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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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My first setup... Suggestions?
    #1892373 -

Howdy, all.  I would, first of all, like to thank each of you for the wealth of knowledge I've gleaned over the last few months from reading the tons of info on this site.  As you can see, I've thrown my hat into the ring and decided to give it a shot.  So far, I'm having good fun, but at this point, I need some feedback.

The batch I'm about to show you is my second batch, as I royally fucked up the first.  I'm using the PF Tek with BRF.  The first time, I packed the substrate into the jars too tightly, giving the mycellium no room to grow.  I had a few tiny abhorts, but that's about it.  The second time, I used Anno's modified PF Tek, and have had MUCH better luck.

I used Gulf Coast (chosen for no reason other than aesthetics).  Innoculated 8/2, birthed fully colonized on 8/31 (should have been done 2 or 3 days earlier.. I had a few 1-2 cm. shrooms growing in the verm)

My setup is a Rubbermaid container with a plexiglass lid (modified).  I have 3/4 in. Perlite at the bottom, which was moistened before birthing.  There is a bakery rack sitting in the Perlite, and aluminum foil over that.  I have a Ultrasonic cool-mist humidifier connected to the top of the chamber via 5/8" garden hose.  This connection works nicely, but I'm afraid I'm getting too much humidity into the chamber.  More on that in a sec.

Here is a pic of the setup:



The hose is connected so that most of the mist from the humidifier drips back down into the humidifier, not into the chamber - and the hose is taped up so that water doesn't collect in the hose.  I use about a 20:1 H2O / H2O2 solution in the humidifier.



As you can see, I have 8 cakes in the chamber at once.  I have been running the humidifier for about an hour at a time, 2 to 3 times a day.  I fan the chamber for a minute or so before I turn on the humidifier - at least 3 times a day.  From the water droplets on the walls of the chamber, as well as from the amount of water on the fruits themselves, I think I'm keeping the RH a bit too high.  Would I be better off running the humidifier for only a few minutes at a time, more often?  I'm starting to think that might make more sense.

This is the most healthy cake:



It has the tallest (about 4 in.), fullest fruits on it.  Coincidentally, it's the cake furthest from the hose inlet from the humidifier.  About 1/2 of the shrooms have dropped their spores already - I plan to harvest 2 or 3 caps tomorrow to take prints from.

Here are other cakes that are not doing quite as well, and I fear are simply too wet.





All of these shrooms will be harvested tomorrow for to be dried.  I will then dunk all of the cakes for 24 hours, take 2 cakes aside for my first casing experiment, and place the other 6 cakes back into the chamber for a second flush.

I would appreciate any suggestions and comments as to what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing right, and what I can do to improve both my yield and my experience in the future.  This is good fun, but I wanna be GOOD at it! :smile:

Thanks, all!

Gern 


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There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
  --  Howard Zinn

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: GernBlanston]
    #1893045 -

I'll take a stab at this, I THINK that from your photo your chamber should be raised up so most of the hose is angled up, not angled up, looped and back down. Some most vermiculite under them couldn't hurt
like the PF double casing tek.
This is just my opinion, i could be wrong

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: Ganoderma]
    #1893347 -

There is actually verm on the top and bottom of each cake.... Seems to help the fruiting - at least compared to the one other batch I've done. :smile:

About the hose - why do you think that?  Is it because of the humidity level? 


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There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
  --  Howard Zinn

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: GernBlanston]
    #1893475 -

im got excited to help you out because you are so organized and definetly look like you will succeed just by your post-reminds me of me when i started:D. first of all of you plan on being "good" then it might be worthwhile to get a digital hygrometer for humidity. you are definetly way too wet-water droplets everywhere means 100% humidity-too high. also where are your exit holes for fresh air?? i dont see any and u need some big ass holes covered with coffee filters or the like.
also a nice little tidbit of info=whatever you do to grow mushrooms always go back to the fact that you are trying to imitate nature so read up on how they grow in the wild and it will help you out. for instance in the wild mushrooms are always short, fat, with extremly thick stems and can weigh a lot. the reason that they are short and fat is because of the big amount of moving air. in a small box what they try and to is grow up before fat in order to get above the large layer of CO2 hanging around on the bottom of ur terrarium or top of tray whatever applies-so when doin small time as you are i dont belive you can fan too much (just keep it at the right humidity)
another thing is (this is what i hear) that tape on any seals 'inside' ur terrarium is a bad thing as it gets moldy fast or fucks up something which makes sense, but ive never had problems related to tape but i wouldnt have tape in 100% humidity all the time. i have the same humidifier as you do and i went to the plumbing section of the hardware store and got pvc that fits like a glove into the hole and got adapters to end up uwith a nipple for 7/16" vinyl hose-works really nice and is easy to move around.
because you have way too much humidity you have a couple choices: you can run a timer on ur humidifier, you can put a bunch of bottles in line between the vicks and the terr. OR you can re wire it to lower the humidity-let me know which you want to do and ill educate you-pm me.
i dont think it would matter how you time your humidifire-long periods once in awhile or short periods all the time. but i do think that if i had to choose i would choose long periods only once in awhile-just htink back to the outdoors=they grow when its between 70-100% and its always changin in between there. ive had great results with lettin it come back down to 85 or so (whatever) and taking it back up to 95-100. also i read somewhere that alternating levels of humidity are better.
you need to pick those shrooms NOW!! its not good to leave spores all over ur chamber (contams) and you will get the nicest prints if you grab the cap once the spores have been dropping for like an hour-ideally catch it befre they even drop but around there is best.
dunking gives amazing results and dont be afraid to dunk right after birthing next time.
for your casing layer i highly recommend getting coco coir and get a mix of that goin with verm (50/50 is close enough, just to it by eye and the ideal is 60 coco 40 verm)
good luck!
Jake H
P.S.-that guy must be stoned cause it shouldnt matter how long ur hose is as long as there are no low spots for water to collect.


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The above statement is fictitious and for entertainment purposes only. I do not use or condone the use of illegal substances, nor do I use or condone the use of legal substances in an illegal manner.

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: jakeholman]
    #1893564 -

ya i forgot to say this: have u noticed that there is white fluffy stuff growing on your stems from the base??? this is mycelium growing on the stem when the humidity is too high. so in other words you might never need a hygrometer if you keep an eye on that and dont let it grow while keeping the rh as high as possible-i think it wastes nutrients, etc.
Jake H


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The above statement is fictitious and for entertainment purposes only. I do not use or condone the use of illegal substances, nor do I use or condone the use of legal substances in an illegal manner.

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: jakeholman]
    #1893650 -

Yes, I have noticed mycelium growing at the base of the stems.  I think you are right on the nose with your observations, Jake!  Thanks a ton for the input, and you can expect a PM with some more questions in the next day or so :smile:  I truly appreciate the time.

On that note, I just thought I'd go ahead and post a shot of my first harvest, for good measure.  The pic below is of my dessicating chamber - it's a 12" Rubbermaid (airtight) container, using DampRid (calcium chloride).  As you can see, I think I need to setup a larger chamber for drying.  Anyhoo - I don't have a scale yet, but if I had to guess, I'd guess not much more than 125g. wet.  But whatever it is, it's MINE!  Hehehehheheheheheee.....

 


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There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
  --  Howard Zinn

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: GernBlanston]
    #1894038 -

wicked sounds good man!! thats also the same dessicant chamber i started with-once the load gets too heavy fan dry everything first over a screen or something and then stick em in the chamber once they are rubbery.
Jake H


--------------------
The above statement is fictitious and for entertainment purposes only. I do not use or condone the use of illegal substances, nor do I use or condone the use of legal substances in an illegal manner.

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: GernBlanston]
    #1894181 -

first, you can use the lid that the bin came with. what I do is invert the bin so that the lid is at the bottom and the bin itself is the "lid" of the terrarium, this would also put the hole you made at the bottom and thus preventing the fruits from getting rained on (Bad). Second, remove the foil from the bakery rack as this seems to be reflecting light off of it causing the fruits to grow in akward directions.

I think you're going a little crazy with the humidity setup. Either run it less daily or you can do without the humidifier altogether, and yes, get a hygrometer (it's saved many a grow for me) it's a wise investment, oh, and you've stated it already but remember to FAN A LOT! and give light directly above them.

Other than that, it seems like with a couple more grows, you'lll get the hang of it. consult the FAQ's for more detailed info.


:grin:


--------------------
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: soochi]
    #1895013 -

Way too much humidity! Most people who use ultrasonics use them as their sole humidity source. Perlite can create plenty of humidity on it's own. A common setup for cakes is to use a COOL MIST humidfier to provide air exchange in conjunction with perlite. They can do this because a cool mist puts out little humidity and primarily just circulates air. I would either scrap your ultrasonic or scrap your perlite. They are not both necessary. Personally I would scrap the perlite, cause your ultrasonic is way cool! And then I'd put the ultrasonic on a timer that runs it for a few minutes every hour or so. This way you don't have to worry about turning it on and off yourself all the time. And I would also fan a little more often, mushies LOVE fresh air and ultrasonics provide a lot of humidity but do little for air exchange. That's it. Hope I was of some help!


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Just another animal embeded in a technological coral reef extruded psychic objects...

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Re: My first setup... Suggestions? [Re: Demiurge]
    #1895943 -

Rock ON.  Thanks, all of y'all.  That info was of great help... the humidity thing was something that I just didn't grok.  I think I'm in a LOT better shape now.

When I unloaded my case this morning to harvest that first flush, there was water even with the top of the perlite layer.  I didn't get the either/or part, and will by trying my second flush with just the humidifier sans perlite. 

Again, thanks to all of you who've taken the time to respond.  This place is such a fantastic resource... :smile:


--------------------
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
  --  Howard Zinn

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