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Offlinesocraticd
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Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log
    #18816966 - 09/08/13 09:54 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

So, I've been lurking for awhile and have posted a few questions as I start to dip my toes in to grain spawn with WBS and such.  Have done a small grow on pf cakes with a lions mane LC syringe I ordered, and grew out a pre-made blue oyster log.

Three of the PF lion's mane cakes in a PMP I constructed:


The blue oyster log I grew out in June:


I took prints off both of those grows, before I really started learning that with edibles, it'll be a LOT better for me to be working with clones and isolates on agar.  But, taking the prints and making a couple spore syringes was good practice anyway, and I'll experiment with the MS inoculations and maybe I'll get lucky and get a good strain to work with.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18817012 - 09/08/13 10:08 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

:asianofapproval:


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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18817015 - 09/08/13 10:11 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

There were actually 5 cakes made with the LC of Lion's Mane, two of them I attempted to spawn into probably 5 lbs of unsupplemented sawdust from hardwood fuel pellets a'la Lipa's pasteurization tek.  There's a post somewhere about being curious of very very slow lion's mane growth, which I now suspect was likely a combination of too wet sawdust and not nearly high enough spawn ratio.  I've let that bag sit for quite some time and believe it's been colonizing for about 6 weeks now.  It's actually bouncing back, albeit slowly, so I'll grab a picture of it tomorrow.

Fast forward a bit and I finally got around to inoculating some WBS jars with the spores referenced from the two grows above.  The blue oyster prints were VERY weak, as I waited too long to put a couple fruits on foil and got very light prints, almost not detectable.  I made a single syringe out of the two prints anyway, not 100% sure I got ANY spores in it.  The Lion's Mane print made three dark (well, cloudy, since LM spores are white) syringes. 

Inoculated 7 WBS jars (which I posted about being too wet, a short while back) on 8/10.  2 of them with the seriously weak blue oyster syringe, 5cc each (that certainly didn't help my wet WBS issue...) and 5 with one of the Lion's Mane syringes, 2cc each.

I didn't have much hope for the oysters, but 4 weeks later I had this (after a shake about a week ago when they were looking pretty well colonized already).



The LM jars have been looking slow, but I believe are colonized reasonably well and hopefully will thicken up soon?  The one on the far right has been shaken up to see if this helps strengthen the remaining colonization.  Still learning a lot, here.



The one other thing I'm concerned about, is the blackening of a decent amount of the bird seed in most of the jars.  I believe this is where some of the excess water was found.  Looks like the bird seed discolored.  Possibly bacterial?  The mycelium isn't really messing with it too much, so my guess is the excess moisture became a bacterial wonderland and now there's a battle in these jars?



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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18817037 - 09/08/13 10:17 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Which more or less brings me to today.  After essentially lurking and digesting information in here NON STOP.  Edibles forum, advanced, cultivation, etc etc etc... 

I've acquired a couple bales of straw from Lowes to try my hand with straw buckets/bags for the oysters, and spawned those two oyster jars above to this bucket.  3 gallon bucket with probably 2.75 gallons of straw (underestimated how much I needed when I was cutting it up).  "pasteurized"/cleaned with hot water and bleach (4 cups bleach to ten gallons hot water... probably overkill on the bleach) for 4.5 hours or so in a cooler.  Mixed in the grain spawn after breaking it up really well and stuffed it into a garbage bag in the bucket that I put 12 1.5" holes in.  I'll let this colonize for two weeks. and then cut slits in the bag where the holes are.  Should I put any holes in the bottom of the bag in case there's standing water down there?  or just leave it completely sealed until 2 weeks from now?  poke small holes in the bag now?  or wait?



The little baggie next to it was the leftovers of spawn and straw that was stuck to the sides of the cooler, and the stuff that was on my kitchen floor when I was done.  I figured I'd throw it in a grocery bag and see if it does anything.  Worst case, it ends up in the trash just like it would have if I had cleaned up normally...


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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18817061 - 09/08/13 10:25 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Last one for tonight.  I also grabbed 4 LC syringes from a vendor, to expand my experiments.  King Oyster, Pink Oyster, Blue Oyster (assuming my experiment with the print from the previous grow would fail), and Ghost Fungus. 

As you can see I upgraded my jar lids to RTV and tyvek (LOVE those lids!).  Found out my capacity on the 23qt Presto is 10 quart jars.  Inoculated 4 jars with pink oyster, 3 with blue oyster, 2 with king oyster, and 1 ghost fungus.  I'll be keeping up with this thread as things progress and as I have more questions, which are sure to come up.



Next up, agar!  ;-)


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18817383 - 09/08/13 11:51 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

:thumbup: Nice


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: skullphuxxx]
    #18818104 - 09/09/13 08:03 AM (10 years, 4 months ago)

You're on a roll mate!  Nice to see the progress


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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: forrest]
    #18850792 - 09/16/13 07:16 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

So this weekend I busted my agar cherry.  First time through so it was a little awkward at first.  I think the fact that I used a growler for my agar vessel didn't help in that, as it was a little on the heavy side and tough to maneuver in my SAB.




This is the workspace all set up.  The growler contains a mixture of 10g malt extract, 9g agar, 500ml water.  Pressure cooked at 15psi for 20 minutes and allowed to cool until I could handle it with no real heat concerns.  However, due to the amount of condensation on the plates, maybe I should let it cool a bit more next time?  Or is the condensation really nothing to worry about?


The work area after I'd poured about 17 plates (some of them were a little thick, so I can likely stretch the 500ml out to a full sleeve's worth of 25 plates next time. Though maybe I'll make 600ml to be safe?)



The plates cooling





I then inoculated 3 - 4 plates each with a couple drops of the liquid culture syringes mentioned from the post with the WBS the jars above.  Those jars have shown ZERO growth in a week, which is very very weird.  Not a single one of them has any signs of growth.  Here are the finished plates.




The WBS jars with no growth are puzzling me.  So, to see if it was just that batch of jars, I made 8 pf tek jars and inoculated 2 jars with about 1-2 cc of liquid culture, and then the above mentioned plates.  I'm trying to figure out if it is the syringes that were bad, or if I somehow screwed up the whole batch of 10 WBS jars?  The jars weren't completely room temp, but they weren't even remotely something i would condsier "hot" when i inoculated.  I'd have rated them at lukewarm.  They got 2cc each of LC from the syringes, which has only been out of the fridge for ten minutes.  Maybe that is a no-no?  I would think at worst that would only have stunted them by a couple days?  Thoughts?


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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18850803 - 09/16/13 07:17 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

I guess between the pf jars and the agar plates, I'm hoping to get an answer on whether the syringes were bunk or if i messed up the WBS jars.  I left the syringes at room temps for three days prior to inoculating the pf jars and plates, to try to eliminate the "fridge" variable...  :rolleyes:


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Offlinegeneralsherman55
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18851137 - 09/16/13 08:37 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

i love this thread! i spent way too much time reading threads here today looking for a cheap way to clone my chicken of the woods sample (which might give me mild poisoning)

found a tutorial on how to make a still air box

but I'm still sort of unsure where to get the rest of the materials

agar (someone suggested from an asian market)

pretri dishes

and then im wondering if i should go to a thrift store to look for a pressure cooker

and then where to get needles.

im all over the place right now with possibilites but im sort of unsure how to proceed especially since I'm broke.  Ideally id like to get the clone started while my mushrooms are still good. (theyre chilling in the vegetable crisper in the fridge right now)


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OfflineForresterM
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18852012 - 09/17/13 12:09 AM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

socraticd said:
There were actually 5 cakes made with the LC of Lion's Mane, two of them I attempted to spawn into probably 5 lbs of unsupplemented sawdust from hardwood fuel pellets a'la Lipa's pasteurization tek.  There's a post somewhere about being curious of very very slow lion's mane growth, which I now suspect was likely a combination of too wet sawdust and not nearly high enough spawn ratio.  I've let that bag sit for quite some time and believe it's been colonizing for about 6 weeks now.  It's actually bouncing back, albeit slowly, so I'll grab a picture of it tomorrow.




I think you're probably right on the the substrate too wet thing.  Especially if you followed Lipa's tek, which calls for more water than pellets.  As I'm currently learning, Lion's mane hates too wet of a substrate.  Lipa's tek calls for what 6:7 pellet:water ratio?  I'm already to a 1:1 ratio and that's even been too wet lately.  Of course pellets can vary...


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Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them?  Try this double extraction method.


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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #18853560 - 09/17/13 01:34 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

Forrester said:
I think you're probably right on the the substrate too wet thing.  Especially if you followed Lipa's tek, which calls for more water than pellets.  As I'm currently learning, Lion's mane hates too wet of a substrate.  Lipa's tek calls for what 6:7 pellet:water ratio?  I'm already to a 1:1 ratio and that's even been too wet lately.  Of course pellets can vary...





Yeah, its actually progressing and co solidating a bit now, just has been EXTREMELY slow.  Probably 2 months since spawning to sawdust now.  Combination of too much moisture and too low a spawn ratio.  Once the wbs jars fully colonize I'll do another couple of sawdust bags with a little less water and more spawn, and imagine it'll go more smoothly. 


Anyone have any feedback on my oyster straw bucket. I'm 9 days put after spawning and wondering of I should poke holes in the bag at the bucket holes or not.  Right now its more or less completely sealed up, with no holes in the bag and the top tied off.  Thoughts?


(I wish this forum got half as much traffic as cultivation does.. )


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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #18853568 - 09/17/13 01:35 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

generalsherman55 said:
i love this thread! i spent way too much time reading threads here today looking for a cheap way to clone my chicken of the woods sample (which might give me mild poisoning)

found a tutorial on how to make a still air box

but I'm still sort of unsure where to get the rest of the materials

agar (someone suggested from an asian market)

pretri dishes

and then im wondering if i should go to a thrift store to look for a pressure cooker

and then where to get needles.

im all over the place right now with possibilites but im sort of unsure how to proceed especially since I'm broke.  Ideally id like to get the clone started while my mushrooms are still good. (theyre chilling in the vegetable crisper in the fridge right now)





Thanks!  Glad you like it.  I'm hoping that other newbies followong along with me can learn from my questions and mistakes.


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Offlinegeneralsherman55
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18854128 - 09/17/13 03:43 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

socraticd said:
Quote:

generalsherman55 said:
i love this thread! i spent way too much time reading threads here today looking for a cheap way to clone my chicken of the woods sample (which might give me mild poisoning)

found a tutorial on how to make a still air box

but I'm still sort of unsure where to get the rest of the materials

agar (someone suggested from an asian market)

pretri dishes

and then im wondering if i should go to a thrift store to look for a pressure cooker

and then where to get needles.

im all over the place right now with possibilites but im sort of unsure how to proceed especially since I'm broke.  Ideally id like to get the clone started while my mushrooms are still good. (theyre chilling in the vegetable crisper in the fridge right now)





Thanks!  Glad you like it.  I'm hoping that other newbies followong along with me can learn from my questions and mistakes.





yeah i have been hunting for a while now, id still say i am an amateur identifier but hunting is a really big passion of mine


BUT


now i really want to get into cultivation because growing shit in my backyard and producing bulk mushrooms sounds fanbleedingtastic


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OfflineForresterM
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #18855950 - 09/17/13 10:46 PM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

socraticd said:
Anyone have any feedback on my oyster straw bucket. I'm 9 days put after spawning and wondering of I should poke holes in the bag at the bucket holes or not.  Right now its more or less completely sealed up, with no holes in the bag and the top tied off.  Thoughts?





Definitely cut x's / poke holes now.  You should do this from the beginning with oysters.  They need gas exchange at the very least, for colonization.


--------------------
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.
-------------------

Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them?  Try this double extraction method.


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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #18871640 - 09/21/13 11:11 AM (10 years, 4 months ago)

Well, the grocery store baggie with the leftover straw/spawn from my oyster bucket experiment was contam'd with blue/green stuff amongst the white clumps of what I imagine were mycelium...  So, that got tossed.

The bucket was left with no holes until a few days ago, and when I cut slits in the holes i didn't really see any signs of colonization, and it smells kinda...  fermented.  I'm thinking it's possible that the substrate was too wet (I squeezed as much liquid as I could out of the straw, but who knows...) and that combined with the lack of any GE whatsoever stalled things?  I'll give it a couple more weeks to see if anything happens, and then dissect it if it doesn't seem to be producing anything  I figure that's my best shot at learning from it.

The agar plates from last week did pretty well. Only one or two possible contams out of 16 plates.  No growth from any of the LCs I was testing, however.  Fortunately, the vendor is happy to send me replacements, so I should be able to get those all going again in the next week.

My only complaint with last week's plates was a LOT of condensation on them.  It doesn't seem to have increased contamination or anything, just makes them hard to work with and see into. 

Did 14 more plates this week. I made 600ml of agar and only got 14 plates out of it.  Was confused as hell since i got 16 out of 500ml last week, but realized i poured them a LOT thicker than I thought, once I was done.  Oh well, it's all a journey, right?



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Offlinesocraticd
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19060669 - 10/30/13 10:06 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Have been ignoring this thread, unfortunately, even thought I've made some significant improvements in my technique and equipment. 

Picked up a 56lb bag of rye since my results with WBS were inconsistent, and built a new glovebox and have been doing experiments with agar lately.  Trying to learn how to pour more consistent plates, eliminate condensation, and find out through experimentation what my contamination rates are like when i do various things with the plates once poured:

- leave them un-parafilmed in the box for upwards of a week or two to evap condensation, then inoculate and observe condensation
- pour half a sleeve and tie off the other half of the sleeve, then pour the other half a sleeve a week or so later
- take wedges from one colonized or partially colonized plate and expand to several plates

seems as if i can leave the plates for any period of time, poured and not parafilm'd in my sealed SAB without any additional risk of contamination, from the 30 or 40 plates i've tested this with.  maybe 1 contam'd plate out of approximately that many, which I'll gladly accept compared to having tons of condensation on the plates between when i pour them and when i use them.

the half-sleeve experiment went well, also.  out of 7 or 8 plates only  1 contam, which could have been due to leaving them in the SAB without parafilm for two weeks, as well.  Either way, good news for me to be able to pour half a stack for whatever reason, if I'm careful about how i remove them from the sleeve.

first attempt to expand mycelium was a contaminant disaster and i had essentially a 100% contam rate on 10 plates or so being expanded from 3 starter plates.  I attribute this to having to constantly pull my arms out of the SAB to flame sterilize the exacto "scalpel" between cutting and transferring wedges.  I've since tried thoroughly alcohol wiping the blade between transfers and it seems as if my contam rates there are significantly lower, but this latest batch of transfers from a fully colonized reishi plate to 10 new plates will give me more info on how that worked out.

Some lions mane grain spawn is WAY overdue to be mixed into a sawdust bag, and a couple lions mane sawdust bags are PROBABLY ready to start fruiting, which means i need to get off my ass and get my greenhouse set up in the basement.  One lions mane sawdust block is WAY WAY past due to be fruited and is now thick mycelium everywhere aand has turned pink in a decent number of spots... 

Like I said, pics within the next day or two, since all threads are worthless without those, huh?

Hopefully some new syringes on the way to get working with, since I appear to have been screwed over by a non-sponsor vendor on king oyster, blue oyster, pink oyster, and ghost fungus...  Ordered king oyster, enoki, and pearl oyster from The Spore Depot today, so I imagine I'll get those quickly and will be rockin' and rollin' with some new stuff soon.  :-)


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Offlinekushrooms
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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19060776 - 10/30/13 10:24 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Can't wait to see your pictures. Everything looks great, those Oyster you grew look delicious!

I know I've had contam issues with agar and glove box, I just have to be as careful as possible.

I use a 32oz beer bottle to pour the agar and try to do it quickly and as soon as it hardens I wrap them completely shut. Then stack them. I was surprised when I checked on them and I didn't find contam but the agar had totally evaporated from the Y-Plates lol I didn't know they could do that.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19061092 - 10/30/13 11:21 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

This is a weird thought i've had but since i no longer use a glove box i havent tried it.

My idea is to put a small slit in the side of the gb, just big enough to slip the tip of your scalpel through, then on the other side put your lantern which you can then flame sterilize without moving your arms in and out of the box.

Might be counter productive because at that point you'd have a flame moving air around a small hole in the still air box.. :shrug: but i would much rather flame sterilize than trust alcohol before doing agar work.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: kushrooms]
    #19061129 - 10/30/13 11:29 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Ugh, condensation issues... having the same problem lately.  I really, really, really wish I had a flow hood.


--------------------
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.
-------------------

Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them?  Try this double extraction method.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: deadmandave]
    #19061142 - 10/30/13 11:32 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

deadmandave said:
This is a weird thought i've had but since i no longer use a glove box i havent tried it.

My idea is to put a small slit in the side of the gb, just big enough to slip the tip of your scalpel through, then on the other side put your lantern which you can then flame sterilize without moving your arms in and out of the box.

Might be counter productive because at that point you'd have a flame moving air around a small hole in the still air box.. :shrug: but i would much rather flame sterilize than trust alcohol before doing agar work.




Who was it... I think Malicom does something similar to that and says it works well.  I think he slides the box just off the edge of the table and sticks it out there to flame, but I can't remember exactly.

I've never flamed a scalpel blade, I just use a new one each time.  I've got a box of 100 and I don't do that much agar work though...


--------------------
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.
-------------------

Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them?  Try this double extraction method.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19061994 - 10/31/13 07:03 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

Forrester said:
I've never flamed a scalpel blade, I just use a new one each time.  I've got a box of 100 and I don't do that much agar work though...




:lol: I might be a bit of a cheapskate but..

I bought 6 scalpel bladed 3 years ago and still i am on number three or something. They last a really long time even though they can get ugly and nasty looking. I'll use a sharp new one if im doing some detailed work but that is a rare occassion. Just flame the f*ck out of it between each and every use i.e. between grain jars, between agar plates, between inoculations.

btw, have ya tried putting extra extra water in your p.c. when cooking agar plates? maybe the extended cooling time would keep condensation from being so pronounced :confused:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19062623 - 10/31/13 10:28 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

Forrester said:
Ugh, condensation issues... having the same problem lately.  I really, really, really wish I had a flow hood.




Well quite honestly this seems to work REALLY well for me, and it does stand to reason that it should be fine.  If your GB can be completely sealed, as mine can (I'll put up pics tonight, promise), there won'tbe any introduction of new contams into the box once your pour work is done.  At that point, the plates are covered/closed and the possibility of contams finding their way in to a box with very little moving air, through the gaps in the petri covers, should be VERY small. 

Obviously there has to be SOME airflow in there to evaporate the condensation, but my belief is that its minimal enough to risk for the reward of condensation free plates.  I'll gladly make an extra couple plates when pouring a batch to aaccount for the MAYBE one per sleeve that gets contaminated.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: deadmandave]
    #19062649 - 10/31/13 10:33 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

deadmandave said:
This is a weird thought i've had but since i no longer use a glove box i havent tried it.

My idea is to put a small slit in the side of the gb, just big enough to slip the tip of your scalpel through, then on the other side put your lantern which you can then flame sterilize without moving your arms in and out of the box.

Might be counter productive because at that point you'd have a flame moving air around a small hole in the still air box.. :shrug: but i would much rather flame sterilize than trust alcohol before doing agar work.




See, I could be crazy, but my thought is that I've seen a LOT of good anecdotal evidence that 70% iso works VERY well.  And if that's to be believed, and I can male an initial assumption that I'm pulling material from a plate that isn't showing obvious contamination already, I'mless llikely to pick up outside air and introduce NEW contaminants by keeping the holes prettyuch plugged up with my arms. 

Time will tell, however, since I'll be doing a lot more agar work in the coming months and will keep experimenting to see what ACTUALLY works versus the pure theory of what should and shouldn't.  Agar and plates are cheap enough that I don't care about losing them to gain information.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19063013 - 10/31/13 11:59 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Pouring hot agar will cause a LOT of air movement in a still air box,  even a sealed one.  I tried this several times with agar,  each time I poured in a glove box or still air box I had more contams than not.  Once I switched to prepouring plates and then sterilizing them I have yet to get a contaminated plate. I also don't have much problem with condensation, but I don't know why.

Edit: I let my pc slowly cool with the petris inside, usually the top one on the stack has some condensation but the others don't. If you insulate them they will probably stop condensing.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19063245 - 10/31/13 12:49 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

I've had only problems with doing agar in a SAB. I started doing my clones with BRF in pint jars and have yet to have a contamination (I've only done about 15 clones). What I do is the standard small amount of BRF + water paste at the bottom of the jars, PC for 10-15 min, and throw my cutting in. After the BRF colonizes, I pour sterile WBS on top of the BRF and let that colonize. Then I can just do grain to grain to quart jars and not mess with cutting up agar slices and sterilizing scalpels. Maybe not the best way, but it works for me! :grin:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19063783 - 10/31/13 02:38 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

liamtheloser said:
Pouring hot agar will cause a LOT of air movement in a still air box,  even a sealed one.  I tried this several times with agar,  each time I poured in a glove box or still air box I had more contams than not.  Once I switched to prepouring plates and then sterilizing them I have yet to get a contaminated plate. I also don't have much problem with condensation, but I don't know why.

Edit: I let my pc slowly cool with the petris inside, usually the top one on the stack has some condensation but the others don't. If you insulate them they will probably stop condensing.





Obviously it would cause a lot of air movement.  But the pouring step I have had MAYBE one contam out of probably 100 plates.  Its transferring plates that have been solidified and cooled for a significantpportion of time that has led me to contam.  So far the pour and cool has been a pretty clean procedure for me inside my SAB. 

Are you using glass petri's?  I havent tried pre-pouring and sterilizing in my plastic pre-sterilized dishes yet, but I'm not optimistic about them not melting, from what I've heard.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19064051 - 10/31/13 03:27 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

You have to use glass or polypropylene.

I use polypropylene because they're cheap and reusable. They are around 25 bucks for 100, but they're smaller too. I think I'm using 15x60mm


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19064351 - 10/31/13 04:21 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

the drawback to prepouring plates, in my experience, is that you have to do a real thin pour.  with a nice normal pour you will end up with agar all over the place.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: drake89]
    #19064729 - 10/31/13 05:19 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

drake89 said:
the drawback to prepouring plates, in my experience, is that you have to do a real thin pour.  with a nice normal pour you will end up with agar all over the place.




Never had a problem,  what did you run into?


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19072528 - 11/01/13 10:10 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Finally come pictures I've been promising you guys. 


New still air/glove box.  LOVE this thing, since it can be used and completely sealed back up afterwards which has really helped with the plates, as i mentioned above.  Though, I may upgrade to a larger tub, since this one does get a little crowded when I have a bunch of things in it.



The flask I bought for pouring plates.  WAY easier than the beer growler i was attempting to use before.




The 11 plates of reishi I expanded from the fully colonized plate that i grew out from the wedge that Forrester was kind enough to donate to my projects.  I owe you some wedges once I get up and running with some more species, bud!




A closeup of one of the plates.  This strain moves QUICKLY.  As you can see, this was a small wedge transferred three days ago and it;s expanded to about the size of a quarter, at this point.  Looking healthy!



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19072629 - 11/01/13 10:34 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Man, you're looking like an agar pro there!  Your SAB kicks the crap out of mine.  Gettin' jelly here!! :lol:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19073523 - 11/02/13 03:05 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Nice SAB,  you would laugh if you saw mine!


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19079688 - 11/03/13 10:41 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Haha.  Thanks guys.  I have a lot to learn but I figure with equipment, anything worth doing is worth doing right.  The SAB is honestly pretty cheap and easy, and only took an hour or so to put together.  Definitely worth it.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19079797 - 11/03/13 11:02 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

I should do one right some time, it would probably help my contam rate...
Mine's just half circles cut at the top of a tub then I flip it upside down on top of a damp towel for working.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19080083 - 11/03/13 12:17 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Since I can't stand to waste a tote by cutting holes in it, i just flip a tote on its side.  It's open faced but I rarely get a contaminated plate, in fact, out of the last 100 or so, I haven't gotten a contamination (except from infected wedges I got from someone).


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19084860 - 11/04/13 10:39 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

A gfresh sleeve of plates poured last night, de-condensing in the SAB for a few days before my new edible cultures show up.



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19091847 - 11/05/13 07:06 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Did a bit more agar work tonight.  I received a trio of syringes from The Spore Depot:

- King Oyster
- Pearl Oyster
- Enoki

I transferred one drop from each syringe on to 3 plates to start growing those out.

Additionally, I made my first round of potential master slants out of two possible vessels.  I purchased some of these 20mmx150mm culture tubes, and didn't realize the necks on them would be as narrow as they were.  Not nearly wide enough for a scalpel.  I also purchased an inoculation loop, so I figured I'd give them a shot anyway.  I also purchased a case of the wider amber vials you see in this pic, which are plenty wide enough for a scalpel blade.







Ultimately, here are the results of the night's work.  Three plates each of Enoki, Pearl Oyster, King Oyster, Yellow Oyster.  Three attempts at a start of a P3 master slant of Reishi in the 20x150mm tubes, and four attempts at a master slant of Reishi in the wider amber vials.



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19091909 - 11/05/13 07:16 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

I have never had an issue with scalpels fitting into a 20 X 50 but I do fill them a lot more than what is shown in your pic.  Probably close to 3X more.  I use a #11 blade and it is narrow enough to manipulate in a 20X.
Either way, for both pictured, I would use more agar.  For the 20 X 150's I like to have the agar, once slanted, to be about at the 50% mark on the lower end and about 30% on the amber vial.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Jeff]
    #19092515 - 11/05/13 09:03 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Hmm, I literally can't imagine a scalpel blade of any size fitting in to these tubes.  I'll snap a pic tomorrow morning of one of the empty ones next to one of my exacto's for comparison.

The amber ones seem easy to work with, though, and i bought a whole case of them. 

One question I did have, though, is about condensation in the slant tubes.  Unless I devise a way to PC them at the proper angle to begin with, I have to PC them then remove once cool enough to handle, and let them finish cooling outside the PC, which will leave the pictured amount of condensation. 

Suggestions on a way around this, and/or should I even worry?  I mean, my longer term experimentation will probably give me the answer, but suggestions/anecdotes are always welcome.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19093148 - 11/05/13 11:05 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

you might transfer them from the pc to the glovebox, and heat the air in thje glovebox with a hairdryer, only for a moment when you put them in.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: forrest]
    #19093331 - 11/05/13 11:48 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Try putting them in a foam cooler after the PC


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19106287 - 11/08/13 03:33 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

So, a few days later, I'm starting to see (and not see) some results from some of the agar work recently did.

The single drops on agar plates from the new liquid culture syringes aren't looking so hot thusfar.  I'm not sure if that's normal for only 3 days out, or not, though.

Unfortunately, the Pearl Oyster syringe looks to be contaminated, from what I can tell.  out of the three plates I put a drop of LC on, all three seem to be developing mold:








The King and enoki more or less look like this, which seems like nothing's happening.  I expected to see mycelium strands by now.



The only one that looks like it MIGHT be growing is ONE of the king oyster plates, which seems to have a raised section with some thin strands reaching up out of it.  I don't know if you can really see it from this picture, though.



The last experiment I had done was attempting to clone a grocery store yellow oyster to agar, which seems to have "fuzzed" up quite nicely but what I assume is mycelial growth doesn't seem to be running on the agar.




The agar this time around I added some blue food coloring to, about 4 drops for 600ml of agar.  I don't think this would cause a problem with growth on it, though, would it?


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19106319 - 11/08/13 03:40 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

The coloring doesn't hurt growth but it sure makes it hard to discern contams especially once you get it on grain.  You'll be seeing green everywhere.  I died some agar blue about a year ago just for novelty.  I swore I would never do it again.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Jeff]
    #19106334 - 11/08/13 03:44 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Yeah, the novelty has already worn off.  I don't even remember why I thoguht it would be a good idea in the first place.  I think I was thinking about making it potentially easier to see the mycelium to track sectors?  No clue...

Oh well, I have plenty of supplies and plenty of LC in those syringes, so I'll give it another round this weekend with some uncolored plates.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19106359 - 11/08/13 03:49 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Oh and by the way, I can see why an x-acto would be hard to deal with as you mentioned in a post above.  I use one like this..scalpel it is a bit more narrow than an x-acto and fits nicely in your hand.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Jeff]
    #19106426 - 11/08/13 04:02 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Ahh.  Yep, that would probably fit into the more narrow opening of these tubes.

The amber colored vials I bought as well seem to work just fine, thought, and I have a ton of them.  I just figure I need to devise a way to PC the slants at an angle, so they can cool gradually and that way I figure the condensation should be less of an issue.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19108204 - 11/08/13 10:58 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

That enoki looks like you put more than a drop on there, or there was condensation issues (I've been having plenty of that lately - many of my LC --> agar attempts have failed).
3 days isn't much though, give it more time and you'll be able to see better which are contaminated and which are good.  Some of mine that were too wet like that ended up ok, they just kinda take longer and then grow from the whole pool of liquid.  Or they get green mold.  You'll know for sure either way :lol:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19110084 - 11/09/13 11:50 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Yeah I know one or two of the plates got two drops as opposed to one.  That may have been one of them.    I'll do another round of them today and will inoculate a couple grain jars with each, this weekend, as well. 

The pearl syringe worries me, though, seeing 3 out of 3 plates with green on them...


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19111322 - 11/09/13 05:45 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

IME lc to agar takes quite a while to grow. I did pearl oyster from spore Depot onto 3 plates. All 3 were fine but they took 2 weeks before I saw any real growth. The parts covered in lc turned pale pretty quick,  but I didn't see mycelium for over a week.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19113491 - 11/10/13 07:09 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Well thats encouraging, then.  I won't count these out just yet then.  Well, except the peal oyster...  Thats clearly contaminated at this point. I'll do some new plates with that syringe.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19113540 - 11/10/13 07:29 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Any thoughts on why the samples from the grocery store oyster clone attempts would fuzz up but not start running on the agar?  Or does it take a little while extra for the mycelium to "figure that out"?


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19113590 - 11/10/13 07:48 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

socraticd said:
Any thoughts on why the samples from the grocery store oyster clone attempts would fuzz up but not start running on the agar?  Or does it take a little while extra for the mycelium to "figure that out"?




So it's only been 5 days?  I'd give it more time.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19113806 - 11/10/13 08:58 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Yeah.  Well the grocery store yellow oyster clne is all fuzzed up and looks like mycelium reaching around.  Just hasn't taken to the agar yet.  The LC -> agar plates are still mostly barren but a couple look like they may be starting to grow.  I'm sure I'll know in a couple days


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19114361 - 11/10/13 11:18 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

What nutrient recipe are you using in your agar? I find if I made it too weak they take longer to spread initially. Too strong and they spread too fast. But even if I'm plating a wedge that someone sent me it usually takes a week or more for it to spread onto the new agar.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19133527 - 11/13/13 09:40 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Finally got a chance to prep some jars of rye for the first tim ever.  SO much nicer to work with than birdseed!

I inoculated 5 of 9 jars with the king oyster, pearl oyster, and enoki LCs that Ive been trying to get to take on agar (updates on those tomorrow) and the other four I put aside to attempt my first agar wedge inoculations.



I cut the plate in to four wedges and dropped one in each of the four jars.  Two of them I shook the hell out of and two I left alone after simply dropping the wedge on top.  Here's one post transfer.



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19133568 - 11/13/13 09:50 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Oh, and liam, my agar recipe is 3% - 

600ml water
18g malt extract
10g agar


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19134417 - 11/14/13 01:51 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Ahh mea, good choice. Nice and cheap

You honestly need like 1/16th of a plate or less as an inoculation. That is a huge wedge. I use small 60mm plates and get 8 wedges per plate.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19135100 - 11/14/13 08:17 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Yeah I know i could use a MUCH smaller wedge.  But I only had 4 jars prepped for this and I have probably 8 more fully colonized reishi plates after this one, so I figured I'd just use the whole plate.  :-)


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19135108 - 11/14/13 08:19 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Anyone have amy thoughts about the pearl oyster plates?  I inoculated 3 more plates and one of my grain jars with it.  If those all show contams like the first three above seemed to, would it be safe to say the syringe is contam'd and ask the vendor for a replacement?


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19135361 - 11/14/13 09:34 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Yes.  I had to get a replacement from the spore Depot,  the first pearl syringe they sent me was really a trichoderma syringe.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19135538 - 11/14/13 10:14 AM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

socraticd said:
Oh, and liam, my agar recipe is 3% - 

600ml water
18g malt extract
10g agar





that is a lot of malt extract. I use 10 grams of ME when doing 1000ml of water + 20g agar. Like most aspects of mycology, when you have a less nutritious substrate (in this case agar) you are less likely to experience contams.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: deadmandave]
    #19136015 - 11/14/13 12:32 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Hmm, interesting, dave.  I was under the impression that3% was a pretty standard number.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19205222 - 11/29/13 03:09 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Alrighty.  A couple updates as I keep plugging away.

Current projects of the moment are trying to get a handle on master slants, and my first Reishi grow in minitubs on sawdust.

Apparently shaking the grains immediately after inoculating inoculating with an agar wedge makes a HUGE difference.  The one on the left was shaken immediately after inoculation, the one on the right wasn't.  Results speak fo themselves as this was about 7 days after wedge inoculation:



I shook up the two that I had not shaken directly after taking this picture.

Two days later the ones I shook up originally had consolidated even more and essentially looked like jars of cotton. 



I was planning on going with a 3:1 or so spawn ratio of spawn to unsupplemented sawdust into two mini tubs.  Turns out I rehydrated too many fuel pellets into sawdust, and ended up with 3 tubs at more like a 4 or 5 to 1 ratio.

Three 6qt tubs with the standard lids on, spawn mixed in, ready to colonize in my closet.



Closeup of one of the tubs right after spawning



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19205427 - 11/29/13 03:58 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Also, I'm trying a slightly different approach with my master culture slants.  The first try, I had excessive amounts of condensation in them once they had cooled. 

The technique I followed was to PC them in a jar standing up, then once the PC had depressurized but not cooled enough to solidify the agar, move them out of the PC to the slanted surface to cool. 

There was enough condensation in these that it was able to pool into a small pool of water at the bottom of the slant if it was held upright.

So my solution is to open the PC when it's depressurized but still hot, remove the upright slants, and set them on an angled surface STILL IN THE PC to cool gradually in hopes that this will prevent the temperature differentials that cause the condensation in the first place.

Here are the two slant containers I'm testing with.  I prefer the amber colored ones since I can get my exacto into them, but I'm going to order one of the "Paul Stamets Favorite Scalpel" scalpels whcih supposedly are narrow enough to get in and out of the 20x150mm culture tubes.  The mouth on them for the screw top is just so narrow...

Testing the angle of the extra PC plate angled up on 3 jar lid rings



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19205478 - 11/29/13 04:11 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

Looks like you licked the condensation issue. 
As a side note though, if it were me I would use about twice the agar.  It will help out long term, not only for easy access when you try to pull a sample with a scalpel but also moisture retention for extended storage.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Jeff]
    #19205552 - 11/29/13 04:37 PM (10 years, 2 months ago)

o, that picture is just a test with water to see if I had the angle right.I'll take a couple of pictures of the results when I get home.ultimately, the amber vials seemed to be fine, but the culture tubes still had a decent amount of condensation.

Definitely getting closer, though.  Still curious how others prep their slants and avoid the bulk of the condensate. 

I'll definitely use more in the culture tubes next time though.  Good points.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19216975 - 12/02/13 12:09 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Quick update.  Made 6 unsupplemented sawdust bags over the weekend for my fully colonized quarts of King Oyster, Enoki, and Reishi

Bags are 5 cups fuel pellets "pasteurized" Lipa-style with 5.5 cups 170deg water and allowed to hydrate and cool for the bulk of the day.  1 qt spawn to 1 bag.  Not sure what ratio this is, exactly, as I haven't measured out the hydrated volume of sawdust in this configuration.  1:4 maybe, if i had to guess?

One enoki and one King Oyster bag done, with one more of each to go



And I had two more Reishi quarts to spawn out, which at this point were rock hard jars of mycelium which could only be broken up and scraped out with the serving fork in the picture.  The fork was hosed down with 70% iso, along with my hands and the jar lid and rim before spawning into the sawdust bag in open air.  Based on how aggressive all three of these cultures seemed to be, and given that it's unsupplemented sawdust, I'm not TERRIBLY worried about contams, but I guess we'll see what I can get away with, with these three species.




The three reishi mini-tubs have all colonized to what looked like 100% in a little under a week.  About 5 days.  Incredible!  I'll post a couple pictures of those tonight.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19219801 - 12/02/13 10:17 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Looking good!  So why the 170 degree water instead of boiling, shooting for closer to 'true' pasteurization?  Just curious.

Have you experimented with that pellet:water ratio before?


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19219951 - 12/02/13 10:42 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Yeah I did some experiments a.) with the pellet/water ratio got me right to field capacity with these pellets, and b.) that when I dump in the water at 170, it quickly ends up at 160 or just below and slowly cools to 140, finally reaching 90 after a couple hours.  I put the bags in a bucket as I do them, so they all retain the heat as long as possible, which I theorize is getting me closer to a legit pasteurization than just dumping in boiling water.  Though still WAY more hands off than Frank's method. 

That said, once work eases up a bit and i can go snag a couple remote-probe thermometers, I'm going to give frank's true pasteurization method a shot.  I also want to try some supplemented sawdust bags out, which means sterilizing, so well see where I end up long term.  Just doing a lot of experimenting for now.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19220098 - 12/02/13 11:20 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Eh, give true pasteurization a shot if you need it.  I haven't yet found it necessary for wood pellets.  When they're not supplemented, contams just aren't really interested.  I use boiling water and have forgotten about some leftovers, left them for over a month in a bucket, and nothing grew on them in that time :shrug:

Just starting to experiment with sterilization myself.  Doing some trials now with grain on top of pellet sawdust, injected via LC through the bag.  We'll see how it goes, it's all in good fun :thumbup:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19220953 - 12/03/13 07:36 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Yeah that's the way I'm looking at it.  I'm not afraid to mess things up since I'm learning and the stuff I do that does t work teaches me as much if not more than the stuff that DID work.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19235562 - 12/06/13 08:54 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

A little more from a coupe nights ago.  Poured a fresh sleeve of petris on Monday or Tuesday night and The following night I did a bunch of transfers.

Lions Mane and Nameko from LC syringe, Turkey Tail wedges from Jeff on to plates, blue oyster from LC syringe, enoki and king oyster transfer to expand out to a few more plates.  I probably don't need 3 plates on hand for everything I'm culturing, but I figure it's cheap and easy insurance for my immature techniques at everything.  16 plates in all.



I also put two small wedges of reishi on to the new attempted master slants.  There is a LITTLE condensation in them, but I'll give it a go, regardless.  I'm still not sure how to prepare these without any condensation as RR says I should be able to...

The reishi minitubs colonized FAST.  This is what they looked like about 5 days after spawning.  2qt grain spawn to 8 or 9 qt unsupplemented sawdust:








And, a couple shots of my south american dart frog tank.  35G hex with a custom LED light fixture, filled with bromiliads, african violet, orchids, and a small colony of these guys:







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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19235649 - 12/06/13 09:29 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Your enoki plate looks like trich, is that just a trick of the light or something?


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19236152 - 12/06/13 11:43 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

no, it's blue agar i mixed up for some reason.  I think my idea was to be able to see the mycelium better, but didn't even think about the fact that contams would be harder to spot..


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19236228 - 12/06/13 11:57 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Oh god, yeah that would give me mini heart attacks every time I looked at my cultures haha.  I use nutritional yeast in my agar recipes, which turns the agar a poopy yellow sometimes, but it shows contams well.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: liamtheloser]
    #19238435 - 12/06/13 08:58 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

That's a pretty nice sized mini-tub, I think you're gonna have a lot of reishi!  You gonna take the lid off and flip another tub upside down on the top or just let 'em run into the lid?


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19238459 - 12/06/13 09:04 PM (10 years, 1 month ago)

Quote:

socraticd said:
no, it's blue agar i mixed up for some reason.  I think my idea was to be able to see the mycelium better, but didn't even think about the fact that contams would be harder to spot..




i died my agar once.  I probably won't ever do it again.  Blue is what I did and it stained my grain green.  Actually was annoying as hell and hard to see if there was contam present.
Like I said, probably won't do it again.  :smile:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Jeff]
    #19239603 - 12/07/13 05:42 AM (10 years, 1 month ago)

I use activated carbon to "color" my plates black , and to (supposedly) detoxify the culture.  Makes mycelium stand out well and contams are still easily spotted.  I've been doing it this way for years now.  I don't add activated carbon when im making slants; other than that I always make agar with it.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Aleon]
    #19879956 - 04/21/14 08:07 PM (9 years, 9 months ago)

It's been awhile, folks!

I've been on and off while other projects have been taking more of my time.  Havent't dropped off the map, though, and have constantly had a few projects going all the time.

Lets see...

Built a greenhouse and humidity bucket for fruiting:

greenhouse:


inward blowing fan to provide FAE and move the humidified air from the ultrasonic that will live inside the bucket:


PLENTY of silicone!


finished product at work, humidifying some turkey tail


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19879969 - 04/21/14 08:10 PM (9 years, 9 months ago)

The reishi tubs I made didn't pan out.  Going to give them another shot soon.  However, I did a couple bags as well and those fruited right through the closed up tops and through the filter patches:








I didn't get a weight on the harvest, but they didn't flush a second time.  Here's to learning and getting my first flush of reishi, however!



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19879988 - 04/21/14 08:16 PM (9 years, 9 months ago)

I've also had some successful harvests of some of the other species I have set to agar and thus to grain and sawdust bags (fuel pellets).

Blue Oyster:


Kings and Enoki:


Lion's Mane:



No weights on those, so no clue about my yields.  The next set of projects I'll actually be taking notes on substrate weights and final yields to get an idea of my efficiency.  But it was great to have stuff actually grow, just to know i have at least the BASIC stuff working :-)


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19880001 - 04/21/14 08:19 PM (9 years, 9 months ago)

Last set for tonight.  Turkey Tail.  These have been in the fruiting chamber for a LONG while.  They're finally producing, though.  Looking really nice!

Cut slits in the bag for this one.  Next go-around I'll roll the bag down tight once its colonized, and cut slits for the fruits to grow.


This one I cut the top off to see how they'd grow top-fruited.  I later saw some good posts around here that essentially told me this was a bad idea, but ultimately learning by trying things is best for me.  So, here we have a ton of Turkey Tail blobs and mutants..



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19880494 - 04/21/14 09:56 PM (9 years, 9 months ago)

Nice work there!  Reishi will not be contained :lol:

Did you harvest the top fruited turkey tails?  I made the mistake of top fruiting them recently... what a fuzzy mess.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19881985 - 04/22/14 07:14 AM (9 years, 9 months ago)

I haven't yet, no.  I'll probably tear them off this week and see if I can cover it up for a second flush.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19884988 - 04/22/14 08:07 PM (9 years, 9 months ago)

Update on the king oysters I inoculated back on 4/13. 

I inoculated 8 jars.  4 lions mane and 4 king oyster.  Each with a decent wedge of agar from fully colonized plates and gave them a good shake.  Very very slow or no growth...  My current suspicion is that it's the way I prepped the grains.  I used Fahtster's quick rye prep (http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/7718009) and my guess is that my grains are a decent amount too dry?  They do look a little dry, for the most part...

Gonna prep some grains the way I have before, using RR's method, and will compare with a couple pieces of what's left from the plates I used to inoculate these jars.  I guess I could also try using that technique with a little more water in the jars as well.

From a 4/13 inoculation, this is all the growth I have from an agar wedge...



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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19885728 - 04/22/14 10:41 PM (9 years, 9 months ago)

Grain on the dry side IME isn't usually a problem, unless it's SEVERE.  That jar looks like it will be fine, maybe give it a shake and I bet it's done in a few days.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19886951 - 04/23/14 09:02 AM (9 years, 9 months ago)

Yeah, that's my plan.  Going to shake it tonight and see how it does.  Just seems extremely slow for 9 days growth.


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19918831 - 04/29/14 08:49 PM (9 years, 8 months ago)

Quick update.  Cooked up 5 new jars of rye and inoculated them with blue oyster agar wedges. 

Lost two of four king oyster jars to trich and one lions mane.  Three lions mane and two king oyster jars still colonizing nicely, however.  Shoudl be ready to spawn to sawdust bags this weekend.  Not sure why the spike in contams lately, but it's annoying the hell out of me...

Anyway, some Turkey Tails growing nicely in the greenhouse.  These things sure do take their sweet time... but they are GORGEOUS!  Not 100% sure when they're done.  They don't appear to be dropping spores, so I'll keep letting them go.

Enjoy the pics!







In that last one you can see a lot of the mutant blobs, some of which have morphed into conks in the last week or two.  Loving it. :-)


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19919224 - 04/29/14 10:33 PM (9 years, 8 months ago)

Wow man, you're doing great! Good looking grows  :aweohyou:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: forrest]
    #19919237 - 04/29/14 10:39 PM (9 years, 8 months ago)

awesome turkey tail!


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: deadmandave]
    #19924490 - 04/30/14 10:13 PM (9 years, 8 months ago)

Another quick update before I hit the hay.  Just finished pouring another stack of plates.  To combat condensation a little bit more, I let the agar cool until the bottom of my flask was starting to congeal a little bit, swirled it around and went to work. 

On the contamination front, this time I also rubber banded two squares of tyvek cut from some extra sleeves over the flask mouth before I put foil over it for the PC cycle.  Maybe I have been introducing some level of contamination when it's cooling and drawing unclean air in?  Doubtful, since the blank plates tend to not get contaminated very often if ever.  It's my transfers that have been getting less reliable...

On a more positive note, my lions mane spawn is DEFINITELY ready to go to bulk this weekend when I have time to prep the bags.  I always forget how whispy this stuff is, and by the time it thickens up it's essentially pinning all over the grain.  If you look closely you can see tiny LM primordia in a bunch of spots:





Also, here's a quick shot of two of the jars that contaminated with trich.  First is lions mane, and the pic doesn't do it justice but it's greening up nicely(?):




The second one is a king oyster jar (unfortunately two out of four of these contam'd...  I'm going to give G2G a shot with one of the ones that didn't, and spawn the other to bulk so I at least get SOMETHING for certain out of this king grow.  This contaminated jar was looking a LOT greener a couple days ago, and it looks like the king oyster mycelium may be starting to gain footing and win some of the battle.  Gonna let this sit for a little while longer to see what happens, and then likely dump it out in my compost pile outside.



Thanks for following along, as always!


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19924509 - 04/30/14 10:17 PM (9 years, 8 months ago)

"Greening up nicely" :lol:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: Forrester]
    #19925668 - 05/01/14 07:33 AM (9 years, 8 months ago)

Haha.    Yeah I though you guys might get a kick out of that while I was writing it.    I figured I'd let these two do their thing for awhile to watch.  No real downside to it since they're already contaminated.

:smile:


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Re: Socraticd's experiments - a.k.a, a newbie's grow log [Re: socraticd]
    #19928041 - 05/01/14 05:49 PM (9 years, 8 months ago)

Got a couple of wedges from forrest today!    Pumped for these, a sporeless oyster and a pink oyster.    My stack of plates from last night is sitting in my SAB hopefully expelling some of the remaining condensation, though I can still see it around the edges of the entire stack...

I should eb able to transfer these tomorrow and start growing them out.  Can't wait!



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