DallasP said:

Sounds like a recipe for fail. Take the space heater away. Your jars won't feel warm to the touch right now because the spores haven't finished germinating. Once your mycelium colony is going, it will produce its own internal heat, which assuming you don't live in the arctic, is more than enough for incubation. The higher the temperature, the more chance there is of bacterial contamination.

Take the foil off if you have lids with holes on the jars. Not so critical right now, but assuming all went well, your mycelia are going to need some gas exchange pretty soon.

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LivioDoubleFang said:

I was just going to say, I put medical tape on the inoculation point and using sterile proceedures put the disinfected needle through the tape leaving a small hole where the needle stuck through, and thats why I have foil over them, afriad of contams getting in and getting a hold.

so keep the heater off , keep at room temp., and uncover and I should be golden??

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DallasP said:

LivioDoubleFang said:

I was just going to say, I put medical tape on the inoculation point and using sterile proceedures put the disinfected needle through the tape leaving a small hole where the needle stuck through, and thats why I have foil over them, afriad of contams getting in and getting a hold.

so keep the heater off , keep at room temp., and uncover and I should be golden??

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If you have a dry vermiculite layer, then this and the lid are all the barrier you need against airborne contaminants getting it. That is its purpose. Leaving the foil on will quite possibly cause your cake to stall after a certain point of growth, because it will have used up all the available oxygen in the jar, and no gas exchange is happening to replenish its supply.

As long as your room temperature is somewhere close to 70F, you don't need any kind of temperature control, just let em incubate in their box and they'll provide their own internal heat. If it gets really cold where you are, you can always wrap the box in a blanket to insulate it a bit.

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Quote:

The trick is to be patient.

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best advice ever.

if you can follow a tek or just do things right its all about waiting.

RogerRabbit said:

Internal jar temps above 82F actually slow down mycelium growth, and also stimulate contaminant molds.  If your incubator is running 81F to 84F, your internal jar temps are going to be 85 to 90, considering that glass is an insulator and mycelium produces heat as it colonizes.

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DallasP said:

If you'll read, he was thinking about using the light from his FC as a heat source. As for the space heater, it's totally unnecessary, and dangerous to leave running when not home.

Room temperature, or between 70-76F, is perfectly adequate for incubation, no additional heat source is necessary. If you don't want to believe me, then here's RR on the matter. He seems to be some sort of authoritative Jesus figure around here.

RogerRabbit said:

Internal jar temps above 82F actually slow down mycelium growth, and also stimulate contaminant molds.  If your incubator is running 81F to 84F, your internal jar temps are going to be 85 to 90, considering that glass is an insulator and mycelium produces heat as it colonizes.

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headofmike said:

RR says this because he doesn't want noobs to give there poor spores the oven treatment. Nothing wrong, with incubating your jars (or thinking for yourself!)

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Spores can survive temperatures well above what your average space heater is capable of producing. It's the mycelium that's in danger of cooking. And there is something wrong with incubating your jars.



As you can see, growth drops off sharply after 86F. I've tested the temperatures inside several jars at various stages of mycelial growth, and found that storing the jars at a constant ambient room temperature of 76F, the internal temperature of the jars ranged from 82-86F. You can use your incubator if you want to, but there is something wrong with it in most normal situations. As for thinking for yourself, if you were to do so, you would have already found this out by using your own thermometer to find out whether or not incubation was necessary.

headofmike said:

I incubate at 80-81 degrees and have always been tremendously happy with my results. Which raises the temps in the jars to say ohhh, 84ish.
I'm not looking for a pissing contest. Especially when it concerns simple facts. Mycelium grows fastest as the chart above, and also from the mushroom cultivator states that cubensis mycelium grows fastest at around 86 degrees. I personally have found this to be very true. If you don't wanna incubate, don't. I, and anybody who wants to speed up their jars by a couple of days does.

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headofmike said:

I incubate at 80-81 degrees and have always been tremendously happy with my results. Which raises the temps in the jars to say ohhh, 84ish.
I'm not looking for a pissing contest. Especially when it concerns simple facts. Mycelium grows fastest as the chart above, and also from the mushroom cultivator states that cubensis mycelium grows fastest at around 86 degrees. I personally have found this to be very true. If you don't wanna incubate, don't. I, and anybody who wants to speed up their jars by a couple of days does.

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LivioDoubleFang said:

I just really want steady growth without risking contamination, I have already removed the foil from the cake jars, but I left the paper towel filters over the WBS jars cuz I dont want to risk it.

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