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Appleyard
Stranger

Registered: 01/19/11
Posts: 9
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First grow - B+ & Ecuador [pics]
#14185237 - 03/26/11 02:09 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Howdy! I registered here a while back with the intention of asking a question but figured out how to work the search and avoided adding another senseless post!
I probably should have done this as a log like most people do as I went along, but instead here is an infodump of what all I've done. It was a fun trip, and I'm going to try to keep it organized so it's easy to read.
At some point last fall, I got the idea that I should try my hand at mycology. After growing a dozen salvia plants over the past couple years I figured I'd try something else. So I got together with a PARTNER IN SCIENCE and we set about gathering up supples about a month and a half ago.
We read up a bit on strains. Went with B+ and Ecuador since they seemed like good, traditional choices. Decided to base the grow on the PF Tek for Simple Minds page, since it looked solid. I then spent many nights reading a ton of threads on here and planning ahead. This is how it went, pretty much:
- Made a glove box by cutting holes in a big Sterilite container. This was used for all sterile procedures.
- Got a case of half pint jars, mixed up the BRF, verm, and water in a 1:1:1 ratio, filled them, PC'd/steamed (the PC is an old one that doesn't pressurize well, so it basically functions as a slightly better pot) them, left them to cool overnight. Knocked up 10 jars the next day with Ecuador.
- Made an incubator out of two plastic containers and a fish tank heater. Put the jars in and saw that they barely filled the bottom. Figured, "What the heck, let's make some LC!"
- Made three LCs, two with organic honey and one with karo. Noc'd them with about 2ccs of B+ apiece and put them in the incubator.
- About a week later, took the LCs out and examined them. The honey ones looked great, but the karo one SUCKED. Barely any growth in it. Dumped it.
- I used one of the LCs to 'noc 8 more 1/2 pints and 2 pints. I realize that I could have gotten more jars out of this than that but I wasn't really familiar with LC yet so I just gave each jar a hefty shot of it. Stuck the other jar in the fridge where it still hides out.
- Played the waiting game. Not a fun game.
- Ordered some malt, petri dishes, and agar.
- Waited some more.
- Noticed that the first jars were fully colonized. This was about 25 days after making. I also noticed that the LC jars reached the same level in about 7 days and told those slow little spores NEVER AGAIN.
- To be safe, we gave them another week or so. They still didn't pin so we went ahead and birthed them.
Now, this is where we thought, "There are 20 cakes here. That's a pretty good lot of cakes for a first grow. Let's experiment!"
So we did.
- 6 cakes were cut into slices (for whatever reason) and cased in a mixture of sterilized wet verm and organic seed starter. This went in a small tub since it seemed likely to be LESS PRODUCTIVE. These were all Ecuador, I believe.
- The remaining 14 cakes went into a big 'ol grow chamber. Some of them were double ended cased and the others were just placed in there all naked and uncovered and whatnot. I should mention that NOT A SINGLE CAKE HAD CONTAMS. I'm quite proud of that.
- About 4 days in, I remembered, "This could use some light!" So we went and got an inexpensive fluorescent light (a CFL, I believe. Some kind of low heat model in the 6500k range) and started giving them 8-12 hours of light a day. I went off for a week and left them in my partner's care.
- The cake container was misted and fanned 2x a day and the casing container was fanned 2x a day and misted less often since I read that casings don't need as much humidity.
Yesterday, I received some pictures. My first thought is, "HOT DAMN! We did it!" They appear to be coming in gradually (the cakes are kind of staggered in maturity), but there are many tiny pins popping up every day, so we're just watching and picking them as they mature. The casing seems to be doing as well as the cakes. It sat there and didn't do jack until about 3 days ago and then suddenly... CUBE EXPLOSION. It actually has new pins every day, whereas the cakes are slower. I may go with this method in the future.
So some questions:
- What should I do with the cakes now? Dunk them for more flushes?
- Can I keep the spent cakes around and start outdoor beds with them? I have the space and a discrete area for it.
- On a related note, what do I do with the casing after it's spent? Bury it outside?
Here's the grow chamber. Some of the non-double-ended-casing cakes have a little vermiculite on top, it's not anything nasty growing. I brushed them off but didn't want to be too rough with them so some ended up staying:

Here's the casing:

And here's what we've picked so far. Haven't weighed any of them yet.
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biologys
Mycologist in Trainning




Registered: 12/21/09
Posts: 4,622
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Re: First grow - B+ & Ecuador [pics] [Re: Appleyard]
#14185255 - 03/26/11 02:16 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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one, the ratio is 2:1:1 verm/brf/water
two: incubating is outdated info, room temp with light is fine
three: you should of dunked, and rolled
four: after your harvest of cakes you dunk for 24 hours, then introduce back into fruiting for a 2nd, and even a 3rd flush
fifth: i dunk my substrates(mono's/casings/etc) for 6 hours then drain off all water and put back in fruiting.
sixth: once the cakes are spent or contam'd bury them outside in a compost pile, or whever you want and keep check you might get a few surprises
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Appleyard
Stranger

Registered: 01/19/11
Posts: 9
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Re: First grow - B+ & Ecuador [pics] [Re: biologys]
#14189003 - 03/26/11 08:47 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thanks for the info!
I actually may have used the 2:1:1 ratio for the cakes, I don't remember for sure. I'm going to make some more after these are all finished so I'll dunk and roll them.
How do I dunk a casing, exactly? Pour in water and drain it out after the 6 hours or dig it all out and dunk it in a pan or something? Edit: nevermind, I just read that I can pour in water and float it.
Right now I'm experimenting with oysters, agar, and WBS. Fun.
Edited by Appleyard (03/26/11 08:49 PM)
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higgledy-piggledy

Registered: 08/24/10
Posts: 966
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Re: First grow - B+ & Ecuador [pics] [Re: Appleyard]
#14190298 - 03/27/11 02:53 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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right after i read that
Quote:
Appleyard said: Howdy! I registered here a while back with the intention of asking a question but figured out how to work the search and avoided adding another senseless post!
i had to give you your first 5 shrooms.
excellent attitude.
here is a recommendation from my part:
construct a shotgun fruiting chamber by drilling holes in your tub like it is described here.
use perlite at the bottom.
overall nice written post.
enjoy the fruits of your labor.
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psilocbye
3.14159



Registered: 10/05/10
Posts: 36
Last seen: 12 years, 3 months
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Great looking cakes! Some big fruits.
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Appleyard
Stranger

Registered: 01/19/11
Posts: 9
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Re: First grow - B+ & Ecuador [pics] [Re: psilocbye]
#14199526 - 03/28/11 07:19 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thanks for the 5 shrooms and the link, higgledy! I'll convert the container to a shotgun style one here after I dunk these cakes for the first time, seems like a lot less hassle for maintenance.
psilocbye - biggest one I've gotten so far was about 22g wet, around 2g dry. Wish they were all like that.
Here's some more pics. I saw the black stuff and got real scared because my first thought was "MOLD!", but then I realized that a few of the more mature ones must have dropped a load of spores, since it's on the walls where they were leaning too. Can anybody confirm that that's what it is? I know it looks like spores and some of the caps release spores when I gently tap them on paper. It's not furry or fuzzy like growth and has not gotten bigger. Just looks like black stuff sitting there. I feel like I should be making prints or something.
The casing isn't yellow, it's the lighting in that pic. Everything still smells clean and earthy in both tubs.
So far I've got 20g dry and it looks like more of the cakes are starting to flush. The big pints are Ecuador and have suddenly come into the game with a fury!

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cyantific
Trusted Masturbator


Registered: 10/11/09
Posts: 1,323
Loc: Shakashuri Island
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Re: First grow - B+ & Ecuador [pics] [Re: Appleyard]
#14199607 - 03/28/11 07:29 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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use perlite bro that verm is subject to contamination ... trich and cobweb will grow on verm no problem ... not to mention its not a great provider of humidity as it retains more moisture than it evaporates ...
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