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Okay... questions to be answered.... lets see.... The substrate depth is around 1.5 - 2 inches in a deep lasagna pan, The casing depth is around 1/2 inch.... Was sealed and incubated for 5 days.... the only thing I didn't do here was patch a couple of spots with more casing ( they weren't very large)... There are some pins on a second casing as of right now, but the first eventually became contaminated with trichoderma... which is the one I removed, scraped and tried to put in an outdoor straw/manure bed at the base of a tree... then there was a freak downpour...... yay... Since my first post, I have realized that by removing the heating element completely that I was able to actually obtain the right humidity... yep... the heat control caused the dehydration.... Now the temp is fluctuating between mid 60's at night and towards 80 in the day... there's nothing I can do at the moment B/C... well... I'm broke....
but the few pins I have are doing better, and I have done several grain-to-grain transfers as to not lose everything.... forward thinking FTW!

      I wish I could provide pics, but the absence of a camera is preventing me from doing so.... IDK.... I could always sketch the mushrooms?

Thanks again youse guys for the insight.... I might eventually go back to cakes after all...

     (For the record, I started with cakes for simplicity... and had some success after some of the same problems that I list in this post... I forgot to mention this before the first two replies... my bad...)

     Okay, I have had no problems with inoculation, sterility or anything like that... in fact, I've been careful enough to avoid a single contamination throughout 3 cycles... The problem is fruiting... I made a terrarium using the standard clear plastic tote with small holes in it, the temp in the room is temp controlled at the mid seventies, the casing was 50/50 peat/verm + gypsum, and I fan the FC as often as is necessary/possible yet after 2- 3 weeks... I will only see a couple of small pins that die shortly thereafter...... I have yet to have one damn mushroom from three growing cycles..... seriously..... I've reviewed countless techniques and can find nothing wrong in my procedure... As of now the mycelium that made its way through the casing is obviously beyond revitalization.... For a while I thought there were too many holes in the FC and it was getting way too dry but even when I took steps to fix this problem (simply taping over some of the vents) the outcome was the same and eventually the entire batch was worthless.... which I still tried to transplant to an outdoor bed.... also no success..... any input would be appreciated.... this is rapidly becoming frustrating.......