Decided to give the air pump monotub another shot and my pinset has finally come in.
7 Quarts of Rye spawned with damien5050's easy coir prep and a handful of gypsum.
The placement of the air hoses is a little different this time. Instead of having them roughly in the middle I decided to put them off center about 75% of the way down each long side of the tub. One on the right and one on the left.
Had my first pin at 6 days, these guys colonized really fast. Plus it helped that I was using 7 quarts of spawn instead of 5.
New pins showing up every day.
Keep a look out for another free print contest in the marketplace.
Thorough blueprint of the setup:
EDIT: Okay I know alot of you roll your eyes at this because the traditional monotub is all 'set it and forget it' without any moving parts but here is why I decided to do this.
First off, experimentation. There weren't a lot (any?) threads that duplicated this setup really. So I decided I would pioneer some of the research in the area. I'd always wanted to make a monotub like this.
Second, it actually uses less electricity than the traditional monotub setup. "LOL But wait Tiger the traditional monotub doesn't use any electricity hahah dumbass!" O rly? A properly dialed in monotub requires a fan circulating air in the room. I just looked at a simple little fan I have and it uses 120 watts.
This air pump uses 3.5 watts.The properly dialed in monotub also requires light in the 6500K spectrum. In my case, I've replaced the regular recessed light in my room with a 100 watt (equivalent) daylight spectrum cfl. It operates as my normal room light and also my grow light meaning I don't have to pay for an extra grow light to be on. It's just the normal light I have which I keep on anyway so my cats have a lit room when I'm gone. (It gets dark out here.)
So electricity usage is actually down and would still be down if 15 other pumps were running the same way.
Third, totes kinda become single use after you cut 6 1.5" holes all over them. You can patch them up I guess but these tiny holes I have could easily be sealed up without anyone noticing leaving me with a perfectly good tote later on when not being used for growing mushrooms. My money goes further in that regard.
Money though, that is definitely a draw back. The savings on electricity probably don't make up for the fact that each pump costs 10 dollars and the hoses cost 1.50 each. So this adds 15$ to the cost of each monotub. However the pump should last a very long time being good enough to get you through many grows. Then again polyfil costs money too and isn't always reusable.
Fourth, one of the most common questions we see on the cultivation forums is about 'stealth grows'. Because it uses active fresh air exchange it could easily be put in a closet with a blanket over it or something as long as the air has a way of escaping. Add a ribbon of LED lights and this could work great for a stealth bulk grow someday.
Fifth, why the fuck not? We're all here to grow mushrooms. I'm just having a good time with this
Update: 1 / 6 / 14
See. The cat is totally important in the diagram.
gotta kick him off though since he's preventing the air from moving out of the imperfect lid.
First caps coming in.
Uodate: 1/7/14 I got home after a long road trip today and it is time for a fucking harvest:
I actually had already harvested a wet ounce off of this last night because there were caps open and I didn't want to wake up to a sporasplosion if I could help it. Will post results / wet weight soon. If you have access to the marketplace keep an eye out for a contest for prints. There will be three print prizes up for grabs (but I won't be able to send them for a few days until I have time to buy a book of stamps and envelopes and nice paper.) The prizes will be for: Closest guess to wet weight. Closest guess to dry weight. Closest guess to total number of caps.(remember, I've already harvested a wet ounce off of this sub so you won't be able to use the picture alone to count) Whew. Time to put on the gloves. On a side note, I am also going to be cutting as close to the base as I possibly can and after all the full shrooms are off I'm going to be swiping any of the remaining blobbyness which will also be included in the wet and dry weights. Put on em thinking caps! Plus I will also post a picture of the harvest from two angles so you don't have to guess right now and MAKE SURE YOUR GUESSES GO IN THE MARKETPLACE THREAD AND NOT HERE. Any guesses here will not be eligible for reward.
HARVEST COMPLETE:
Picture includes all full mushrooms plus a small pile of blobs I removed from the substrate. I tried to pull the whole thing out a la frank's harvesting method but I felt the substrate starting to break in half as I did it so I just went in with a scalpel and started carving.
Something things I noted: The substrate felt really 'weak' / 'gushy' like this flush had consumed a lot of the nutrients already. There were lots of side pins because I used a white trash bag for a liner. All the side pins were on the side that was facing the light. This confirms that light is definitely one of the important pinning triggers. Pins on the sides were ALMOST non existent while there were absolutely no pins on the back.
When I first saw the shrooms coming in I thought the bottoms looked way to fuzzy but they actually didn't turn out that way. They are very proportional all the way through HOWEVER these shrooms and the ones in the first air pump tub are way denser and meatier than any shroom I've had from PF Tek or a traditional monotub design. They also didn't grow higher than about 4 inches max. I hypothesize that this is because the freshest air is being piped in at the substrate level. Therefor the mycelium develops more at the bottom and the caps don't raise too high above the substrate when that's the place where most of their fresh air is.
Update: Contest has begun
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/19386409UPDATE 1/17/2014
Just wanted to bump this thread since it's been a week since the last post. I've got the second flush almost ready to blossom. I didn't dunk the substrate, just misted the shit out of it when I woke up, on my lunch breaks, and when I got home. I dialed it back to one hose and it's holding humidity MUCH better now that the second hose isn't piping in air. I think in the future this is going to be a single hose/hole operation instead of the double. Pictures coming soon.
UPDATE 1/18/2014
So I just met this new girl and she's been spending the night. so I've had to close the closet and keep the grow in there. I did not dunk it. I just misted the shit out of the substrate for four days after the first harvest (plus one day of no misting and no FAE so it could have undisturbed consolidation time.)
For this flush I also unplugged one of the air hoses. So just one hose... It held humidity WAY better the entire time.
Because of the girl being over I didn't get to harvest until after the sporasplosion when she went home. The shrooms were a lot bigger this time. Taller and even meatier and dense than before. There were definitely less of them though.
Wet weight 1120.
Update: 1/20/2014
Things look like this:
The air pump is not turned on right now. I'm going to give it another 24 - 36 hours before I start an 8 - 12 hour dunk.
UPDATE 1/22/2014
Got an update from a friend who is currently coming down from a trip.
'It's no wavy cap mind fuck. Pleasant trip with a killer body buzz that reminds me of rolling. I couldn't stop petting my cat'
I'll take that as potency being
UPDATE 1/23/2014
Third flush pins are everywhere. They are definitely not as numerous as the first two flushes but they are probably 4 - 5 times as many pins as there were for the first air pump tub's third flush.
I predict harvest in 5 days... There are hyphae and new pins forming every day though so at this point it might just be a 'harvest free for all' as the shrooms come in getting every last one I can before contamination comes.
This harvest was completely neglect tek. I never fanned out the tub. All I did was turn my room light on and off. Total wet weigh was 2 lbs 1 ounces. Not including a few caps I took for printing.
I harvested in two rounds. First came these guys that were ready.
Then came these guys the next day.
Sorry about the rotation. I don't know why my camera did that.
There are still a few shrooms that are maturing, maybe 10 or so. I'll harvest them tomorrow morning but I don't expect them to weigh more than an ounce wet.
I so want to try for a fourth flush. Even If I just got one big monster out of it.
2/17: This tub is still going strong. Flush 5 was 18 grams dry. Flush number 6 is on the way. I turned the substrate upside down for this flush because it seemed like there was no more pinning happening on the harvested side. Lo and behold I have pins on the bottom now and they are reaching for the light! Pictures to come this evening.
2/18: I've hopped back and forth for a while on these things. For flush four and five most of the time there was one hose with the hole plugged up with a little parafilm. I've been almost completely neglect tek at this point until yesterday.
I saw that there was no more pinning happening on the top surface of the substrate but there WAS pinning happening on the sides where had been no previous mushroom growth. So I figured I'd flip the substrate over and sure enough there were already pins and even some half formed mushrooms. After I flipped the sub they started growing upwards. At this point I have also started misting and fanning to try and create some evaporation off the bottom (now the top) of the substrate. Hoping this will jump start some more pins even if they aren't going to yield much at this point.
Here's flush 6 in progress. I harvested the bigger caps and ones that were ready today and it totaled 80 grams wet.
2/19: More shrooms harvested today. Wet weight 100 grams totaling 180 for this flush so far and there are still a few left to harvest. Probably will happen later in the evening.
2/25 Flush seven is now confirmed.
There are actually a few other areas of primordia and tiny pins scattered around the substrate. I'll be happy if I just get two mushrooms out of this though. If I grow cubes again it's going to be from these Fiji prints. This strain has been extremely contam resistant. Fast colonizing. Great high. I don't think I'll ever buy another spore syringe.
3/1: Flush 7
Didn't bother to weigh it. I'm sure if it's not more than an ounce or two wet.
3/4 Today I noticed a tiny patch of green about the size of a dime on the tub. Very obviously contamination. Didn't take pictures since I just want it out. This tub is done. It performed as well as I could have hoped. Thank you for everyone who posted here.