Hi everyone, first time grower here. I put my cakes (fully colonized but no pins) in my fruiting chamber 4 days ago. No pins have developed, but I put the cakes on a verm/perlite layer and now the mycelium is spreading to the verm that it's sitting on. Is this ok, and will the mycelium keep spreading? The one cake that is spreading the most also has white peaks growing off of the cake, but there are no pins. What are those white things and will they lead to pins? It looks like the mycelium is "reaching out" to try and grow on anything near it. Thanks for your help, I searched the forum for something like this and didn't find anything, so any help would be appreciated.
In case it matters, the growing chamber has 95% humidity and is around 70 F.
Are the white peaks that look like they are reaching out Hyphal knots? Or is it just mycelium attempting to spread?
post some pics if you can. my jars never pin before i put in FC. and the verm. in your FC my not be good. mycelium will try to grow on it. put your cakes on tin foil or a jar lid.
also cakes need 98% +.. I keep my temp at 72-76 F..
http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv4/derekbk16/DSCN0147.jpg
http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv4/derekbk16/DSCN0151.jpg
http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv4/derekbk16/MYC2.jpg
Ok, here are the pics.
On the second pic, the left and center cakes seem to have a yellowish color to the top of the cake. Is this normal? Also, will the cake on the right be affected now that I ripped it from the verm it was trying to grow onto? Will I have to do anything special to that cake to now initiate fruiting? Thanks again for the help.
I never dunked and rolled the cakes, but they've been in the FC now for 3-4 days. Should I dunk and roll now or just let them be?
Leave them be, dunk after 1st flush. Is that verm their sitting on?
PW
It's a mix of verm and perlite. I was going to put down only perlite, but I didn't have enough to cover the bottom, so I mixed in some verm and added water. You think these will be good then?
you should be using perlite only in your FC.. I prefere to us hydroton (epanded
clay). what i like about hydroton it can be cleaned in soap and water and reused. but they both work the same..
Verm is not as safe considering contam's, get more perlite.
PW
Ok, I'll be sure to use only perlite in the future. The one cake on the far right grew into some perlite/verm that the cake was sitting on. Will that cake still be good? I wasn't sure if perlite would contaminate the cake, but so far it still looks the same/healthy.
at this point, i would put them on tin foil and let them go. keep an eye on them as long as thay look and smell good you should be ok ...
Perlite usually won't comtam your cake, it will add moisture to it.
PW
great. thank you very much to those who responded and helped. This is a great site, and you guys are great resources for us beginners. I'll post some final pics then once I get something to show....hopefully soon. -_-
Just wanted to check on something here. On the one cake in the front of the picture is some fluffly stuff that has turned a little green since this picture was taken. It started out looking fine, as it does in this picture, but it didn't look right on the cake b/c I was expecting to get pins only, and not some fluffly stuff. Anyway, here is the pic and let me know what you think. Thanks.
http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv4/derekbk16/DSCN0176.jpg
Also, I swabbed it with a cue tip to see if any green came off, and it didn't, but it compacted the fluffly stuff against the cake and the greenish/blueish color was a little darker then where I pushed it back into the cake.
to me that cake looks O.K... i have had cakes that look like on the bottom of the jar. i think it is because the bottom of the jar drys out. PW will know...
Picture has been deleted so I dunno. lol
PW
hey.. PW, the pic is post #16 in this thread..
O.K. sorry it is gone!!!
i started a new topic...this one was getting too long. It's under "Is this mold"