Messages

Well as it turns out, dub you were right (no surprise I just needed more patience. The cake eventually pinned and fruited after sitting in its FC for about 10 days, then being dunked for 24hrs. Weird. It got exactly the same treatment as the other cakes and just didn't fruit forever! But now it is, so to all the other young grasshoppers out there - patience!

Hi folks! Saddie again here. So I have followed the PF tek to the letter, things are going well, I have lost one cake to contam and buried outside. Two cakes are fruiting fine. Two cakes have not pinned at all.

- all cakes receive indirect sunlight through the top of their individual FCs
-all cakes get fanned and FAE at least twice a day
- all cakes have been dunked once for 24 hrs in the fridge - still no pinning with the cold shock on two of them. the strain is GT

Any idea how to encourage pinning on these two that are stubborn? Both show full colonization, no contams (yet) and one is growing heavy bright white fuzz myc - just no pins!

I am ready to break them up into some mix outside, or should I crumble them into a big casing box or something? Any ideas?

Thanks!

Hey all. So I had a bit of a contam problem - I've posted about it in another topic on this board. Long story short, I have tossed one cake and isolated the other four into their own FCs. I will keep them separated like this from the beginning if I ever do this again for sure. It is just easier and less risky. Here's a pic of a single cake 3 days after being dunked for 24 hrs. Looking good I hope! That blueing is actually blueing - it passes the q tip test and looks way different. I think you really have to get hit with some contam to really understand what to look for. At least I do. I've learned a lot and that's the best part. Thanks so much!

Hello all! Yes you all are right, it was trych contam. Bad too! But believe it or not, I immediately pulled the other four cakes out and isolated them each into their own yogourt container/FC and they're all right and back to producing. Amazing! It is still hot as anything here so my breath isn't being held at all, but hey this is more for the fun of it than anything. Thanks all soo much for your insight and help!

Okay, looking at it a little more closely, the biggest mushroom in my FC (the one on the far left in the second pic) has popped, like the veil has come down from the gills. Does anyone thing the blue might be spores? Probably just wishful thinking right? The cake smells pretty strongly like pure mushroom, and again, I have been checking three times a day and saw nothing yesterday night, but didn't take a solid look this morning. Thoughts?

Hello everyone! Could someone look at these pics and tell me if it is contaminated or not? It looks rough, but maybe it's just the 'blueing' that happens? Before you judge know this:

1 - It is about 30 degrees in my room. So these are warm, I know, but I can't do anything about that.
2- I *have* been indirectly spraying the cakes, but trying to just spray the walls of my FC and the perlite
3 - this contam was *not* there *at all* 24 hours ago. This is the main reason I think it might be blueing?
4- I just rubbed it with a q tip and blue came off onto the q tip - this means contam right?
5- in the photos it looks a lot greener than it does face to face - it looks more blueish in real life...

6 - the lid on my fc has been shut tight for about 18 out of the 24 hours a day b/c I am not around. I fan it about 4 times a day. Maybe that's what went wrong?

If it is contam, what should I do? There are four other cakes not affected. Any advice? Thanks!

http://yfrog.com/2pdscn5882axj

http://yfrog.com/cbdscn5883zj

http://yfrog.com/g4dscn5884lj

Hello all! I am glad to report that everything is going well so far (knock on wood). Here are some pics like promised. Again two cakes are rolled in sterilized steer manure (I had to sterilise it myself in my pressure cooker) and the other three are rolled in unsterilized dry verm (as per original PF tek). One shot is on day 1 in my FC. The remaining shots are on day 8 in the FC. You can see the myc has grown like crazy over the manure and now look like snowballs on crack. Both of the poo cakes are ahead of the verm ones as you can see by the beginning of the pinning in the pics.

Will keep all updated re: harvest amounts, although I don't have a scale. Looks like substrate's 'poo tek' is solid. So far I consider it verified as superior. We shall see what the final tally will be!

Thanks for all the help around here people.

Actually one question - right now I am fanning and spraying my FC down about three times a day. Do you think I should leave the lid half off for a part of the day or something to increase fresh air flow too, or is fanning sufficient?

On to the pics.. Day 1 and day 8. Sorry about the image shack hosting. Any idea on what would be better/easier?

Sorry butt in here, but just to be clear - I should allow for air exchange while the cakes are colonising in the jars (if I'm using the PF tek)? I know once they're birthed into the FC of course, but when in the jars too? Wouldn't that introduce contams?

Thanks for the reply Dub 504. Thanks for all of your replies actually, as you are quite an active member on this board. It is much appreciated. I guess I am just a little apprehensive because this is the furthest I've gotten with this process and I am having nightmares of green mold

Hello substrate and other members here. I have been reading this board for a while but have now joined today just to post here and say that I am trying substrate's poo tek. This is my second attempt at the PF Tek (during the first attempt I wasn't clean enough). So far everything is going smoothly with this attempt.

I have just birthed 5 cakes, dunked them in honey water over night, and have rolled two in sterilized steer manure and three in dry verm. All now sit in my FC. Will post pics when there is something to see I guess. I just really hope that that manure is not full of disease.

Also I have been thinking that the reason that substrate's poo cakes looked like 'snowballs on crack' is because the myc just grew over the poo. So basically it's just adding nutrients and taking away a casing layer. What do you all think?

And now I also have two questions, although this might not be the right thread, but here goes:

1- is it really bad if I don't dunk between flushes? Does it make that big a difference?
2- is it really bad if my FC is humid but is kind of cold? It is at room temp - about 18-20 deg C.

Thanks for reading