Hello experts and all,
I'm opening this thread to present my very first noob PF-Tek cultivation project and ask for advice for both this one and the future ones (as I still have a syringe of Ecuador spores lying around in the fridge).
I'd also like to thank all the contributors for their work here and all the extremely useful information freely available. I hope I would be able to contribute too, someday.
My project has not been extremely successful so far in that the fruiting stage has now been started more than 2 months (!) ago and that the yield is still very low. It's turning out like it is not a complete failure however.
First, pictures! The fruiting chamber is the Rubbermaid-like box pictured. The lid is not air-tight but there is very little air exchange when the box is closed. I have been fanning the inside of the box more or less (depending on availability) once a day since birthing. The current flush (very low yield on the 5 other cakes) is shown on the next picture.


To put it simple, I'll write a chronology of the operations:
- late November (2010, that is): inoculation of 6 PF-cakes with one syringe of B+ (organic rice flour, vermiculite)
- within 3 to 5 weeks: colonization went fine, no weird colours, no suspiscious growth stall
- mid-December: birthed 3 cakes, on their jar lids, no dunk (did not want to try something fancy for my first time)
- X-mas eve: birthed the 3 remaining cakes, on their jar lids, dunk and roll (wanted to try something fancy for my second time)
- had to left the box at friends' during holidays, told them to try to keep it at ~19°C and to fan everyday
- early January: got the box back ~10 days later. One of the cakes was lying on its side, while putting it back on its feet I noticed a tiny mushroom growing at the base but no pins where visible on this cake nor the others, I took it and resumed the fan-and-wait process
- mid-January: cakes are furry but still no pins, I am starting to worry about them drying out, start to mist them heavily despite the perlite layer already being soaked in water
- late January: no pins, despite no obvious contamination signs (the perlite is getting slightly brownish at the base of the cakes but it is likely to be rust from the lids, the lids I use rust easily indeed), I stop fanning and plan to ditch the whole project
- 3 days later: OMGWTFBBQ, pins and tiny mushrooms on one of the verm-coated cakes! Resumed fan-and-wait...
- 1 week ago: the cap of the early mushrooms never opened as the growth stalled and the stem was darkening, I grab them off the cakes to avoid having them rot in the box, put them to dry
- the last few days: a 'real' flush is blooming like crazy on one of the verm-coated cakes (please refer to second picture). I plan to harvest tonight as the caps of the earliest mushrooms are opening
Let me ask a few questions now:
-> Is it - as I think - way too long for pins to appear? I am guessing the mycelium has probably exhausted the cake during the growth stage and there is not much energy left for the fruits. -> Am I right planning to harvest them tonight? Best mushrooms are young ones, right? Also, it's been more than 2 months since birthing and I don't want contams festing on my one an only flush in a few days because the mycelium ran out of energy and could not defend itself anymore. -> Is it safe to eat the mushrooms I harvested so far, even the tiny ones? There is no signs of contaminants but fruiting has taken sooo long. I'm not too confident but I am sure that there is:
- no suspicious colour spots besides the rusty ones (they are not expanding)
- no foul odor (there is no noticeable odor when I open the box, it only faintly smells like "forest" when I'm done with fanning)
Now I am trying to determine what could have gone wrong. I guess the pinning stage somehow took ages to trigger (despite the lone mushroom at ~10 days?) because: a) the hearts of the cakes were not fully colonized upon birthing b) there wasn't enough light outside
Here is a non-comprehensive list of the mistakes I could have done so far (please share if you're thinking of any other):
- too high incubation temperature (~29-30°C instead of 26°C)
- too much water in the perlite layer
- no misting the first 2-3 weeks
- birthing could not have been achieved at a worst period (winter solstice): less than 8 hours of light per day, and this year the weather has been especially terrible here so the light amount has been lower than ever
- did not harvest flushes fast enough. Well, it's been hard indeed to distinguish between flushes as the yield of the early flushes was very low and they never reached maturity
Thanks a lot for any insight!
Edited by Aced (02/21/11 10:01 AM)
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