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Testing is critical, especially in the beginning, to produce a tea that solves our problems. I would like to focus on water quality for AACT production. A client had a tea center for 2 years and was struggling to get good fungal numbers. He did all the chemical tests on his water and was told the water should work well for tea production. He then tested with another water source, keeping all other variables the same (brewer, temperature, time of day, compost, foods, etc.). The results showed he could produce good fungal numbers with one water, whereas the other water source had unacceptable numbers even though the chemical tests said each water should produce good tea. Because of the above experience, when setting up a farm with a 500 and 340 gallon brewer, we decided to test all of his water sources. We did the chemical tests and they were all acceptable for his tea production. The farm has 5 wells, a ditch, neighbor’s water, RO (reverse osmosis), distilled and soft water without nitrates. All of the brews used the same compost, foods, temperature, time of brew and 5 gallon brewer. The only variable was the water source. These tests were done prior to setting up the tea production. Our goal was to identify the best water source. Water is a huge factor in the quality of tea produced.

H2O........................Active Fungal.....Total Fungal.....Hyphal Diameter
Distilled.............................1.34............ ...14.7..................4
Ditch..................................3.34............. ..21.1..................4
Well water w/o nitrates....1.67...............3.91............... ...4
Well #3.............................1.02...............13.5 ..................3
RO (reverse osmosis).......0.70...............17.5............ ......3
Soft water w/o nitrates.......0.45...............0.96............... ..2.5

From the above tests it becomes obvious the ability to produce good tea varies with the water source. Though not truly scientific (no 3 replications for each water tested), it gave us an idea of the best water to use. I would strongly recommend the testing of all your sources of water prior to production by making tea and having these tested (We have used the Soil Foodweb lab in Corvalis, Oregon). There is a huge difference between chemical tests of water and biological tests of what the water will support and grow in the brewing process. We found ditch water had the greatest biological potential.

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I do not have the time to read through all of these post, but does this work for P. Cubensis?

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By Mycelio:
Cube-Update:

In both jars the fermented grain got completely colonized and pins appeared. I used a mix of WBS and annual rye grass. Due to the small kernels it was too wet, there was some water pooling at the bottom and I had yeast growing in it, which slowed down growth. Next time I would use wheat, rye or rice and rinse better to get rid of as much yeast as possible.

So cube mycelium is able to grow into fermented grain, but it either takes very long to start or needs help by adding fermented straw.


Carsten

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HTH