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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Psilocybe cubensis on horse dung.
#1005263 - 10/30/02 05:03 AM (21 years, 5 months ago) |
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My first grow log, and it's really sloppy and neglect style. Why? Because I haven't gotten all of my supplies yet, but I wanted to try some things out first. I plan on using one single half pint cake, and spawning it in half a gallon of pasteurised horse poo. I have no real hopes, and would be surprised if it wasn't contaminated.
Oh, and by the way: Yeah, I hate grow logs without pictures, too. I'm really sorry, but there won't be any pictures until I reach spawning stage (if I ever do, which I sort of doubt).
Tuesday 29. October:
I made a really, really dark Equador syringe today, with an excellent print from FungiShop (about 1/6 of it). I only had a 5ml syringe with a 0.5x16mm needle, so that's what I used. I wasn't very sterile at all, I just washed my hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap, used the oven tek, and sterilised the shot glass with some 40% gin. I used an ordinary gin-sterilised kitchen knife to scrape off the spores.
The syringe is now placed in one of my refridgerators to cool off (no, it's not hot, it's just a tad warm) and rehydrate.
Later this evening, I made one BRF cake in an ordinary drinking glass, with plain aluminum foil as a substitute for a real lid. The capacity of the glass is approximately 250ml, I would think (half pint), and I used ca. two parts vermiculite, one part water and one part BRF. Note that I did not use a dry vermiculite barrier, as my syringe needle isn't long enough to penetrate it. I sterilised in a cooking pot, using a vegetable steamer. The whole process was rather sloppy and dirty.
Wednesday 30. October:
I inoculated the drinking glass today, with approximately 1ml of spore solution spread over four inoculation points. I wrapped the glass in aluminum foil, and placed it on top of a lamp in my bathroom, where the temperature is rather fluctuating between 78? and 90? fahrenheit (depending on if I've just had a shower, if the washing machine or dryer is running, if the door is open etc.). The rest of my house is quite stable at 68? to 70? fahrenheit, which I reckon is too cold for proper, fast colonisation.
Saturday 2. November:
Ladies and gentlemen, we have germination! There are signs of weak mycelial growth at all four inoculation points. In fact, the growth could easily be mistaken for cobweb mold, but I somewhat doubt it. It's just too strategically placed at the inoculation points, and looks... like mycelium. It was faster than I thought, too. Perhaps we have some champion mycelium here? I'll keep you updated.
Monday 4. November:
I checked on the jar again today, and it looks healthy. It's about 30% colonised, I guess, and I don't think that's bad at all, considering it's been just five days after inoculation. I'm really impressed! It's definately not cobweb mold, but it's not very rhizomorphic either.
Tuesday 5. November:
I have some spare time today, so I've started to pasteurise some horse poo. I put approximately a gallon of frozen horse poo in a cake container (a red christmas styled one), had some water in it, and put it int the oven at ~70?C for one and a half hour. I realize this might be a bit prematurely, but I doubt it will cause any serious harm. What I'm a bit worried about, is the poo:substrate ratio. One BRF cake might not be enough to spawn a gallon of poo. Oh well, we'll see.
The cake is already at 40% colonisation, and the inoculation points have paired up and formed some nice rhizomorphs. I don't know how well the inside of the cake is colonised, though... The moisture content looks just right, there are no signs of contaminants, and I have no reason to believe this won't reach 100% colonisation. Looking good!
Update a couple of hours later:
How I pasteurised the poo: I put the amount of frozen poo I was going to use in the cake container, poured some hot water over it, put it in the oven at ~70?C (~160?F), and let it thaw for about an hour. I took it out of the oven, and put the poo in another container. Then, I took handfulls of poo, squeezed it to get the moisture just right, and broke it up into the original container. When I was done doing this, I had some excess poo which I threw out with the poo water (muhahaha, I know I'm evil! ). I put the container back in the oven for another 45 minutes, after which I covered the container with plastic cling wrap and put the lid back on so it could cool down without losing any moisture.
Thanks to Roadkill, Pavlov's Dog and the other poo pioneers for this tek!
Update a few hours more later:
I just discovered that my beloved red christmas styled cake container wasn't really mine (I've borrowed it from a neighbour), so I had to move the poo elsewhere. It now resides in a octagonal "Mommys Rich Fruity Cake" container. It's a litte less rigid, but it is somewhat larger, with better room for the casing layer. It works its purpose
Thursday 7. November:
The surface colonisation seems to have slowed down a bit at 75%. There seems to be some moisture forming at the sides of the glass, and it's having a hard time colonising the bottom. I won't update this log until it's 100% colonised and about to be spawned.
Meanwhile, I've started another crazy poo experiment of freakish simplicity... I'll report back if it's a success
Sunday 10. November:
Okay, I lied, here's another update.
I have run into problems with my glass: it is too moist. The water content looked perfect a week ago, but now there are notable water droplets on the inside of the glass. The cake has come loose from the glass, and mycelial growth seems to have suffered from the excess water (roughly 80% surface colonisation). This strikes me as odd, as the glass is sealed seemingly air tight... Any suggestions as to what I can do to save my cake? I've considered spawning it in the dung as soon as possible, but I fear that uncolonised BRF will be very inviting for various contams. Should i just let it be and check on it in a few days? Tips are appreciated!
I'm sorry I can't provide any pictures at this time, I hope to get my new digicam this week.
Friday 15. November:
I got impatient and spawned the cake in the dung today, by breaking the cake up in a plastic bag. I'm guessing the cake was about 90% colonised, so I removed the uncolonised parts. The spawn:dung ratio is something like 1:20, so my hopes are even lower than before! One single, compressed half pint cake in what looks like a gallon of dung. Anyway, I've made a summary of my problems so far:
My vermiculite was too fine. When I took the cake out of the drinking glass today, I discovered that the air and looseness the vermiculite was supposed to supply, was virtually non-existent. The cake had shrunk quite a bit, and was rather hard. My guess is, this caused the slow colonisation. The drinking glass wasn't air tight. The glass cracked during sterilisation, and wasn't even water tight. I didn't notice this until colonisation was well underway. I'm guessing this is what caused the excess humidity problems. It has been a few days since I pasteurised the dung, and it hasn't been allowed to breath in storage (it was contained in a tightly sealed cake box). It doesn't have that nice, earthy smell anymore, it downright stinks.
Conclusion: this doesn't look too good, does it?
I've sealed the cake box with air tight plastic cling wrap, so I can see if there is any progress whatsoever, without exposing it to contaminated air. If the mycelium starts colonising the poo, I'll replace it with aluminum foil with holes in it. I'll keep you updated
Monday 18. November:
Well, the mycelium has started to recover and colonise the poo. No rhizomorphs, but it is definately fluffier than when I spawned. I removed the lid and the plastic cling wrap, and replaced it with aluminum foil with thirteen holes in it as promised. I can't believe the roughness of this mycelium! It can really take a beating... I've promised myself I won't check on it until friday... We'll see if I can keep it
Friday 22. November:
Of course I couldn't keep it. I've been checking on my babies every day this week! Anyway, the poo is roughly 90% colonised (a bit hard to tell), and the mycelium looks healthy. There is one thing I wonder about, though... There are some formations on the surface which I'm not too sure about. They look to me like either rhizomorphs (weird ones), or hyphal knots (more like pins of mycelium). I'll get you a picture later today so some more experienced growers can tell me what they think. If they are indeed hyphal knots/pins, I'm looking at quite a nice pinset. By the way, there have been some big droplets of water forming on the mycelium, but I just sucked them up with a bit of paper. Seems to have worked fine.
Saturday 23. November:
Sorry, the pics were a bit delayed. The quality as poor at best, but it was the best I could do with this camera (which I didn't have time to get to know properly). These first ones were taken yesterday, roughly 20 hours ago:
A blurry overview shot:
A rather nice picture of the rhizo's:
The box in which the poo resides, with the aluminum foil in place:
While these were taken today, about four hours ago:
Another overview shot:
Partially out of focus close-up:
Is it just me, or is that kind of mycelial growth rather strange? It almost looks like tiny oyster mushrooms I'm planning on casing this (maybe on monday), and I'm afraid of breaking these beautiful little guys. *sigh* Life's hard
Looking at the images now, they almost look like pins. Hmm. They don't look like that in real life, and they haven't got coloured heads. What do you think? What is this?
Monday 25. November:
I'll tell you what it is, it's healthy, rhizomorphic mycelium!
It reached 97% colonisation today, I cased the poo with MycoMania's "Best Casing Formula". But alas, I lack a digital camera again. It's not a very deep casing layer, perhaps 2/5 inch (1 cm) on average. I also did a poo to poo transfer to a smaller 1 liter ice cream container. I basically removed the dry, half colonised surface pieces from the larger container, and moved them to the smaller container before I cased the big one. This smaller container was pasteurised a couple of days after the big one, and has just been sitting in the dark doing nothing. Why not use it, eh?
I'll get some more pics for you soon.
Wednesday 27. November:
Some mycelium has started poking through the casing (just a couple of small spots), which is drying out quite rapidly. Yesterday, I took an almost empty "Jif Universal" soap spray bottle, emptied it in the sink, filled it with hot water, emptied it in the sink, filled again etc. until all traces of soap were gone, filled it with boiling water and let it cool. I sprayed my casing with it tody, and noticed a flowery smell. "Oh crap, did I just spray my casing with soap?". Let's just hope it's no worse than a 1% bleach solution...
Saturday 30. November:
The mycelium seems to have a hard time colonising the casing layer, but I'll credit this to the rather low temperature in my "incubation room" (approximately 70?F). Thus far, quite a few spots of rhizomorphic mycelium has popped evenly through the 2/5 inch thick casing layer, and I think I might be able to begin the preparations for fruiting on monday. I'm spraying the casing layer more or less every day, as it seems to be drying out rather quickly. I guess this is because the aluminum foil doesn't fit as snugly os it once did. I'll replace it now.
Friday 6. December:
The mycelium seemed to have a hard time colonising the casing (one and a half week and counting, IIRC), so yesterday I made a desperate attempt at making the casing do something. I cold shocked it for a few hours (six hours at most) in a 4?C refrigerator, with the lid on to prevent evil bacteria from jumping into my casing. Today, when I went to check on my casing, I saw... Pins! Yup, that's right. Half a dozen small, white pins. There's no dark head on them yet, even though they're half an inch or longer, but I blame the lack of light. The pinset doesn't look impressively even, but I won't pass judgement until saturday or sunday. I'll replace the aluminum foil with plastic cling wrap now, and make a light cycle scheme. I'll fan it when I feel like it. Pics tomorrow!
Sing hallelujah!
Thursday 12. December:
Just a minor update to let you know how it's going. Well, they're growing! It looks like I'm going to get a mere seven mature fruits from the first flush, but at least two of them are going to get really big. They're closing in on five inches as we speak, and the hat isn't much fatter than the stem yet. All of them look really healthy, IMHO. I know I promised pictures, and I'll get some for you as fast as I can.
Saturday 14. December:
Oh yeah. I finally got my hands on that digicam again, so I took some pics of my now almost 8 inch long shrooms. Enjoy!
Again, sorry about the lousy quality of these pictures. Crappy camera + crappy photographer = very crappy pictures.
First, a picture of my Super High Tech Terrarium?:
Second, here's a blurry overview shot:
Did you notice the tissue damage on the biggest boy in there? That's a bit sad. It was about to grow together with his little brother, but got torn apart when I took the lid off the Super High Tech Terrarium?. Here's a closeup:
Here's a picture taken at a different angle:
Yeah, I know, the pinset is not very impressive, but the two largest shrooms in there are about eight inches long now. That's not bad for a sloppy first time grower, is it? I reckon I'll be harvesting them either tomorrow or monday. Can't wait!
Sunday 15. December:
My babies have exploded! Two of them have grown two or three inches over night, for God' sake. Looks like I'm going to harvest either tonight or tomorrow. Here are some updated pictures.
Another overview shot:
A little closer:
A closeup of the cap of the biggest boy:
And another one:
As you can see, the cap has cracked, and there is some damage to some of the mushrooms. I guess I can't expect picture perfect shrooms when I grow bulk&neglect
Monday 23. December:
I threw out the container the other day, after one flush. No particular reason, I just felt uncomfortable having mushrooms growing in the house with lots of relatives coming over for Christmas. I reckon I got about an ounce of dried mushrooms on the first flush, and that will be enough for me the following year. I'm putting away my spores & supplies now, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was for good. I had a nice time, and I've met a lot of interesting people. I'd like to thank everybody in this great community, and wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Thank you and Goodbye.
Edited by concretefeet (02/07/05 06:54 AM)
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cheesyincident
Cheese Head
Registered: 12/15/01
Posts: 416
Loc: Ohio
Last seen: 3 years, 5 months
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1005925 - 10/30/02 10:51 AM (21 years, 5 months ago) |
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sterility is key, hope thats not the case for you.
-------------------- Incidents Happen
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Thanks. I know how important sterility is, I just use this as an experiment to see how important it really is. Who knows, perhaps it pays off?
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z@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1006307 - 10/30/02 12:10 PM (21 years, 5 months ago) |
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I make my syringes in my room on my desk using a shot glas and alcohol for sterilizing everything. I am clean but not too sterile. This worked great untill my damn neighbors flooded the building. Now i have to build a glove box because I lost 50% of my last set of jars to black pin mold.
-------------------- "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: z@z.com]
#1006386 - 10/30/02 12:37 PM (21 years, 5 months ago) |
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I'm sorry to hear that
I'd love to be able to not use HEPA hoods, clean rooms and such... just standard, clean equipment. If this jar survives, I have a good reason to be optimistic
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canid
irregular meat sprocket
Registered: 02/26/02
Posts: 11,912
Loc: looking for zeebras, n. c...
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1006748 - 10/30/02 02:20 PM (21 years, 5 months ago) |
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there are a lot oc corners you can cut, sterility just isn't one of them. you might get good results once or even a few times but if it was a thing that could be overlooked it wouldn't be emphasized by evreyone. at any rate, i can't wait to see how you fair. good luck
-------------------- Attn PWN hunters: If you should come across a bluing Psilocybe matching P. pellicolusa please smell it. If you detect a scent reminiscent of Anethole (anise) please preserve a specimen or two for study and please PM me.
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: canid]
#1006884 - 10/30/02 02:58 PM (21 years, 5 months ago) |
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Thanks. I must say, I'm not very optimistic, but there is a faint hope in my heart (blah blah, let's not be melodramatic, eh? ). I can't wait to check if it's contaminated or has germinated in a few days...
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1015140 - 11/02/02 03:31 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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^ Updated 2. November ^
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nilobject
nil
Registered: 09/25/02
Posts: 18
Last seen: 8 years, 7 months
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1015157 - 11/02/02 03:53 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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i'm also quite interested in your grow as i have just finished innoculating my 4 brf jars with b+ and i used about the same amount of sterility that you did. i'm pretty much expecting that i'll have to chuck all 4 jars, but was interested to find out if everyone's warnings should be taken to heart or whether everyone justs lives in mold ridden houses. i realise bacteria is everywhere and has just as much chance of growing as mushroom spores.
keep up the good work and posts. nilobject
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: nilobject]
#1015170 - 11/02/02 04:21 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thanks!
It's great to hear I'm not the only one who doesn't have a problem with this kind of experimentation. I can't tell you how great it would be for me if I could have somewhat consistent, good results with mediocre sterility. So far, so good.
And by the way, sterility wasn't the only thing I was sloppy with either. The spore syringe was dubious at best, as I only let the boiled water cool for three minutes or so in the fridge before I had the spores in it (it was still quite warm to the touch, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was 104?F). Anyway, the spores seem to have survived.
Good luck to you too!
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canid
irregular meat sprocket
Registered: 02/26/02
Posts: 11,912
Loc: looking for zeebras, n. c...
Last seen: 2 months, 18 days
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1016366 - 11/02/02 05:11 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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it realy depends on your def. of mediocor. in general, i use what i would call "resonable" sterility. that is, i go to some lengths to make sure that i'm not inoculating/incubating/fruiting in a particularly dirty environment. i make sure the sterilisation/pasturisation of my substrate/spawn is complete. i don't "play" with my jars/cakes/casings, and if i have to do a spawn transfer i make sure the air is reasonably clean (aerosol disinfectant). other that that i adapt my tecnique to suit my needs through the application of what common sense (insert your diet(y/ies) here) gave me. i consider these to be the bare minimum with wich one can achieve consistent results.
-------------------- Attn PWN hunters: If you should come across a bluing Psilocybe matching P. pellicolusa please smell it. If you detect a scent reminiscent of Anethole (anise) please preserve a specimen or two for study and please PM me.
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nilobject
nil
Registered: 09/25/02
Posts: 18
Last seen: 8 years, 7 months
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: canid]
#1016711 - 11/02/02 08:15 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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you couldn't wait for your syringe to cool either?!??! woah, same here. also two of my jars weren't fully cooled either. the other two were seated in front of an air conditioner and i'm amazed they didn't crack.
i didn't spray the air with any disenfectant, felt it wasn't necessary. other then that, i would say all other things that concretefeet mentioned, i did.
nil
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: nilobject]
#1018008 - 11/03/02 09:13 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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concretefeet: Yes, that sounds about right. I guess you can say I use reasonable sterility as well, except that I didn't use an aerosol disinfectant (Lysol or such).
nilobject: Wow! My jar actually cracked I forgot about the pot I was sterilising in, it ran out of water, and the jar probably got heated to around 200?C I just let it cool a bit, poured a bit more water in it, and sterilised for another half hour. It seems to have worked
Anyway, the jar is now ~20% colonised.
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tps
ganja ghanstah
Registered: 06/22/02
Posts: 578
Last seen: 14 years, 3 months
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1018680 - 11/03/02 02:12 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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yeah i tried that whole not being sterile thing, didnt work, 1 out of 12 jars didnt get infected.... it sucked.
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: tps]
#1020496 - 11/04/02 09:18 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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Ouch, sorry to hear that. Then again, perhaps there are other factors involved as well. What kind of house you live in, general cleanliness etc. My walls are made entirely from concrete and gypsum/plaster, versus wooden walls which can be hard to clean thoroughly. There is also the relativity factor here... What does "relatively clean" mean?
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bigslick
science fictionwriter
Registered: 02/16/02
Posts: 186
Loc: just behind you
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Re: Sloppy first grow log (updated 4. November) [Re: fungor]
#1020521 - 11/04/02 09:33 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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fungor why did you start with a print and not a vendor syringe?
-------------------- Everything I write is a total work of fiction
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log (updated 4. November) [Re: bigslick]
#1020532 - 11/04/02 09:39 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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Simple question, simple answer: because I didn't have a vendor syringe. I feel that I get much more from buying prints that syringes, as long as I manage to make fertile syringes. That one Equador print cost me $5, and I've made five *very* dark 5ml syringes from them. That's reason enough for me
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log [Re: fungor]
#1023316 - 11/05/02 04:06 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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^ Updated 5. November ^
For those of you who are interested, that is
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fungor
Old fart
Registered: 09/12/02
Posts: 183
Loc: Norway
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Sloppy first grow log (updated 10. November) [Re: fungor]
#1040675 - 11/10/02 09:50 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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^ Updated 10. November ^
Sorry about bumping my own threads, but I need a tip or two now
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nilobject
nil
Registered: 09/25/02
Posts: 18
Last seen: 8 years, 7 months
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Re: Sloppy first grow log (updated 10. November) [Re: fungor]
#1041800 - 11/10/02 08:22 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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hey my growth has slowed down a bit too. no excess water though.
if you want to case now, you'll be best to cut the unclonised part of the substrate off. just use the colonised part.
if the water is collecting at the bottom of your jars, and that's what is preventing colonisation, then you could turn your jars upside down. the water will now pool around the 'top' of the jar and could hurt the colonised areas. perhaps not.
just on that last note, i can't remember if you had a vermiculite layer over your substrate, but if so, the water will just run into the verm and possibly out the holes in the lid, depending on how you made/covered them.
i have not tried this, but have read similar things. i'm sure you were thinking a similar thing. if this is a load of crap, please correct me as it may happen to me in a few days.
thanks, nil
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