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Anonymoose69
Moose
Registered: 12/03/13
Posts: 29
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1st time BRF Tek attempt, feedback desired.
#19224062 - 12/03/13 08:14 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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This is my first try using a supposedly amazonian strain (although I read they are supposed to look like they have nipples, and they do not).
Anyway, I think I've been doing alright, although I have some concerns, and did make some silly mistakes along the way.
I'm a bit paranoid about contamination, and I'm not so good with color so a 2nd option would be helpful.
My first mistake was, I didn't use enough liquid culture to inoculate the jars properly (cool temps also didn't help) most of the jars did colonize, but after about 23 days, only 4 were fully colonized, there's a few others, which are partly colonized, I'm thinking of cleaning off and putting in a separate mini terrarium to see if they sprout, it looks like some are drying up, some mycellium doesn't look as nice and white as it did before and shrunk slightly, I don't notice any smells coming from the jars so I think they're still good / uncontaminated, but I don't think it's growing any more.
The yellowish liquid is normal from what I've read.

One jar actually had a mushroom sprouting prematurely in the jar, at first I thought it was some sort of contaminant :p Getting it out was a bit difficult and I bruised the hell out of the poor guy. I tested it by swabbing it with A Q-tip and some hydrogen peroxide & water to make sure it was in fact a bruise and not a contam. It didn't color the the Qtip. Later some fuzzy growth grew over most of the bruise, the h2o2 (peroxide) also may have bleached part of the bruise? It seemed to improve except for one small part (see pictures). I've read the fuzzy growth on the stem of the mushroom is ok, and it just means it needed more fresh air, correct?
Ah, I couldn't find how to include pictures so I put them all in the Zip file (no viruses I promise just jpgs). *update* I figured it out so I'll post the pictures normally as well.
2nd picture: I just liked because it's a cute mushroom in the Jar! Before I hurt him with bruising. 

3rd After he got bruised.
 4th After he grew a fuzzy coat because he was ashamed of his bruising and would like to cover up the evidence of my awful awful abusive relationship with him.

5th Pic I attempted to do the dunk and roll with one of the four cakes (another I dunked but did not roll) the verm is probably too course and didn't stick so well, there's some fuzzy growth I'm hoping is just mycellium, that's what the pic is.

6th the ONE mushroom that grew from the jar, (same as bruised one), I'm pretty sure there's some vermiculite stuck IN the mushroom near the base, I guess I should have cut it off? I didn't want to hurt it too much by cleaning it aggressively it seemed imbedded into him.

7th Same mushroom, looking good from the other angle. 8th Dried mushroom, looks like he's got some brain damage for some reason, is that discoloration at the head normal? Bruising maybe? I put it in a dehydrator at low temp, under 110f. But he might have gotten a bit squished to fit in there.
9th Broke apart the mushroom, exposing the internal organs (or lack thereof), I'm guessing it's normal to have it dark /dirty looking inside? Were all a bit dirty on the inside right?

10th & 11th pic : New growth on another cake (I forget if it was dunked or not! Damn) I was wondering if it looks normal, these ones are a bit fatter than the first one that grew, they have some white spots on their heads and a bit of a tan colored stem, with the same fuzzy white growth but more at the base.

12th The dunk and rolled cake, seemed to have some mushies sprouting on the bottom, I wasn't sure which way to put the cakes in the terrarium, my jars seem to have a fatter bottom than top (yeah it was a pain getting them out!) so some I put fat part down and others I put skinny part down, I flipped him over and noticed there were more on the very bottom, so ill keep him the other way around now. You can see there's a strange colored streak on the bottom mushroom growing.

And in the next pic (13th) there's another 'thing' growing near or just above one of the mushrooms.

14th pic is the bottom of the same cake after I flipped it.

15th This cake seems to be doing well, but look at that big fuzzy base on the stems.

16th and 17th These are the jars that have been colonizing for over a month now which I mentioned I might try and put in a separate small terrarium after cleaning off the un-colonized areas. Good idea? Or Looks too gross? I think the close up picture looks worse than it is due to flash and maybe some bumpy decorations on the glass jar itself.


OH and ONE other silly mistake I made...
I accidentally mixed up my water bottle with a bottle of isopropyl alcohol 99% watered down to approx 70%... I misted two of the cakes accidentally with the alc bottle. Then quickly aired it off once I realized the mistake and then tried misting with some water to further dilute the alcohol.
Do you think they are still safe if they survive? I know isopropyl alcohol isn't supposed to be so great to eat /drink and mushrooms absorb toxins, right?
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your input.
Edited by Anonymoose69 (12/03/13 09:02 PM)
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SamhainJ
I wanna rock out, in my dreams
Registered: 05/16/04
Posts: 1,002
Loc: USA
Last seen: 8 years, 7 months
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Re: 1st time BRF Tek attempt, feedback desired. [Re: Anonymoose69]
#19224545 - 12/03/13 09:52 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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The iso may cause mutants.. if your only getting a couple mushies oer cake like in the pics you should case em.. made a world of difference for me.....
Thats just one of my brf cakes cased with simple, easy to use, jiffy seedling starter mix as a caser layer..and a thin layer of moist verm for a bottom layer.. dont waste time! Get on making simple casings or go bulk..i wasted years.. look up frankhorrigans 50/50 casing tek.. the greatest decision i have made in my amateur mycology career is reading Franks tek and putting it to work for me! Think about what ive just said and check the pic.. and dont try to tell me you get that kinda pinset on any cake mang.. good luck in whatever path of mycology you choose!
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Anonymoose69
Moose
Registered: 12/03/13
Posts: 29
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Re: 1st time BRF Tek attempt, feedback desired. [Re: SamhainJ]
#19238916 - 12/06/13 11:00 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yeah, that looks good. I started off just trying to do the simple-est method and least likely to get contaminated, plus I didn't really plan to get a lot out of it. A little is fine for me. But I agree it sounds like casing is probably the way to go!
The ones that I sprayed with the alc. seem to be doing ok, I think this was one of them.
The stringy thing kind of weirds me out, I'm hoping it's just mycellium. And yeah it's a big mess, it's the one I half-covered with verm, plus he fell over and got some perlite on him. :p
 I think this was the other one... very snowy looking, which I'm hoping is mycellium. They both smell alright. It doesn't look like cobweb mold and isn't growing huge so not sure what else it would be besides mycellium.
Edited by Anonymoose69 (12/06/13 11:01 PM)
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