Alright well this could be my thread for information pertaining to my first batch now :) I got all my materials and even some questions :P The temperature where I wanted to put my jars for incubation is around 30 Celsius is that alright for incubation?
Pictures and Dates. My phone is crappy so pictures might be bad. Will try different picture resolutions later and see what works best.
December 07 2009:
(http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4458/091207160000.th.jpg) (http://img257.imageshack.us/i/091207160000.jpg/)
(http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7048/091207160000001.th.jpg) (http://img229.imageshack.us/i/091207160000001.jpg/)
December 15 2009:
Jar 1:
(http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/8444/091215153900001.th.jpg) (http://img63.imageshack.us/i/091215153900001.jpg/)
(http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8341/091215153800.th.jpg) (http://img502.imageshack.us/i/091215153800.jpg/)
Jar 2:
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/7695/091215153900.th.jpg) (http://img515.imageshack.us/i/091215153900.jpg/)
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4097/091215145300.th.jpg) (http://img204.imageshack.us/i/091215145300.jpg/)
lun0s, 30 may be to high.. i think 26 to 28 celsius is about right... :ph34r:
Hmm maybe if I hope the cabinet door a bit to let outside air in, I will find the thermometer and see where else is a nice temperature for these then. Thanks for the word on the lid.
EDIT;
I found a 25c area in my apartment. Would that do? better yet... What would even happen if I put them at the 30 Celsius area?
edit 2;
I might';ve screwed up and use about 1cc for each 250ml jar, don't want to reopen them and chance contams unless its wisest to just put in the other 5cc I got. I have 5 jars right now in storage.
1cc is ok! Once i had my jars at i think 30 and mycelium died! 25 would be fine but 27 is the best!
Alright then once the managers leave my apartment I will move them to some where that is about 27 or a little higher but not 30C My room temperature I think is around 27 maybe... Thats not good for when I want to fruit(it needs a cooler temperature if I'm not mistake to grow nicely) how do I manage to make a cooler temperature for the fruiting chamber.
edit;
Well I found a place that is lower temp. than on top of the fridge. This spot it around 22-25C, though now I have no clue where I am going to put these when they are supposed to fruit cause thats the coldest place, besides in my fridge ^_^, that I can find in my apartment that has optional indirect light for 12 hours... Any help guys I've only got roughly $30-$40 left for spending money this month so I would really like to have a inexpensive way to do this now.
27 C is fine for colonizing but you will need to bring the temps down a little for fruiting.
A low wattage energy efficient Daylight spectrum florescent light bulb should be inexpensive enough. The fungus doesn't need much light to force fruiting.
Also, I've grown this stuff in lower temps and not had a problem. They can do fine in less than optimal conditions. If it gets too hot that's where you'll have problems.
If I was incubating at around 22-25 would I be able to fruit in there as well? The lighting isn't an issue for me I could just open the closet door. The temperature is though cause i'm not so sure about how to lower it.
That would be the right range for fruiting. Colonization will be slower at those temps (especially PF Tek), which may or may not be a problem. My guess is you'll be fine. Try to keep it on the higher side of those numbers if you can. When I colonize straw I'm in that range without a problem. The mycelium does generate heat when it chows down on those yummy nutrients, more so w/ straw.
hmm... i will try to slightly increase the temp then
Its been a few days now and I still don't see any mycellium growth on any of the jars, they just looks like jars of dirt... :( No mold growth though so thats a positive.. How long should I usually wait until I know for sure I foobared on something and the jars aren't going to colonize?
could take 2 weeks on brf cake just to see first signs of growth.
BRF so sloooow. Long live grains!
What would be the fastest way to grow something then?
I'm just being an ass. :rolleyes: As I stated many times before knocking up whole grains is the way to go IMO. All you can do is read, read and read some more. Learn the basics and use it how you wish.
ermm... So I'm guessing then using grains is faster from what your stance behind them is. Which grain would you say is best to use?
""I'm just being an ass. ""
Hahaha .. DUB ^_^
Somebody help me out here... There are so many different grains that you can use. Millet and Rye are great ones as far as speed. (Right? I've never used Rye, I just read that it's a great performing grain.) Wild Bird Seed has a lot of millet in it. You could use Oats, Barley, Popcorn, Brown Rice. You could mix in millet w/ other grains to speed up colonization. I've been using a Millet/Brown Rice mix (a lesson learned from malabar). I don't know if there really is a best grain per se and if there is I haven't used them all to know. I do know Millet speeds things along.
Dub is right to the facts that Millet will speed up colonization of Any substrate, even popcorn if you choose to use it.
In all of my time cultivating, I have used most most grains out there, and have chosen to stay with Brn. Rice, Oats and Barley blended with Millet due to the easy accessability. Rye may have a few more nutrients, but there are time that it is overpriced or not easily available.
But, any grain you choose, your grows will love you for it!
Life is Good!
~Malabar :mellow:
My 2 cents. Popcorn is a great way to go for the newbie (that would be me). It's cheap and easy to work with. I may mix my next batch with millet to see if yields change or if the overall time is less. I have had no luck with wheat berries and my attempts with WBS have been mixed. Popcorn is fast, especially with a liquid culture innoculation. It's all fun.
Well mycellium has finally shown(or mold...) check my first post to see if it is mycellium or not. I got another jar that is doing better this one isn't doing as good compared to others.
looks good to me... ^_^
heh well there is a pretty good chance from what I am seeing on my best jar :( that it is contaminated. But what ever 1/5 contamination seems like a good amount of successful attempts. I plan on doing casing next time so I could possibly get a much better yield.
EDIT:
Just checked again... Another jar looks contaminated... I'm not even gunna bother checking again for a few days. Hopefully something is successful...
If it's white it's good.
:( I got three jars our of 5 contaminated... Thats a real punch to my confidence with growing...
Well,..... Sounds like it's time to pull out the old bleach, and Lysol.
Isolate and dispose of those contaminated growths,... ( outside ) and bleach soak those jars before washing them.
I would also suggest using that bleach and Lysol in your inoculation and incubation areas to neutralize and eliminate the source of your problems.
GL.
~Malabar :mellow:
Thanks for the suggestion I got a 1 part bleach and 10 part water solution in a jar, and lysol disinfecting wipes. I also wiped the entire jars with rubbing alchohol on a cotton ball before I even put the substrate mix in...
read up!
I've found that using the lids with polyfill is far superior a method than the 1/2" of dry vermiculite barrier. You drill a couple of 3/8" holes in the lid, fill the holes with polyfil and you are good to go. I even spray (lightly) the polyfill with Oust as one more layer of protection. don't let the contams get you down. clean up and begin some more jars.
good luck
Would cotton balls work just as good as the polyfil layer? Cause I wanted to do that with my lids since I couldn't find the polyfill filters locally(didn't look that hard though). Can you reuse a polyfill filter or do you need to use a new one every batch?
Obviously, you didn't look at all. http://www.fungifun.org/English/Polyfil (http://www.fungifun.org/English/Polyfil) you can't use cotton balls, it's not the same and it won't work!
Actually I have looked at that, a few times they LOOK the same! Whats the difference between the two? What type of store might sell a polyfill filter/floss?
lun0s,
Any hobby store, perhaps even a fabric, maybe even walmart may supply poly-fil. Read, and read again. Seriously,....... Then get creative.
Regardless of similarities in appearance,.......... Anything used in this hobby is described and detailed. And if you use the search function at the top right of this page, you will find more than you will ever need, since these topics have been asked and covered Many times before.
~Malabar :mellow:
I usually do search a few terms and check the first couple of results if there are any. :P But I will probably read a bunch. Just out of curiousity what would be a safe number of dried mushrooms might I be able to get out of two cakes(Hopefully they don't contaminate as well)
Polyfil is synthetic. Used as fill for pillows, crafts... and it says this in the tek. Walmart has bags of it for cheap. Don't reuse it. A bag will last you a while. I don't understand how you can even make a statement like "They look the same." they have dif qualities, they aren't the same. There are no shortcuts to doing this the right way! You have to take steps to avoid contaminants, hope isn't going to do it for you.
How many shrooms are we supposed to guess you'll get from your cakes? Who Knows. Can you follow the Teks?
Dub,
Thx for dropping in,. I was beginning to feel a bit retarded trying to explain the obvious,.. :angry:
GL. This is a "hard" nut to crack my friend,.. LOL
~Malabar :mellow:
Since post #1. We still try! :mellow:
A well tended 1/2 pint cake will yield around 6-10 grams dried. That's why people move on to grains. But hey, 6-10 is enough to get well off the ground (unless you're a Malabar).
best of luck
Thx Coyote,....
But you are right! I think that would just about wet my appetite, or piss me off! LOL
~Malabar :mellow:
Quote from: coyoteyogi on December 11, 2009, 01:24:59 AM
A well tended 1/2 pint cake will yield around 6-10 grams dried. That's why people move on to grains. But hey, 6-10 is enough to get well off the ground (unless you're a Malabar).
best of luck
HeeHee .. yeah true!
Well I just disposed of 3/5 that were indeed contamnated. Here are the remaining two, one which I think might be contaminated(little grey area) and the other which I think the mycellium has stopped growing(I left this one above the fridge..). On a side note most of the contaminated ones smelt of mushrooms ^_^ I really had to beat the jars to pop them out though this normal for jars that're slightly tapered?
Check first post pictures of the for remaining two jars... Lemme know if anything seems queer about it.