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Messages - spp.

#1
I got the impression that debates regarding cold shocking will continue forever. It's like Darwin's theory, I guess  :rolleyes:
On the topic: if one dunks in the fridge, he cold shocks the mycelium, whether he wants it or not. Since it's advised to dunk at low temperatures, dunking=cold shocking.
#2
 I did cold shock them while dunking in the fridge. And yep, patience is the most difficult part here I guess   -_-
Bought a hygrometer today btw. Gonna install it right away. Also I did not tape the jars, just covered them with foil. I suppose it certainly does allow some gas exchange 'cause all the incubator is smelling with mushrooms already  ^_^
#3
PF - Tek / Re: A major f**up?
April 14, 2010, 10:52:08 AM
Will see  -_- Gonna check'em on Saturday. I suppose if they are clear 7 days after inoculation I was lucky enough  :rolleyes:
#4
Ok now, so I waited 3 weeks after inoculation, birthed them, scraped away the excess vermiculite (didn't case because couldn't find the verm in the shops). The previously mentioned uncolonized areas were due to the upper non-nutritive verm layer falling down into the jars. No wonder it wasn't colonized. Cakes were dunked for 9 hours and then put into the terrarium with holes stucked with synthetic fiber for FAE, perlite and air pump underneath it. The pump output is a little overkill I guess, so it decided not to manually exchange the air, since there are only 3 cakes and many holes for FAE. They do get misted once a day though. Now it's been 3 days after I put them into the terrarium. The cakes have grown some nice fluffy mycelium here and there. When should I expect them to fruit? It's 23-24 Celsius, and they are provided with luminiscent light 10-12 hours a day. Don't own a hygrometer, so can't really tell the RH. The cakes sit directly on the perlite because when they were put on the foil initially, there was free water accumulating on the foil, which the cakes didn't really like and started growing some glass-like protective layer (the same I saw on the cake's surfaces which were in contact with free water during incubation).

Sorry for the cumbersome details, have never succeeded in growing yet, so I'm excited and stuff.
#5
PF - Tek / Re: A major f**up?
April 13, 2010, 09:17:53 AM
Well I'm not absolutely sure it was sterile, because I only used peroxide. Time will show. For now, it's been 3 days after inoculation and in every single jar the mycelium has made a colonization spot at least 2cm in diameter. If there are contaminants I think they will have shown up by the end of the week at 30 Celsius. Will inform you on how it's going.

By the way, as for sterility, currently I'm having microbiology classes, which have shown that, well, the common sterilizing agents we use pretty much suck. Hands cleaned with 3 agents [subsequently][/b]- antibacterial soap, 98% alcohol, and biguanide (antibacterial desinfectant) still had nice amount of various spores which grew into pretty colourful colonies on agar plates.
Given all that, I really doubt I was working sterile  -_- . Results have also shown that alcohol is the weakest desinfectant possible, 3% peroxide being a little better. 2% jodine solution is the best from the easily obtainable ones, but its use in mycology will be probably limited due to heavy staining and it being pretty unhealthy to breath.
#6
PF - Tek / Re: videos
April 10, 2010, 11:50:53 AM
I cannot speak from experience but it've read that some edible mushrooms' species require a proper casing layer and will not fruit directly from the bare PF cakes.
#7
PF - Tek / A major f**up?
April 10, 2010, 11:31:18 AM

So there, today I was inoculating some PF jars when the syringe needle detached. I immediately wiped it with H202, sticked it back and continued inoculating tha jars, but now I'm worried if it wasn't enough. Basically I was working in a glowbox chiefly sprayed with peroxide, but hey shit happened and I'm afraid all my jars are doomed now. Has anyone had such an experience?
#8
Yes, I am going to dunk them around Friday . However, I won't roll them as I've read that this particular strain is especially prone to making an overlay.
#9
Hello everyone. At the moment there are 3 jars inoculated 17 days ago with Transkei strain, kept at fluctuating 29-30.5 Celsius. The colonization started from bottoms of the jars and was slowly reaching the tops of them. Now they seem to be fully colonized except some upper spaces.  2 days ago I inverted the jars because there was too much water heavily condensing on the bottoms of the jars (this is my first time doing the PF tek and of course everything is a little bit messed up). This appears to have aided the issue with uncolonized upper areas a bit, but it's still going very slow. What could be the reason for the jars not wanting to colonize the upper parts of BRF/verm mix and how could I help it? Thanks in advance.