Home | Community | Message Board
You are not signed in.
Sign In New Account
Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery

Magic Mushrooms Zamnesia
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: North Spore Bulk Substrate   Mushroom-Hut Substrate Bags   Sporeworks.EU Spores for European Microscopy   Myyco.com Isolated Cubensis Liquid Culture For Sale   MagicBag.co Certified Organic All-In-One Grow Bags

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Some of these posts are very old and might contain outdated information. You may wish to search for newer posts instead.
Vermiculite water holding ability TEST
    #1161256 -

It has been a consent among the users of the PF-Tek, that the fine vermiculite can hold more water than the coarse variety.

I wanted to quantify this, and made a test:

120 ml of vermiculite were measured, weighed and then water was added to it until the vermiculite was saturated.(according to the PF-Tek for Simple Minds).

The 2 varieties used are the ones in this photo:


Test results:

Fine variety:
120 ml vermiculite, weighs 14 g, can hold 54 ml water.
Coarse variety:
120 ml vermiculite, weighs 14 g, can hold 46 ml water.

As you can see, the water holding ability varies considerably between the 2 varieties. If you don?t take this into account when preparing substrate, it will be either too wet or too dry.


--------------------
Grow Mushrooms from Spores - PF-Tek for Simple Minds

Edited by Anno (12/22/02 12:05 AM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: Anno]
    #1161292 -

Would you say the fine variety takes longer to colonize?


--------------------
_______________________________________
CSC

Life's a garden, Dig it!
~Joe Dirt

Off Topic Website

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Post deleted by Administrator [Re: Anno]
    #1161296 -



--------------------
Compiler

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: Compiler]
    #1161318 -

5 minutes.


--------------------
Grow Mushrooms from Spores - PF-Tek for Simple Minds

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: Cow Shit Collector]
    #1161321 -

>Would you say the fine variety takes longer to colonize?

I only used is one or two times 2 or so years ago and I don?t really remember how long it took.
With the coarse variety I have consistent colonization times from 9-11 days, depending on the spores.
But I will run a comparative test soon.


--------------------
Grow Mushrooms from Spores - PF-Tek for Simple Minds

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: Anno]
    #1161357 -

i seem to remember that the consensus is: coarse verm better for substrate, fine verm better for casing.

would you go along with this, or does it not matter so long as the moisture content is optimum in both scenarios?


--------------------
buh

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: shirley knott]
    #1162047 -

Well, you can have good mycelium growth with both fine or coarse vermiculite, if the water content is right.
The coarser vermiculite provides more cavities in the substrate, more air, something mycelium seems to like.


--------------------
Grow Mushrooms from Spores - PF-Tek for Simple Minds

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: Anno]
    #1162133 -

Interesting. Do you think PF is correct when they call their fine verm recipe the "maximum fruiting formula"? I'm guessing this is only referring to the actual fruiting stage instead of colonization speed. Thanks for the info Anno.


--------------------
The proper penalty of ignorance, which is of course that those who don't know should learn from those who do... - Plato

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: Angry Mycologist]
    #1178399 -

>Do you think PF is correct when they call their fine verm recipe the "maximum fruiting formula"?
Could be.

> I'm guessing this is only referring to the actual fruiting stage instead of
colonization speed.
Definitely.


--------------------
Grow Mushrooms from Spores - PF-Tek for Simple Minds

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Vermiculite water holding ability TEST [Re: Anno]
    #1178538 -

Where i am verm comes in four grades ranging from D=powder to A=thick grade. From reading puscle's post when i started out it became quickly apparent that the fine grade held water better. Although the courser stuff was good for air exchange, it often dried out before full colonisation.
Stick with the fine grade - worked great for me.
I literally use this stuff with everything i do other than agar plates - its great for moisture retention of any substrate - even shock horror! Shiitake blocks!


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

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: North Spore Bulk Substrate   Mushroom-Hut Substrate Bags   Sporeworks.EU Spores for European Microscopy   Myyco.com Isolated Cubensis Liquid Culture For Sale   MagicBag.co Certified Organic All-In-One Grow Bags

Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* what's the difference between vermiculite and perlite? javacap 5,937 7 02/18/04 04:06 PM
by
* simple question about vermiculite.... dannynosleeves 893 3 03/03/04 02:32 PM
by Starter
* Is this vermiculite usable?
( 1 2 all )		 Fd3000 3,269 20 07/18/02 10:07 AM
by Anno
* Help!!! Vermiculite alternatives? Shroomie_Scooby 1,126 3 10/14/03 02:47 PM
by Shroomie_Scooby
* puncturing holes question?? kokopelli005 1,400 16 01/22/03 09:46 AM
by deanofmean
* Perlite instead of Vermiculite??? fob4022 1,863 13 02/01/03 12:40 PM
by Anonymous
* Vermiculite and Asbestos? What else to use. Raedon 4,168 17 04/09/03 05:32 PM
by BigJohnson
* Vermiculite replacement? Swami 995 1 02/01/02 11:01 PM
by Roadkill

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Shroomism, george castanza, RogerRabbit, veggie, mushboy, fahtster, the_chosen_one, LogicaL Chaos, 13shrooms, hamloaf, cronicr, Stipe-n Cap, Pastywhyte, bodhisatta, Tormato, Land Trout, A.k.a
2,343 topic views. 5 members, 107 guests and 145 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2026 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.037 seconds spending 0.007 seconds on 14 queries.