water in (can i use tap water or should i use distilled/spring water?).  then i rinse under a tap with the cake still in jar?  then pour water in and let soak for an hour.  then drain the water.  then let the jars sit and colonize for a few more days... or go ahead and birth them? 

maybe i'll go ahead and birth the one that is covered and see if the others can catch up?  here are some side pictures of the ones that have the farthest to go-







the other jars are like the last picture- they have one side with very sparse coverage that you can still see substrate through.  other than the pictures, every other part of all the jars are full, fluffy and looking good.

thanks for all the help, you guys are great.