My first class with the golden teacher

[aCiDjEsUs]

Cubensis will eat most anything. I have used compost, aged manure,
straw, and even sawdust based subs.

Straw can rock and resists contams better than some other subs.

One thing: you referred to using perlite and 1/2" and 1" holes.

This sounds like you are combining a SGFC with a monotub here.

Monos usually have polyfil lightly stuffed into some or all of the holes,
where SGFC use 1/4" holes, 2" inches apart, on all six sides (inc the lid),
and have 4" of moistened perlite placed onto the bottom.

FWIW, I would recommend making a SGFC, if your tub has the "head-room"
to allow the perlite, the height of your sub, and the hoped for height of the fruits.
SGFCs can maintain a workable humidity level for several weeks at least.

LOL, but then again, I usually do not recommend new cultivators skip over
BRF cakes for grains. A BRF cake, rolled in verm, can take a ton of abuse
and still produce. This approach is smart for people starting.

Good luck,

JD

JD, when you dunk and roll what water do you use or is used? or tap water is just fine?

 

[Javadog]

Yes. A fully colonized BRF cake is very contam resistant.

I pop the cake out of the jar, and under the faucet in the kitchen sink
I brush off the loos top-verm and such.

I then put the cake into more cold tap water and let it soak for a day,
in the fridge. (I use gallon ziplocks to hold the cakes in water, putting
them in a tub in the fridge)

Once the "dunk" is done, we "roll" the cake in verm, and put it into the SGFC.

Spray it once or twice a day, and fan the stale air out of the FC often.

In about two weeks (less for many cubes, longer for Penis Envy, etc)
you should see pins forming on the cake.



Take care,

JD

P.S. Here are a couple nice cake shots:

 

[Javadog]

I should add that if I were to describe what might be the "best approach",
knowing that this is a matter of opinion, then I would suggest:

spores -> agar -> grains -> G2G spawn expansion -> sterile subs in filter patch sacks.

...but I have a laminar flow hood. Working with agar does not absolutely require one,
but man do they make life easier! (the word, for me, is really not "easier" but "possible" ;0)

Using agar allow one to clean up dirty samples, be they wild prints or purchased syringes.

(as was stated above, a surprisingly large percentage of syringes are infected,
with bacteria usually....any vendor selling Trichoderma syringes would not last long!)

Good luck,

JD

 

[polyarcturus]

hey matt this is my agar jar that was successfully inoculated. basically since i didnt get any growth i would really like to see, so im not gonna be doing an isolation, plus its much too late for that. (cutting away a section of combined spore mycelium, i use a PCed exacto knife in a glove box and quickly transferred it.) and i plan on getting some more spores soon anyways. so what i will be doing instead is much like a G2G, i will take a jar of PCed popcorn and quickly pour it in and allow it to colonize the popcorn for more G2G. i could also add a sharp object and cut the mycelium up, add water and food and make an LC too, the options are limitless with agar.

hey canndo i got some jars fighting contam(5 to be exact) where the mycelium has a foot hold and is slowly overtaking the contam, anything i can do to salvage these? any idea for them, even outside.. or just toss them?

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

when i went and checked on my jars yesterday it seemed my G2G was a huge sucess....mycelium is already taking a strong foothold in the jars and had covered the entire top of the grain in the jar...i shook them up real good and will be leaving them alone...

i have a strange feeling that by mid week i will have 11 more jars full colonized and ready to go to thier bulk sub.....i didnt realize this stuff can grow so dam fast...it must be my incubator??? definatly worth the 25 bucks i spent on it imho and i think i would recomend anyone who askes to make one..

my straw in my first bulk sub is looking crazy, mycelium is just invading the hell out of it!!! tomorow i will be casing at least 1 of the bulk subs. ill be getting some more shots up today and tomorow..

my first 1/2 assed bulk sub is looking a bit shitty (i used 100% vermiculite and mixed in the popcorn) dosent seem to be doing much, i placed a thin layer of 100% verm on top and moistened it...not sure if this if going to do anything or not but we will see i guess.

I was under the impression that these things started pinning almost immidiatly after they were intorduced to light and FAE?? it has been like 5 days and no signs of pinning...should i place it in the refridgerator for 30 min to add a temp change? the apt they are growing in stays pretty warm in the 70's range...so the refridge is really the only way i can get that temp change to occur..

any advice would be great..tomorow i will be mixing up my casing layer and pasturizing it...need to know if that MG seed starter mix is going to be alright? should i flush the shit out of it or will the minute chemical ferts in it be ok?
a link to the seed starter information can be found here

also do i go straight to fruiting after i case or do i let it sit for a couple days in the dark? from my understanding letting it sit for a couple days to allow the mycelium to grow evenly through the casing layer will provide me with a more even pin set?

thanks anyone for your advice!! will have some mycelium pornz up today.....still verry ryzmophoric

 

[Javadog]

Patience is the key. It can take 7-10 days for pins to appear...
...longer if the genetics do not help. You should not have to
cold shock cubes. Room temps are fine (70-80F)...lower is
better than higher, as lower means slow where higher can
help contams get a hold.

I cannot comment on the MG....give it a whirl.

Regarding casing layers, the traditional thought is that you cover
the casing until you see the mycelium just starting to poke up through
the casing soil.

If the mycelium starts to consolidate the casing in places, then you
can "patch" it with more casing soil.

Good luck,

JD

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

thanks

hopefully this works out and i get some dam mushies out of the deal...my next Mj harvest is a long ways away....

 

[MJG420]

thanks

hopefully this works out and i get some dam mushies out of the deal...my next Mj harvest is a long ways away....

Wow man I have been slacking for a couple days and just read through the past 2-3 pages of posts! In a way I am glad I am a little bit behind you on this project as I have learned A LOT of what to do and no do. You seem to be doing great though man and hope to see some mushie pics from you soon! Happy to hear your success with the G2G as I also plan to try it myself.

Also want to welcom JD to the party and invite you to come stop by my journal where I am about a week or so behind Matt here(funny because my name is also Matt ). I finally got some pictures up as well!

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

well i was hoping to get over to my mushies today but no such luck was hoping to get some pics but no go. ill get some tomorow of my casing project and my FC.

 

[Thundercat]

Glad to hear the g2g went well man. It might take a few more days for that tray to start pinning, but once it does it will likely be a very fast process. I seem to remember one of my trays taking quite a while, then it pinned and finished fruiting in well under a week. The last day inparticular before harvest you can just about watch those fuckers grow. I checked on them at like 2 oclock at lunch one day then when I got home at 5-6 they were completely open and had dropped some spores, that was specifically the tray in my avatar. I picked about half of them and let the rest get bigger over night and finished the harvest then. I completely for see you having mushrooms before the end of the month with out a doubt. Now not having some herb to smoke while on those mushrooms is another story. When I harvested my first grow bag of mushrooms after about 3 months due to bad temps, I didn't have any bud and couldn't get any where I lived. Soooo the wife and I drove about 4 hours to NY because I knew I could get weed there, got there about midnight, tripped balls until 7-8 am and then crashed for 3 hours. I had to be to work that 3pm that afternoon, was one crazy ass trip to say the least. Lesson learned that night.....try to avoid adrenaline rushes while tripping for me it is not a fun experience, good way to do that is just stay home even if going to get food sounds like a great idea!

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

thanks for the assurance TC needed to hear that

well today is the day, im heading over in a couple hours to set up my FC's and case at least one pan of straw bulk sub. then into the FC.

my problem right now is my grain is colonizing rapidly and my bulk subs are too but i need pinning to start asap because i dont want to have to trash a bunch of jars because they sit too long in the incubator. i have read that the mycelium will only last so long on the grain before the jars just become nasty..

surprisingly mycelium seems really clean, dosent smell horrible but has that earthy mushroom smell you would smell if you picked up a fresh potebela at the market and tooka whiff. seems like some verry clean stuff opossed to othe fungi/mold/bacteria which are just dirty smelling and looking...

anyways hopefully i can get a good amount done today, im looking at casing one pan but if the rest are far enough along i may just case them all and call it a day. one pan has been spawned to the bulk sub for at least a week maybe more and the others are a couple days behind it.

Ok heres a quick??

what should i do with the tote that i put the straw and corn directly inside? im obviously not going to build a FC for it..i keep seeing these "monotub's" but they have some cotton ball shit in the holes drilled....whats the point of this? can i just use a clean T shirt to cover the holes?

i was just going to drill a bunch of smaller holes around it almost like a SGFC and mist it daily.

 

[Javadog]

i have read that the mycelium will only last so long on the grain before the jars just become nasty..

This is not true....well, eventually the sub may rot, but this can take months or even years.

What drives the use of P. cubensis spawn is typically in-vitro fruiting. This is
what will happen if you leave cube spawn -> it will pop fruits inside the jar.

As to your FC ideas, these are best proven by experience. Let us know how it goes.

JD

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

sweet that eases my mind, so when my flushes are all done i should have some jars ready to roll for the next round. ill have to pick up some more lasagna pans so i can bulk spawn while im finishing off my last flush, get the jars all ready so that when the last flush is done i am ready to place my bulk spawned and cased pans into my FC's try and have as little down time as possible.

 

[aCiDjEsUs]

My 3 jars from 03-04-12 and here are two jars from 03-10-12

One of my three jars from the first batch is close to around 60%-70% to be fully colonized the other two are behind but still nice growth in them.

 

[Thundercat]

I intentionally did a bunch of jars at once, and then kept them in the fridge until I was ready to make trays with them. After the thrid flush on a tray or if it got contams, I could toss it, clean up, and make a new tray right away. At one point I had both the drawers in the bottom of my fridge filled with completely colonized pint jars(some where around 25-30) and more in my incubator to keep the cycle going.

As far as the "cotton ball" stuff, its prolly polyfill, "the stuff in pillows", this helps to filter contams but allow FAE. I used loose polyfill in my air holes at first, then later I put it in between some cloth layers and made "filter patchs" I'm not sure that the patchs worked any better or worse, but they were much neater and cleaner then the loose poly. These holes with the poly in them combined with the air pump into the water jar I've told you about also eliminated the need to fan the FC. Thus limiting the number of times I exposed the FC to contams by opening it.

I'm gonna try some different casing materials next time I do this. Last time I made my trays with just colonized WBS and course verm, then once colonized 2-3 days, I cased with straight verm and they went into the FC. I know your planning on using potting soil mixed with verm right? I know some guys use coco, and other things there are just so many options. I'd like to play with some and see what really seems to work best for me. The strain might also make a huge difference, I suppose like people some mushrooms prolly like eating certain materials more. That might be why my Koh Samoi grew so well on WBS and the Burmas grew very poorly, the Burmas might not like bird food lol. I'm also gonna try this popcorn I think because then I wouldn't have to pick out sunflower seeds.

Acid those are really colonizing well now that you got the temps fixed!

 

[polyarcturus]

i would stay away from patches and holes in the jar, with grain, there is for sure enough air in the mix to reach full colonization.

patches get wet when you shake them, and wick water/contams in

 

[Thundercat]

I was only talking about on my FC with the patchs man.

Though I did use the one way breathable surgical tape on my jar lids over the inoculation points, it seemed to work well.

 

[Javadog]

The best homemade injection port is a blob of silicone.

Drill a hole in the lid (small, like 1/8") and then put a blob over
the hole on both sides.

The automotive silicone is best for PCing the result.

Take care,

JD

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

inoculation isnt a issue for me right now anyways....contams are staying at bay and i havent reallt had to deal with them.

i actually made a LC syringe today with plain distilled water and used the rest of the water with some non pasturized hay to colonize my 12th jar...if i dont get contams in it i will be mindblown...

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

My 3 jars from 03-04-12 View attachment 2573009 and here are two jars from 03-10-12 View attachment 2573010

One of my three jars from the first batch is close to around 60%-70% to be fully colonized the other two are behind but still nice growth in them.

looking good man, things are coming along nicely...

I intentionally did a bunch of jars at once, and then kept them in the fridge until I was ready to make trays with them. After the thrid flush on a tray or if it got contams, I could toss it, clean up, and make a new tray right away. At one point I had both the drawers in the bottom of my fridge filled with completely colonized pint jars(some where around 25-30) and more in my incubator to keep the cycle going.

As far as the "cotton ball" stuff, its prolly polyfill, "the stuff in pillows", this helps to filter contams but allow FAE. I used loose polyfill in my air holes at first, then later I put it in between some cloth layers and made "filter patchs" I'm not sure that the patchs worked any better or worse, but they were much neater and cleaner then the loose poly. These holes with the poly in them combined with the air pump into the water jar I've told you about also eliminated the need to fan the FC. Thus limiting the number of times I exposed the FC to contams by opening it.

I'm gonna try some different casing materials next time I do this. Last time I made my trays with just colonized WBS and course verm, then once colonized 2-3 days, I cased with straight verm and they went into the FC. I know your planning on using potting soil mixed with verm right? I know some guys use coco, and other things there are just so many options. I'd like to play with some and see what really seems to work best for me. The strain might also make a huge difference, I suppose like people some mushrooms prolly like eating certain materials more. That might be why my Koh Samoi grew so well on WBS and the Burmas grew very poorly, the Burmas might not like bird food lol. I'm also gonna try this popcorn I think because then I wouldn't have to pick out sunflower seeds.

Acid those are really colonizing well now that you got the temps fixed!

no i used a 80/20 peat/verm got pics coming soon waiting on the in laws to jet and ill get to uploading.