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Good news!

The 3 jars i deemed dead because of overheating in the incubator and left in there in the case they would start off again did actually continue to live and this morning I opened the inc. and discovered new patches of mycelium everywhere on the cake.
I'll keep you posted as to how this evolves and send pictures as soon as I find the time to take some.

It's 24°C (75,2°F).
I notice, now, that I don't need an incubator and I'm pissed I didn't notice earlier.
Anyways mistakes are a good way to learn.
New jars are on their way now, without any incubator. And hopefully they'll do fine.

I'm a man
Why do you ask?

I tried taking pictures but you can't see the problem I'm talking about on them.

My surviving jar is going well. The myc grows slowly. It will soon be 2 weeks.

Huh...  What is LC? Light Chamber? Low Combustion? Laser Cambodians?

I wasn't so much expecting to cross the 2 strains than to have a cake that would fruit both but apparently, it won't work...
Hopefully I only used a 1/4 pint and not too much of my spore solution to try that so I don't feel like it's a waste.
Plus the idea sounded fun and I had fun doing it so it's definitely not a waste

Ok, I have a problem and now I'm glad I left a jar outside my incubator.

I don't know what happened. Did the heater go berserk, did the inside plastic box sink too close to the heater? Or is it just normal evolution. But at the spots where I have innoculated and where I saw what looked like lively, slightly wet, fuzzy mycelium, I now have a big dry spot, flatter than the rest of the cake.
Is it possible that the mycelium grow too warm and d(r)ied?
Or is it normal evolution? Or is it some kind of sickness?
My jar that was outside the incubator looks like before, healthy and still growing. One of the jars inside the incubator looks unharmed so I took it out of it and it now continues to grow at room temp.
I'll keep a watch on the ones in the incubator. Some parts of the cake seem untouched by the mysterious disease so I'll see how it evolves.
In the mean time I'm preparing new jars (mainly because I'm totally hooked to this hobby and I still have lots of spores I can't wait to innoculate).

Hi,

I came with this crazy idea today that maybe I could innoculate the same cake with two different strains. I'm curious to see if it would work or if one strain would colonize the food of the other, if they would fight for food, thus becoming stronger (or weaker) or if they'd cohabitate or just kill each other.
Has any of you ever tried that? I'm going to innoculate a jar (haven't decided yet if it'd be a pint, 1/2 or 1/4 pint), each half with a different strain.
I'll tell you how it evolves.

Hi!
Thanks for all these advice, it is indeed my very first voyage with these fellows.

1. I hopefully had no such problem. I checked if the needle could go through the holes before sterilizing, so I was good.

2. Yeah, I had this one. My first jar was barely half filled with the substrate. I did better with the other ones. I seem to have only one with spores in the dry verm.

3. Yeah, this is strange: my incubation chamber is kept at a temp around 80°F, just a little lower. But as I said, for lack of room, one of my jars is kept outside of the chamber, at room temp, with oscillates between 19°C and 22°C. Why is this strange? Because the one at room temp does way better than the ones in the IC. It even has begun colonizing the bottom (but that's because the spore solution ran under the cake during innoc ).
Any idea why?
In fact, out of 3 jars of each strain: I see mycelium growing on 2 of the Amazonians and only 1 of the Colombians (and that's if I look really closely!). I guess it's a question of the strain. My two best jars are Amazonians. One is inside the ic and the other is at room temp and I don't spot any real difference in the speed each of them develop. I'll keep on comparing them and try differently next time (more at room temp, maybe less in the IC).
Another point worth mentionning: the IC is an opaque box with no light pouring in. The jar sitting at room temp is just sitted on my kitchen counter and receives light normally.

4. I wish I had seen that earlier. Now I'm afraid to flip them around. Should I do it or will it traumatize the jar and hinder the process?

I know this post is already too long but I have condensation on the side of the jars, right at the innoc. spots. Is this supposed to happen?

Yeah, sweet
I really love this hobby. I check on my jars waaaay too often but I just love to see how they evolve, make prognosis on which jar will colonize faster, etc. I'm just so excited! Hehe
I definitely see mycelium, only veeeeerryyy small patches of white fuzz but it's there.
Can't wait for it to grow.
I think I'll do more jars very soon. 

Damn, I thought I had answered that question!

Ok, so, last saturday (april 18th), I innoculted 6 jars, 3 with PES Amazonians, 3 with Cambodians.
5 are in my incubator and the 6th, for lack of room in my incubator, is on the kitchen counter next to it. That way I can compare how they do out of the incubator and in it.
Temp° inside the incubator is about 26°C (~79°F). Outside, it must be around 19°C (~66°F).

Right now, I see plenty of little white spots in the jars, I don't really know if it's mycelium or flour but I like to think it's mycelium

I come to think that more than sterility, the key to this hobby is being patient I can't wait for myc. spots like those I see on this forum to appear in my jars!

So far everything looks fine.

Just one question: my spore solution wasn't transparent when I got it but black. Anyone knows of such solution?

Ok, so I got my syringes in the mail today.
I still have to buy a few stuff to have my incubation chamber ready but tomorrow will be the day I innoculate my very first jars! I can't wait!
I'll keep you posted as of the results!

Yeah, that's what it actually is...

Thanks. What kind of green house do you use? something you made or something you found. I have one like on the picture I use to grow plants from seeds but I think it's too small for shrooms.

Hi,
still on my quest of chosing the best method and gathering your experience, I hope this question has not already been asked. If such was the case, please pardon me and don't pay attention.
In your experiments, did you try both method or did you go with one and sticked to it? And if you tried both, what made you chose one over the other?

I'm still considering both although the shotgun fc seems far easier and I like the idea of having to care for the little guys. Fanning and moisting them myself sounds like creating a bound of some sort.

wait, so you cover the holes AFTER sterilization? In the "Let's grow shrooms" video I thought he covered them before. Or maybe you do it twice? But don't the mycelium need air to grow?

Hi, i was wondering if the innoculation chamber was absolutely necessary? Did anyone ever tried to innoculate in room air and notice any significant difference?
I'm doubtful to the efficiency of most systems i see on the net. I mean, most of the ICs I see are fully opened on one side and I don't get how contaminates are staying out of these.
If you flame sterilize and alcohol sterilize your needle, gloves and the caps of your jars, you should be ok, no?

Thank you guys!

[1) Sterilization]

Hi there,

I've been scrolling this forum for a couple hours, I'm quite familiar with the shroomery and i watched the "Let's Grow Shrooms" PF-Tek video so I have a good idea how this will go but I have a few questions remaining and call to your knowledge to help get rid of the last ounces of doubt that haunt me in my quest for homegrown shroomies.

1) Sterilization
I think I read or heard somewhere that a steam cooker would do for sterilization instead of a rangetop pot. Is that confirmed? I have one that looks (and works) like this:


Simply put: you pour water in the base, put whatever you have to cook in the top baskets and steam comes up from the base, fills the baskets and gets out on top. What's good is you can refill the base without opening any lead and you can check your water level at anytime. I'm afraid I might prematurely end the sterilization process if I was to open up the lid of a pot and add some water during the process. Plus it seems way more convenient to use a steam cooker. What do you think?

2) Jars
Living in France, I can't find any ball jar nor 1/2 pint or pint ones. The closest I can get as far as glass jars are concerned are Le Parfait. They don't have the same 2 part capping as Ball jars do, they instead use a full screw cap (check picture). They come in 200 ml and 300 ml I don't know which is best? Regarding price, they're twice as expensive as Ball jars (~18$ (14€) for 6 jars). In my quest for other options I found plastic jars that come in 150, 300 and 400 ml (I got 3x150ml + 2x300ml + 1x400ml for about 4$ (3€)). I guess the smallest one might do as good as glass one but if there's anything wrong with plastic, I don't mind spending more if it means greater chances of success but I don't see why spend more if there's no difference whatsoever.

3) Rice Flour
I went to my local health food store and only found what they call "farine de riz semi-complète" which I can describe as mixed flour. According to that post I might as well keep it for baking chocolate cakes. Any further opinion or experience with that kind of substrate? Is there any way to add nutrients to the substrate? I don't care about buying full rice flour, I'm just curious and I might try to do 1 of my cakes with that flour to compare it with the others.

Now, about my plans and my equipment so far, just for your information if you care.
4) The spores
I ordered 2 syringes, 1 of cambodians and 1 of Amazonians as they were both advertized and commented on the site I bought them from as "easy and generous". I must admit I haven't done much research on strains. I read on the shroomery that the question of which strain was the best was left to personnal appreciation and thought, since this is my first time, anything advertised as "good for beginners" would do.
As of my last visit to the site I bought from, they were "ready to be shipped" so I'm quite excited.

5) Equipement
I'm gathering my gear slowly. I don't feel any rush yet so I thought I'd just go as time would allow and take the time to shop around town a bit. I've had trouble finding jars but I now know where to find glass jars whenever I need them. I didn't get them yet because I was still out for a cheaper alternative and I hoped to find the Ball ones but it seems impossible. I'm not worried, though and I'll go get the Le Parfait ones if needed.
I bought vermiculite and flour (although I'll buy some more soon), I've got a steam cooker and a pot in case it doesn't work. I know where to find a cheap coffee grinder if I don't find flour.
I bought vinyle gloves and then thought I had read or heard that they were not good to work with shrooms because they could emit toxic gases or something. In doubt, I bought latex ones so I have plenty of gloves to work with (like 100 vinyle ones and 10 latex ones).
I have 90% isopropyl alcohol which I guess is pure enough for desinfecting.
I also bought an hygrometer/thermometer for my FC and haven't yet quite decided what rubbermaid box I'll buy but I think I'll go with the shotgun terrarium and I know where to find the box for that, too.
I found perlite but didn't buy it cause I thought it was too expensive regarding what I could have online. And today I see that I can use clay pellets which I happen to have bought for the few plants I have on my balcony. I'll just have to read more thoroughly to be sure I can use them without any air pump or anything.

Until today I was worried I would not manage to get any part of my flat at 27°C for the inoculation to work but thanks to yall I learned about the inoculation room and I'll buy a fishtank heater and make the chamber. I think I'll use one of the many metal boxes I have home to put the jars in and probably some plastic one to put the water.

I can't wait to get started! I'll read more in the days to come but I think I'll do well.
I'll keep you updated with my progress and pictures of everything!

Thanks for the great knowledge ressource you've put together here!
BS