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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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    #11057727 -

I've got a (modified) "shotgun" syle FC put together that doesn't seem to be holding humidity. Even with less holes than the tek called for.

Original setup was a large blue sterlite container, about 30 gallons or so, 1.5 inches of wet perlite on the bottom, a fish bowl with water/lava rocks in the middle, air pump hose w/ bubble stone running into that. Above that was a shelf rack to hold cakes/casings and a mason jar with water/lava rocks and another air pump hose w/ bubble stone running into that. 10 holes drilled all the way around the FC at rack/substrate level, also four holes drilled on the front side at perlite level to allow for better circulation. There is plenty of circulation at the lid level because of the ghetto plexiglass lid I made not sealing completely. Micropore tape on about half of the holes, as an attempt to get RH above 80%. Now my setup is the same but without the rack, everything is directly on top of the Perlite to promote humidity nearest to the cakes.

...but that's where we are now. Humidity at 80% (according to POS digital hygrometer) temp at 75-ish. The air pump is for a 30-60 gallon tank. Also, my light is a 24'' under-cabinet Grow Light from a big store that exploits chinese babies. Bought it next to the CFL lights and just figured it would be better.

Anything I'm doing wrong/not doing at all that I should be to make sure pins show up when they should be? This is my first serious grow attempt and I would like to do anything and everything possible to make it a success. Money isn't really an object (obviously to a certain extent!), neither is time. I'll just save up money and spend it over time :smile:. Mycology is quite interesting, quite fun.

(Also if it matters jars were PC'd for 60 min at 10 PSI, not fully colonized before birthing due to excess moisture in the jars, colonization had slowed to nearly a hault. I cut off uncolonized portions and cased them, that's incubating right now. So basically my cakes are about 1/2 size.)//

-OutbakJak

Edited by OutbakJak (09/21/09 11:05 PM)

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11057755 -

Should be 3-5 in of perlite...also digi hygrometers are usually wrong from what I hear.


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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: SillySiteMan]
    #11057785 -

Also, get rid of the tape. You also need fae to induce pinning not just rh. Furthermore, if those cakes were contam and you cut parts off and cased again, chances are the mycelium is trying to rebuild itself in fruiting conditions. This isn't terrible, but it will prolly set you back a bit on pinning.

Edit* lmao I used the word "also" waaay too much hahah


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Edited by SillySiteMan (09/14/09 01:12 PM)

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11057816 -

LOL... It sounds like my first grow.
First thing you need to do is get a decent hygrometer.  Then add the correct amount of holes to the fc,  you should have hole every two inches. 
If the humidity doesn't raise then add more perlite 4-5" is what you want.  lift your cakes to see if there is any weight to them,  if there isn't then dunk your cakes again.  If you have not rolled them in verm, do it.
The air pump is not necessary,  a fan running in the room works much better.
TC,
CH


--------------------
:mypoorbrain:

Questions about Cluster Headaches?  click here...
Additives info click here...

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: CH HELL]
    #11058960 -

Thanks so much for the helpful replies guys! I'll make sure to finish drilling the holes and put a fan in the room. Probably a small one on a shelf nearby. I already stopped at a few places for an analog hygrometer, couldn't find any. Will definitely make the addition soon as I locate one. (Any suggestions on where to find a good one?)

As far as the cakes go, I'm pretty sure they weren't contaminated, at least not yet. Moisture was collecting pretty bad on the sides of the jar where the myc should have been growing out, and I'm pretty sure that's due to the way I mixed my substrate. I used fine vermiculite and enough water for a recipe involving coarse verm. One that colonized quickly was birthed early and got contaminated via damp verm near the cake growing cobweb and trich both. Pretty lame. I buried in a hole w/ perlite on the bottom, cake depth and moist verm/homemade BRF on top. Not expecting it to fruit but, I figured I'd give it the best chance I could without having herbivore poo laying around. And I learned a little about how important sterility is when dealing with our fungi friends.

Speaking of, do I need to do any sterilizing of the perlite I'm adding to the FC? The water I'm adding to it is 1/20 watered down 3% hydrogen peroxide solution. Good idea or no? Same goes for the water in the fish bowl/mason jar.

It's day 2 for the cakes, 3 days till I birth one Amazonian into the FC, what a FAST colonizer, and a healthy lookin' jar! Chitwan should be close behind, followed by Malabar. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Will post pics if I get the chance, know I have a camera around here.

-OutbakJak

Edited by OutbakJak (09/14/09 05:32 PM)

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11059071 -

Just some more quick info on the preparation of the cakes/incubation.

The cakes were classic PF Tek, with USDA Organic Brown Rice from Wally World, ground in a local grocery store's coffee grinder, then sifted so that only the browner, finer powder was used for my BRF. Two cakes of Puerto Rican Cubensis, two of Huatla (Sporeworks) were inoculated from two syringes. After 31 days, 2 jars were about 95% and sloooooooow, the other two were just as slow but at about 60-75%. Birthed, cut in half and used uncolonized halves for a casing, which is incubating, and should be ready to be patched/placed in the FC today. The halves used for fruiting were colonized all the way through, leading me to believe that bacterial contaminants were not responsible for the slow growth. Cakes were dunked in cold water for 26 hours and rolled in, dare I say, unsterilized verm (oops...).

My screw ups so far:
1)A little too much water in the substrate mix.
2)Did not sterilize verm that I used to roll the cakes in.
3)Not enough holes in the FC, not following my tek of choice to a T.

That list feels like it should be longer but the infractions are already great. I'll do my best to keep from adding to that list.

Pics to come. I'll have to move this to a grow log.

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11059171 -

That hygrometer reading is meaningless.

Needs more perlite.


--------------------
The above post is fictional, hypothetical, or downright nonsensical.


:moon:  :moon:  :moon:  :moon:    :moon:

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11059549 -

Cigar shops have nice hygrometer, or reptile stores.
Perlite is made in temperatures of like, 2000F or something like that. It's already sterile.
The number one pinning trigger is FAE, the water evaporating off the cakes is what initiates pinning. you should just mist and fan, mist and fan, mist and fan...


--------------------
"The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.." - Douglas Adams

ambargh's easy agar

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11059557 -

1)A little too much water in the substrate mix.

Fine verm holds more water than coarse.

2)Did not sterilize verm that I used to roll the cakes in.

No need to sterilize,  verm should be sterile out of the bag.

3)Not enough holes in the FC, not following my tek of choice to a T.

#1 problem that I see.

Well the #1 problem that you didn't mention is (I am guessing) your lids stayed covered with tin foil during colonization.  This will prolong the colonization time X2,  the dry verm layer is all that is needed.
CH


--------------------
:mypoorbrain:

Questions about Cluster Headaches?  click here...
Additives info click here...

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: CH HELL]
    #11059579 -

Make sure your shotgun FC is also raised so air can flow up through the perlite.

Raise it somehow... Get two bricks if you have to...

Good Luck


--------------------
Imagine if you needed it and it wasn't there... GIVE BLOOD
Get a free (PAINLESS) bone marrow testing kit and help save lives HERE.
Jesus if you're reading this, please come back already. We need you now more than ever!
The U.S. Constitution!

Best WBS Tek
EZ Potato-Honey Agar Tek
MY TRADES

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: mushroomhunter10]
    #11059588 -

How did you wet the perlite? In the sink using a strainer or somehow else? I would add more perlite.

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: oxalic32]
    #11059616 -

Take a 20 oz pop bottle. Punch a bunch of pinholes in the cap, and empty the whole thing around in your perlite weekly. Trust me, it won't leak if you have 4-6" of perlite in there...

That will help if you're having difficulty with humidity too. Perhaps your environment is naturally dry in regards to humidity outside of the fruiting chamber??


--------------------
Imagine if you needed it and it wasn't there... GIVE BLOOD
Get a free (PAINLESS) bone marrow testing kit and help save lives HERE.
Jesus if you're reading this, please come back already. We need you now more than ever!
The U.S. Constitution!

Best WBS Tek
EZ Potato-Honey Agar Tek
MY TRADES

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11060674 -

OutbakJak said:
I've got a "shotgun" syle FC put together that doesn't seem to be holding humidity. Even with less holes than the tek called for.

Original setup was a large blue sterlite container, about 30 gallons or so, 1.5 inches of wet perlite on the bottom, a fish bowl with water/lava rocks in the middle, air pump hose w/ bubble stone running into that. Above that was a shelf rack to hold cakes/casings and a mason jar with water/lava rocks and another air pump hose w/ bubble stone running into that. 10 holes drilled all the way around the FC at rack/substrate level, also four holes drilled on the front side at perlite level to allow for better circulation. There is plenty of circulation at the lid level because of the ghetto plexiglass lid I made not sealing completely. Micropore tape on about half of the holes, as an attempt to get RH above 80%.


None of which is part of the shotgun terrarium tek.

Ditch the air pump, the fish bowl, and the tape over the holes. Then, drill holes on all six sides per the tek, and put four to five inches of perlite per the tek, and your humidity WILL be in the upper 90s percent.  Don't run a fan in the room.  The natural air currents in the room will be fine.  A fan can disrupt the proper functioning of the terrarium, which creates its own miniature weather system by drawing air in through the bottom, and expelling it through the holes in the upper part.

As said, digital hygrometers are shit.  I have one that cost over $200 and it's as crappy as the twenty dollar ones.  Get a quality analog one at a cigar shop and calibrate it via the wet towel method.  Take your digital hygrometer outside and smash it to bits with a rock.  It's actually therapeutic.
RR


--------------------
Download Let's Grow Mushrooms



semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat

"I've never had a failed experiment.  I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
Thomas Edison

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #11062091 -

Loving the feedback. Corrected the issues and humidity went up.

My logic, "it would be impossible for humidity to stay high enough in there with all those holes!"

Your (collective) years of experience win. Who'da thunk it? Take a hike, my logic.

Lesson learned, test the tek before you modify it.

I'll keep y'all posted on any new growth. Thanks to everyone for all of your help, it means a lot to have your experience on my side. Hope I can contribute something useful in the future.

*EDIT* Good call CH! Foil was left on for a good 2 weeks then replaced with micropore tape. Do you think the micropore tape would also slow colonization to any significant extent? Just want to make sure I'm not holding my mushies back :smile:

Edited by OutbakJak (09/15/09 02:19 AM)

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: OutbakJak]
    #11062285 -

It's my understanding that with PF Tek micropore tape is pointless because the vermiculite layer will protect your cakes from contams.  Tape, even micropore tape, would just be another deterrent to gas exchange.

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Re: Low RH (help?) Need to initiate pinning! [Re: scrotesmcgrotes]
    #11062455 -

http://www.mushroomvideos.com/Terrarium-Tek

explains why it works :-)


--------------------

PF TEK - writeup by EvilMushroom666
Lets Grow Mushrooms - RogerRabbit & RoadKills website with sample videos plus the full PF TEK video series. Alot of great information - BUY THE DVD
Cakes can and will pin! - So you think cakes suck for pins. Your wrong
Franks Simple Coir/Verm Tek
Franks Proper Pasturisation Tek
Franks Spawning To Bulk - Monotub
Professor Pinheads RTV Injection Port Tek
Foo Mans No Soak WBS Prep Tek

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Status [Re: veda_sticks]
    #11084269 -

Still nothing from the cakes.
1 and 1/2 left and one went over a cliff.

I'm sad about that. We'll see what becomes of it's friends.

When should I give up on them fruitin'?

Edited by OutbakJak (09/21/09 10:52 PM)

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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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