I recently started growing mushrooms about two weeks ago.  I did a lot of reading and have a decent idea of what is supposed to be happening but I have a problem.  When I started, I used 3/4 cups of vermiculite , 1/4 cup of distilled water, and 1/4 cup of bfr (bob's red mill to be exact) and mixed it all together well.  The substrate was moist, not too wet or dry, and I followed procedures as indicated; about 1/2 an inch from the top, wipe down, fill with dry vermiculite, 2 holes in the lid, covered with aluminum foil.  I was able to fit four jars in my pressure cooker (15psi) and filled it with water about 2/3 way up to the top of the jars with a rag set on the bottom to make sure the glass jars didn't come into direct contact with the cooker.  I let them sterilize for about 45 minutes and let them sit overnight and this was done 3 different times to yield 12 jars.  I used my room as a inoculation place and made sure that everything was disinfected.  I used a bleach rag to wipe down my entire room, had a bleach solution to wipe down the surface I was using, lysol to get rid of anything in the air, took a shower and wore only boxers along with clean gloves and a medical mask.  I used lysol on my lighter I used, the syringe (which I shook before using), the pressure cooker, and the inoculation chamber I made (cardboard box with plastic wrap for a cover).  Now, here's where I start wondering if something went wrong.  I open the pressure cooker and realize that the ends of the aluminum foil are singed.  Again, just the tips which I thought was weird; and only for some.  Another thing, not a huge problem, but I realized that there weren't many spores in the syringe but then again the syringes I've seen were just filled with spores.  I put each jar into the inoculation chamber and put a fair amount of solution into each jar (way more than necessary; I was nervous about finally being able to do this.  Probably 1-2cc each jar roughly).  I covered them back up right away and repeated.  I disinfected my Rubbermaid container beforehand too with the other items and placed the jars in there and inside of a large Rubbermaid container with water and an aquarium heater (I made a TiT).  I have a temperature/humidity gauge in there and it's right around 81 degrees F and 80% humidity.  However, I'm coming up on two weeks now and two jars are doing wonderfully.  But the other 10 aren't showing any signs of growth!  Is this normal?  And if it is, when would they start growing before I end up chucking them?  I usually check every other day to three days to see if anything is happening.  Nothing.  So, I was wondering if anybody found a problem with my procedure or if I just messed up somewhere along the line.  Any feedback would be useful and any future tips.  Thanks!

I am new but have been reading everything I can find regarding cultivation and  have just recently started my first 6 jars. I've done a lot of reading in the past year and it is my opinion based on info from experienced cultivators that if you are doing pf cakes you can try to remove the contamination by cutting if off with a sharp knife, this way you can possibly save the colonized uncontaminated part of the cake. They do recommend putting it in a separate fruiting chamber however. I think it's probably better to chuck it if you cannot do that.  I would not want to risk spreading that contamination to the other cakes after birthing. I've just recently done some reading on in vitro fruiting n quart jars and I think that may be a good way to try to fruit a partial cake. So far I have six jars about five days from birthing and I haven't had to face contams yet and I hope I never have to. I don't have to worry about hiding them in my own house so trying to save a single cake just isn't worth it to me but I could see myself living with the parents and trying to get the most out of a couple of cakes. If you do plan on trying this use the search option and read everything you can regarding this technique otherwise you can wind up poisoning yourself and others. I think the majority of the cultivators on here would just recommend you throw it away to be safe and I think I may agree with that. I personally believe that mushrooms are capable of teaching us about ourselves and the lessons begin as soon as you decide to begin cultivating. I think the first thing we have to cultivate in ourselves is a little patience. Anyway I didn't mean to start preaching. Good luck and may your shrooms thrive.

If one suspects to have a contaminant on a shroom cake, should they chuck it or remove that part before/ after dunking and fruit it?