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 Paresthesia
Stranger
Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 1,090
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 5 years, 2 months
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 Contammed Sawdust Block! 
#9028344 - 10/04/08 12:36 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Sooo... my experiment with pasteurizing sawdust was an abysmal failure. From the top my king oyster block is fully colonized and looking just beautiful, but there's a huge patch of black spored mold, the bane of my existence, on the bottom.
I think my block may have just been too large, or the pasteurization temps just weren't high enough. Or I should have done a better job sterilizing the supplement before adding it to the substrate. So many factors here.
I've asked about this before, but can it be saved? If I scrape off the mold and bury the block, will the mold continue to eat the mycelium? Or is eryngii tough enough to fight off the infection?
I was also thinking of using some of my block to inoculate hardwood log pieces. If some of the mold gets in with the sawdust, will it kill off the eryngii mycelium?
Oh yeah, one last question. I got a box of spawn bags a couple of days ago. Anyone here use them with supplemented sawdust without a laminar flow hood? I was going to use tyvek in the opening as per RR's videos, but I'm a bit concerned about breaking that seal and letting all kinds of dirty air in.
Viparinama dukkha!
There's a good possibility that I can rent space in a friend's office for cheap. The room itself used to be used for a pharmacy, so it's got shelves and a fridge, and tile floors. Hopefully fewer airborn contaminants than my kitchen, too. I suppose if I'm serious about making money with this, I'll need a cleaner space and a shiny new flow hood.
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"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
- T. S. Eliot
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 frankenstoen
Registered: 01/26/08
Posts: 385
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 Re: Contammed Sawdust Block! [Re: Paresthesia]
#9028943 - 10/04/08 02:45 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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I don't have a flow hood, and I never put tyvek sleeves in the bags. I've NEVER had a bag contaminate. Bags are awesome.
If you're growing outside, it's always worth it to try and save a moldy block. Indoors, in a closed environment you are trying to keep sterile and spore free, it usually isn't.
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure
Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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Re: Contammed Sawdust Block! [Re: frankenstoen]
#9029662 - 10/04/08 06:46 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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You need at least a glovebox, but a flowhood is better if you're going to be supplementing your sawdust bags with bran. You can lower your contamination rate by using more grain spawn and leaving out the bran.
If using the tyvek sleeves in the bag, it will form a vacuum as it cools around the tyvek sleeve, which won't be broken until you slide the sleeve out in your glovebox. Highly recommended.
RR
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Download Let's Grow Mushrooms
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"I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
Thomas Edison
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Paresthesia
Stranger
Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 1,090
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 5 years, 2 months
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Re: Contammed Sawdust Block! [Re: frankenstoen]
#9029713 - 10/04/08 07:05 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
frankenstoen said:
I don't have a flow hood, and I never put tyvek sleeves in the bags. I've NEVER had a bag contaminate. Bags are awesome.
What, never? You know, by saying that, you're jinxing yourself!
Quote:
If you're growing outside, it's always worth it to try and save a moldy block. Indoors, in a closed environment you are trying to keep sterile and spore free, it usually isn't.
So this is what I did:
Removed block from plastic bag. Sprayed down with H2O2 solution. Scraped off any chunks of bluegreen mold I found. Drilled holes in 10" long pieces of pecan wood. Packed holes with sawdust from block. (I <3 my new palm inoculator!) Sealed wood with wax. Dug a pit. Packed logs in remaining sawdust block. Covered with 1-2" of soil. Looked up the patron saint of mushroom farmers. Asked for assistance.
So... I may know if it worked by this spring.
I've spent a lot of time with my chainsaw the past few weeks. I've noticed that when the parasitic fungi of my area infect a tree, it goes straight for the heartwood. That must be the tastiest part of a tree. So I drilled deep holes in the ends of each log and packed sawdust in with a screwdriver. 
With all of my fuckups I'm going to run out of places to bury things... 
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"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
- T. S. Eliot
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