Hi Guys, I am on my 4th attempt to get colonization on PK Tek... I messed up royally the first 3 times and won't go into that here. But finally I have colonization beginning.
However, I did my lids wrong and already know this... but I don't want to throw out and start over, so I'm gonna see if this can still work.
What I did was use 2 canning lids, one had 4 holes punched and the other did not. Then I stupidly put the rubber side down and it was stuck after the steam sterilization. I know, wrong, wrong, wrong... read another tutorial than the one on this site. Anyway, I pried it off though and inoculated anyway. After inoculation, I put the non-punctured lid back on top of the puctured one and screwed down the ring. That's where I am now.
But what I have going on is colonization starting with no signs of contamination, so again I just hope I didn't mess it up too much so it could still work. The first signs of colonization started quickly... I went to work thinking, "do I see something?" and by the time I was home that evening it was white and I knew it was colonizing... the next day I could see it was growing, almost by the hour.
This is my first success and I'm very anxious (I know, patience, lol) so I have been looking at them every day. The colonization seems to be stalled maybe... at least it's not moving as quick as it was the first few days. So I started to read around on threads and found some people talking about air-exchange being important for colonization, but others were saying it wasn't really important but would help if done properly without letting in the contams.
Now I'm wondering since I have non-puctured lid on top of the puctured lid and the ring on very tight... I'm wondering if maybe there is like zero air-exchange and maybe it needs to be at least a bit. My next thought was to tape the lids to the ring and try to loosen the ring just a bit (I read something about that, but again I messed up the lids in the first place so that's why I'm asking here before I do that).
Do you guys think I should tape the lids to the ring and loose it a bit? Should I take the ring off and get rid of the non-puctured lid and put tape over the holes at this point? (again, I know that's what I probably should have done in the first place, but I'm asking how to save these from being a waste)... Or should I just leave them as they are with little if any air exchange?
Finally, is it expected to have colonization be more rapid in the first few days and then start to slow down? Cause the jars have looke
Edited by I am the Walrus (04/16/11 10:13 AM)
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