PLEASE read my post before asking questions, there is a LOT of information here and can most likely answer any question you have. If you can't seem to find the answer, I have also organized a FAQ section at the very bottom of this original post. Thanks!
 Happy shrooming
Table of Contents:
Intro/Summary
Key
Grow Log
Conclusion
Learning Points
Teks
FAQ
-----Introduction-----
Hey guys, been lurking a while…. A whiiiile, first post.
I gained an interest in mushrooms rather randomly, while trying to decide what I want to do with my life. Mycology is interesting and very quick/responsive growth so it is pretty easy to stay interested, for any of you who have ADD of sorts and can’t seem to dedicate to anything… or maybe that’s the medicine.  Anyways, I consider myself pretty intelligent and especially when it comes to the math and science side of things. Even at that, trying to retain all of the information that is out there can be extremely overwhelming to a noob. Start small and work your way up, as with anything.
-----Summary-----
In this grow I have run several controls, and kept them as true as I could… bearing in mind environmental variables. I ran amazon to WBS to coir/verm (Damion5050’s tek) in monotubs. This grow is pretty much over; it is out of the Monotubs, and into the GH now anyways. I wanted to do the entire thing myself, learn from my mistakes and successes and not rely on others’ advice; because I only have myself to ridicule… and congratulate  . (besides the great people before me who provided the teks I followed.) This grow is for people like me who search and search and READ AND READ in order to gain deeper knowledge of the subject. This grow can be very informative, if something is not answered feel free to ask the question. But hopefully I've answered all questions here!
So, here you are in all its nooby glory:
Key:
Acronym - Explanation.
MS = Multispore
WBS = Wild Bird Seed
PC = Pressure Cooker
FAE = Fresh Air Exchange
G = Group
A/B = Controls (first a/b controls are the PC time, second set of a/b controls are for the trash bag cut before/after colonization.)
A = cut After colonization
B = cut Before colonization
1/2 = Controls (Shaken vs unshaken jars, also the 1 and 2 mean the time they were set into incubation.)
Explanation: G1B stands for a single monotub. That monotub is composed of shaken jars only (the "1" part of it), the "1" part of it also means that this was the first group of tubs to be placed into incubation/fruiting. The letter B tells me the trash bag was cut Before the tub was set into colonization.
-----Grow Log-----
3/6-7 WBS prepped
3/7 GA pc’ed 90 mins @ 15 PSI
3/8 GB pc’ed 60 mins @ 15 PSI
-GA inoculated via MS syringe
3/9 GB inoculated via MS syringe
Left to go out of town for a week or so, spring break ahh girl!
3/16 Get back from vaca, extremely eager. Incubation temps 75F and 73F, pretty negligible difference.
-Jars show good growth (approx. 25%), 100% success rate so far it seems. No contams =]
-Shook 1 jar out of each batch (GA/B) as a control to see what would happen to a shaken jar.
3/17 Jars EXPLODED in growth(to maybe 50%?)… FAE was only change, jars couldn’t breathe/need to??
-Keeping controls is becoming a little more difficult. Current controls: PC time, shaken jars, GA/B incubation chambers.
-Based on the shaken jars results from day before, decided to shake half of each batch.
-Note: GB seems to be holding moisture better inside the jar. (Shorter PC time)
3/20 GA incubating at 80-81F, GB at 81-82F. (surprising consistency)
-Shaken jar control shows two things:
1. Shaken jars have more complete mycelium growth.
2. Non-shaken jars seem to have healthier growth. (More rhyzomorphic)
-GB seems to have slightly faster colonization… b/c of holding more moisture than GA?
3/22 All shaken jars have finished colonizing, but the unshaken still haven’t finished colonizing. Moved
all unshaken jars to the top of the incubators on principle heat rises, and heat speeds colonization.
3/23 Monotubs built.
-Coir prepped using tek in notebook.
-Abandon PC control, jars told me everything and Monotub shouldn’t have anything else to say.
-Also abandons the GA/B control in this sense. I will replace the GA/B name with a different control, so don’t get confused.
-Introduce new control: trash bag cut before/after colonization. (New GA/B control name)
-Read somewhere on Shroomery about someone preferring that method, of cutting the trash bag after colonization instead of before. Makes sense… lots of humidity close to the substrate and no FAE. Also, possible less risk of contam due to instrument used to remove the trash bag; or the tape if you use tape to secure your trash bag in the tub.
-Introduce new control: shaken jars/unshaken jars segregated into different tubs. (G1 or G2)
-Shaken jars were ready first and I thought it would be interesting to see if the mycelium suffering a shake was detrimental long-term for them.
-G1A/B set into incubation.
3/24 New jars for next grow are prepped and G2G performed. (My first G2G, good luck!)
3/27 Coir prepped for G2.
3/28 G2A/B set into incubation.
-I wanted to introduce a new control at this point but couldn’t in order to keep the others true… maybe I’ll run it in the future. Control was longer vs. shorter colonization time before introducing into fruiting conditions in order to achieve greatest pinset/lowest risk of contam.
4/1 April Fools Day, and an April fool for sure.
-I thought after about 10 days that G1 would be ready, but I can tell they need a few more days.
G1A
G1B
-Compared to G2 to get an idea of growth stages and to use as a reference for how long I
thought it would take for the tubs to finish up colonization.
4/4 Checked all tubs.
-G1 on schedule for 4/5 fruit date. (11 days colonizing)
-G2 looking at a 4/9-10 fruit date. (10-12 days)
-Very noticeable differences in the control A/B
G1B(marked incorrectly in the photo)
G1A(marked incorrectly in the photo)
G2B
G2A
4/6 G1 moved into fruiting
-FAE introduced
-12 hour light (on/off 8am-8pm)
-Not sure about misting, placing thermometer/hygrometer in tub to monitor.
4/9 Maintaining fruiting schedule (light/FAE)
-Light is making too much heat inside the tubs, incorrect bulb. Tubs at 85F!!
-Moved tubs out of area to cool down. Kept light off, using natural light.
-Introduce misting
4/10 G2G are 100% colonized.
G1 comparison
4/12 WBS for new jars prepped. (I let this soak for like 60 hours… way too long I come to find out.)
-Idea to make G2G extremely easy.
4/13 G1 FIRST PINS =]
-If today shows first signs of pins, that makes 3 weeks to see growth from set into incubation.
G1 comparison
4/14 Good and bad news:
-Good: Tons of baby pins
-Bad: G1A possible blue mold.
-Sprayed the tub with Lysol from a distance, hopefully not detrimental. (LMAO)
4/15 New G2G tek performed.
-Largest fruit is 1-2 inches, great color.
-Note: wondering what trash bag will reveal. Not much so far besides a more complete colonization of the sub (whiter)
-Resist urge to look at the G2G jars!!!
-Found a way to test for blue mold using a q-tip. No mold =]
4/16 Tons of baby pins.
4/18 G1 fruiting nicely.
-G2 set into fruiting. Showing a few pins.
-Awesome idea: cut trash bag off using a lighter. SO EASY!!
4/20 The most mature mushroom broke veil this morning. Picked ASAP. 16.4g wet
-Picking seemed scary, actually very easy.
-All 12 G2G jars performed 4/15 are ~90% colonized!
-5-6 days?!?!
-All tubs showing signs of being healthy.
-G1 good fruiting, G2 good primordial growth.
-Harvest G1B late in the day, most of it.
-G1A not quite ready. Control?
4/21 G1B picked clean.
4/22 G1A harvest began in the morning.
-Picked clean when I got home from work.
-G1A and G1B harvests kept separate in order to get data from my controls.
-G1B into dehydrator. Lowest temp 95F for 4 hours.
4/23 G1B first flush dry weight: 50.3g
-G2B showing good amount of pins.
-G1A first flush “dry” weight: 89.0g (these weren’t completely dry but I was oblivious at the time)
-G1 first flush dry weight: 139.3g (not accurate)
4/26 G2A very sluggish, only a few pins.
-G2B coming along very nicely.
4/28 G2A seems to be pinning more. EVAPORATION!!
-G2B fruiting well.
-Picked first mush this morning, 30g wet! Continue to pick throughout the day.
4/29 Pick more off G2B, picked clean today.
-G2A finally showing large amount of pins!
-Control group A showing more full colonization and slower pinning. (Only obvious notes for this
control so far; will have more data to look at once these are dried and weighed.)
-G1A/B shows small signs of growth. (Only dunked G1B.)
-Both tubs show massive bruising from heavy misting, reluctant to start flush 2.  Do not mist substrate,pins especially, directly.
Bruising
-Made a note to myself, “use different dunk tek next time.” (reasoning revealed later by results.)
4/30 G2B produced largest fruit yet, 32.58g wet.
-Set some caps out to try for a print.
-G2A pins surviving initial stages and now small mushrooms... good turnout.
-G1A second flush beginning to show healthy mush finally after maddening amounts of aborting.
-First set of G2G jars are showing invitro pinning… dammit.
-Took one out as a window project.(failed miserably…now I know haha)
5/1 G2B first flush dry weight: 69.7g
5/3
5/5 G2A first flush dry weight: 64.1g
-Now I know what cracker dry mushrooms are really supposed to be like… fairly consistent tubs.
5/8 Okay, G2B was only dunked tub between first and second flushes… let’s see if there’s a difference.
-Actually an accidental control, was too busy at the time and let pins start on the other 3 tubs so I just said screw it, not worth potentially killing tons of healthy pins.
5/9
5/10 Been really busy lately, paying less attention to these babies.
-Mush always tell you what they are lacking, though.
-Based on “fuzzy feet” I knew they were suffocating; increased FAE schedule.
5/11 Now I know why we dunk tubs. G2B compared to all other tubs.
-Now know to cut trash bag before colonization.
-Better first pinset.
-Quicker first pinset.
-Don’t have to touch or disturb myc after full colonization. (Contam)
-Will not get hard layover of mycelium, like control A shows.
-G2B picked clean. 10 days from 1st to 2nd flush.
-Interesting white growth, myc or mold? Placed in quarantine.
-G2B dunked for third flush.
-G2B second flush dry weight: 32g
5/12 G2B looks to have the mean green.
-G2B quarantined 5/11 as soon as new growth was spotted.
-Spot, originally white in color, has at least doubled in size. Center of the spot appears to
be turning a gnarly green color.
-Let’s see what it turns out to be, REMAIN IN QUARANTINE.
-G2A almost has a full canopy on 2nd flush!
-G2A picked clean.
-G2A dunked for third flush. (2 hour approx. dunk time)
-G1B picked clean.
-G1B dunked for third flush.
-Small second flush, guessing half oz.
-OTOH, G2A looked to have promising weight, oz. maybe?
-G2A second flush dry weight: 30.1g
-G1A picked clean.
-G1A dunked for third flush.
-Small second flush, similar to G1B. Est. half oz.
-G1B second flush dry weight: 18.8g
-G1A second flush dry weight: 20.8g
-Hopefully won’t see any more thrichoderma after flushing those tubs.
-I think G2B contaminated because I took it outside to dunk.
-Discard G2B sub, definitely contaminated and no chance of getting anything else
without risking contaminating everything else. Save 1 tub vs kill 3 tubs? No thanks.
5/16 Third flush coming in nicely.
-Ordered GH and everything to go with it.
-Should have it all set up by third flush finish.
-Will be able to tweak GH during fourth flush.
5/19 G1A third flush showing fewer, larger fruits.
5/21 G1A third flush dry weight: 21.6g
-LC performed for first time. 5 different strains (1 amz, and 4 pan varieties.)
5/22 GH takes over Monotubs.
-New hypothesis: Take trash bag off and flip sub; gives a whole, brand new, undamaged surface.
-Birthed 10 new trays for GH. (Est. fruiting date 6/6)
5/23 After G2A and G1B third flushes are picked, Monotubs are completely eliminated.
-Running new hypothesis after third flush is complete.
-Missed timing the flip on 1/3 subs because I was out of town. Got back to new pins already  but  really.
5/24 G1B third flush dry weight: 16.3g
-G2A third flush dry weight: 19.0g
-Pretty consistent third flush numbers: 16, 19, and 21.
5/29 Now out of tubs and into GH
-----Conclusion-----
That’s pretty much the end. I will continue to fruit these subs (now deep into fourth flush 5/30) until I need the space free for new trays. I am done with continuing controls; 3 flushes of control is enough to tell me what I need. My GH is a dream so far, doing everything right… lemme knock on some wood real quick, damn. To give an example, the first weekend I have the GH I coincidentally have to go out of town for three days. So I made as many tweaks as I could before I left and crossed my fingers. I expected to come back to a couple different scenarios, ranging in severity from dry subs to a house that is now ashes. Luckily, I come back to neither. In reality, the GH was up and running, humidifier only used about half of the water allotted (with no reservoir), mush ready to pick and just oodles of little baby mush only beginning to sprout! I was freakin’ psyched to say the least!
So yeah, I am tired of Monotubs and wanted to move to bigger and better things after my first grow. Keep in mind, I read CONSTANTLY on The Shroomery and sites alike. I can’t emphasize enough that in order to move at the speed I am in this hobby, you MUST READ. READ READ READ! I read for at least 4 hours a day when I am interested in something new and I am sure to read for at least a month before making purchase decisions. Google is your best friend, literally, there is no better resource for learning than a major search engine. Think about it, I got through my entire first grow without asking a single question. I even moved into a GH and got it tuned (for the most part) without a single post on Shroomery or any site alike. I’ve learned to build the jars, build the Monotubs, what sub ratios mean, what consistency the WBS needs to be in all areas, how to build a GH and everything that goes along with that, how to do an LC, and yeah you get it... all without a single post… READ, PEOPLE!
-----Learning points-----
-60 vs 90 min PC time showed no contamination rate difference.
-Shake WBS jars right as they come out of the PC or you’ll have a hell of a time later on.
-Jars don’t exactly need to be incubated. And I found that air exchange is beneficial to a colonizing jar.
(Just through the polyfill in the lid of the jar, do not open the jars.)
-60 min PC time showed more moisture content in colonizing WBS jars, possible faster colonization
because of this? Make sure the jars aren’t too wet! This will slow colonization to a crawl.
-Shaking jars shows faster, more even growth.
-Trash bag cut before/after colonization shows that before is superior. Reasons listed 5/11 in the log.
-G2G can be done very easily.
-Pin porn is better than real porn.
-Easy to test for blue mold, using q-tip tek. READ
-Trash bags do help significantly in the fight against side pinning. Proved this when I flipped sub over.
-Cutting trash bags can be extremely easy using a lighter. I mean easyyy.
-Picking is very easy, and isn’t as scary as it seems. The twisting motion that is referred to in other
threads seems to work well. Some mush come off without much effort at all, others you can’t help but rip up substrate while you pick.
-Evaporation is HUGE when it comes to pinning. When G2A wouldn’t pin, I took a paper towel and
dabbed (mm.. a dab sounds awesome right now) the top dry a few minutes after misting. Pinning initiated the next day… doubtfully coincidental as I tried this tek different times on different tubs to try to get a stubborn substrate to pin. All efforts showed results.
-Jars will only invitro pin if your polyfill is too loose on your jars, or you open the jars and introduce FAE.
-G2B was the only tub to contaminate. G2B was also the only tub that I performed the dunk outside.
-Don’t take anything outside and plan to bring it back inside... you’re asking for failure.
-When people on here say cracker dry, they literally mean like a Ritz cracker. The mushroom should snap
if you bend it, or the cap will just snap off when you’re placing them in a bag. If you plan to sell your mushrooms, people will bitch at the fact that your mush are not completely dry and you’re selling them water. Take it from me and just dry your mushrooms, avoid the confrontation. Not to mention, psilocybin is in the mushroom and not the water, so the less water the more psilocybin/gram aka bettertime/gram.
-Now I know why we dunk tubs, after running the one tub dunked control.
-Results from second flush:
-G2B – 32.0g
-G2A – 30.1g
-G1B – 18.8g
-G1A – 20.8g
-G2B only tub dunked before second flush, also shows most weight. I don’t think that’s
coincidence.
-Actually, the obvious thing here is G1 vs G2; which makes the shaken vs unshaken jars the
telling variable in consistency over different groups based on the control. Shaken jars coming up faster in colonization time but producing less weight in later flushes? Hard to believe, anyone?
-If you question a tub, quarantine it. Lose one tub instead of an entire grow.
-GH are superior in my eyes, but any new mycologist must learn to hear what the mushrooms have to
tell them before moving into something that requires in-depth knowledge. Start simple, learn the right way. Not to mention, if you go big your first time you have the good chance of losing big your first time as well, which can be extremely discouraging to any beginner.
This is my giving back to the community who's helped me so much. 
-----Teks-----
Low-dough S.H.I.P. Jars
Bulk WBS tek
Monotub tek
Damion5050's coir tek
These techniques were not followed to the T, so yes I made my own changes along the way according to what I felt was appropriate. The roots of the teks are in place, I only changed very minor things.
-----FAQ-----
Q:Why was cutting the trash bag before colonization considered superior to after colonization?
A: There are several reasons. I got a better pinset on my first flush in my control B vs my control A. When I opened the tubs for the very first time after the 10 days of colonization, control B tubs had little individual moisture droplets on the surface of the sub.. hundreds of them. It seems as though when those water droplets dried up that a mushroom formed where each of those droplets had been. I read that evaporation was important, but I didn't know that it might be just as important as FAE and maintaining high humidity. Also, on control A, I noticed a hardening of the top layer of mycelium which tends to stunt mush growth(difficulty forming pins). I believe this hardening is due to a lack of FAE - even the slightest - during colonization. Control B was only in 1 trash bag(sub with cut trash bag inside monotub in a trash bag), while control A was double wrapped(sub was wrapped in a closed trash bag, inside the monotub, inside another trash bag. No chance at any GE.
Edited by Midnight Cyclone (06/17/13 07:58 AM)
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Some of these posts are very old and might contain outdated information. You may wish to search for newer posts instead.
Midnight Cyclone 
bodhisatta
Edit 
Reply 
..scrolled down and was like 
shroomery 101
As I mentioned under my Learning points section, "-Pin porn is better than real porn." 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 all )
Shrooms4life
Proteus
thedm9
CLuB99
baraka