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Dense Cake
Vinyl Freak



Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 184
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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My First Grow
#19409511 - 01/12/14 06:11 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Alllll right, so for the first time in my life I am setting out to grow some mushrooms! I have never tripped, have never grown, and learned 100% everything that I know so far from the web starting a few months ago. Here's just a brief picture showing my starting supplies. For my first time I will be using the standard PF tek in conjunction with an RR standard SGFC.

My first mistake that I've noticed: I realize I already bought miracle-gro perlite, and I'm prepared to deal with that suitably when the time comes to birth.
I intend for my thread here to be continually updated and I'll hopefully be able to note the steps that I go through with in depth pictures and descriptions of everything. I think it's important to document the grow because I am so new, and would benefit greatly from the feedback of others if something goes wrong. I believe that if I fuck up at any point, and I am still paying great attention to my grow log, then the chances that I will screw it up the next time can be greatly, if not completely diminished.
If people visit my log enough I will use it as a place to ask questions in anticipation of future steps and so forth.
Thanks tons for all of the starting information on the forum that I have found thus far, and I'll talk to you soon. Going to get started tonight.
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 When I was a boy, I was afraid to die. When I became a man I was afraid to live. But, when I became a little bit wiser, I became a child who walks with death. Now, I play outside every day in a never ending summer; my glory days never faded. And I smile ironically in the face of my doom.
Edited by Dense Cake (01/12/14 06:14 PM)
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baldwintpenguin
5 Wolf Pack



Registered: 08/08/12
Posts: 237
Loc: Middle Earth
Last seen: 3 years, 1 month
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Follow the Teks to a t, where beginners get in trouble is when they start to experiment and deviate even a little. I did PF Tek every time until I was ready to try bulk and I never had any contams, fruiting issues, etc. When in doubt, reread the FULL Tek and revisit your issue, then search the forums for hours on end and revisit your issue, then if your still lost, ask questions (with pictures) on the forum
Good luck and have fun! Growing mushrooms can be very addicting it's so enjoyable!
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 "There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind, never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."
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Dense Cake
Vinyl Freak



Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 184
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Ok, here's an update so far.
After I got off of here with my initial post I got straight to work. The first step was to punch some holes in the lids of my culture jars.
I realized quickly that I don't have all of the proper tools for punching holes in lids. As a matter of fact I don't have the correct size gauge nail for my syringes at all. So I improvised, which actually turned out to be the smoothest way I could have done it, I think.

I started with markering in 4 dots on each lid, rubber side up, and then attached each lid to their jars, again rubber up. With all of the lids attached, I then hammered a very tiny hole with a small nail that I've got, and I found that it went clean through the lid without severely denting the metal or warping the surface. This is one positive point to using a small nail. After I was done with punching the tiny holes, I whipped out my trusty screw driver and a screw that can create a hole wide enough for the needle of the syringe to go through.

I began to screw the nail into the already opened hole of each lid, and I found a second really good point to doing this, which is that this was a near effortless procedure and created no loud noises (I've got lots of neighbors). Again, this was awesome because the screw often screwed very easily into the hole, which had been cleanly made without any lid shrapnel or too much fraying of the metal.
Here you can tell which ones I clearly screwed up by being too belligerent, and the others with the more methodical process.

After ALL THIS, I finally got around to preparing the substrate, so here's some pics of that.




Once it was all said and done, I wrapped each jar with foil and put it in my pot.




Went on ahead with the boiling, following the directions of 90 minutes as suggested by many on here.
Since then I have also inoculated my jars, but I don't have any pictures of this.
ALSO, something funny and kind of weird but hopefully not detrimental, is I'm not sure which strain I put into my jars. I took the labels off of my syringes not realizing that I had been given two separate strains, and so I may possibly have inoculated Malabar or B+, not sure which!
Uhm, so that's all for now.
Jars are currently in one of my closets, open to the air with the heat turned on. It's like 50 degrees all winter where I live, so I need the temps to be about 80 in here.
I'll let you know if and when I start getting growth in my jars. Being a complete noob, I have no idea or any expectation as to what is going to happen, so it'll be fun to wait and see, even if nothing happens.
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 When I was a boy, I was afraid to die. When I became a man I was afraid to live. But, when I became a little bit wiser, I became a child who walks with death. Now, I play outside every day in a never ending summer; my glory days never faded. And I smile ironically in the face of my doom.
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xBELLSPROUTx
Pokemon Master



Registered: 12/27/13
Posts: 448
Last seen: 3 years, 1 month
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good luck my man, i too am on my first grow except i didnt realize my first mistake till about a week after, first i went with the tall 1/2 jars which was stupid on my part, second mistake i made (im happy you didnt make this one) was the amount of holes in the jar (i only made 2). honestly not to big a deal it just allows more point for inoculation. last mistake i made was making an incubator, I had it set to high and it slowed my jars down way to much so i took them out and put them on the shelf and they are alot better now growing alot faster at 73-75 degrees then 83-86 degrees. best of luck and looking forward to seeing progress.
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vikingsc
Mushroom Enthusiast



Registered: 01/11/12
Posts: 1,214
Loc: British Columbia, Canada
Last seen: 6 months, 14 days
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Looks pretty good for now. How many jars did you get nocc'ed up?
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Webster10
Up like Trump


Registered: 12/03/13
Posts: 9,966
Loc: Strawberry Fields
Last seen: 6 years, 3 months
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Did you remember to put a layer of vermiculite over your subtrate? What mix ratio did you use for your substrate? Did you take the tin foil off of your jars after they were done sterilizing? How much mL of spore solution did you inject in each hole? Other than that, awesome post man. I'll be sitting back, , and watching. I am very eager to see how your grow goes. Good luck and good vibes sent your way.
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Dense Cake
Vinyl Freak



Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 184
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Quote:
vikingsc said: Looks pretty good for now. How many jars did you get nocc'ed up?
I have chosen to inoculate 12 culture jars; all made with BRF.
Quote:
Webster10 said: Did you remember to put a layer of vermiculite over your subtrate?
I remembered to put my layer of vermiculite over the substrate. The layer is dry, plain, and sits roughly 1/2 an inch thick. A couple of these jars verm layer got a little bit shuffled during sterilization and merely me handling them a little too roughly, but all in all the layer seems to be intact in the jars.
Quote:
Webster10 said:What mix ratio did you use for your substrate?
For the contents of the substrate, I went ahead and used the 2 parts vermiculite to every 1 part water and 1 part BRF. Since I knew I was making 12 jars, I decided I wanted 4.8 cups of vermiculite, 2.4 cups BRF, and 2.4 cups water.
To make the mixture I merely eyeballed the amounts I threw into my bowl. I started with the water and the vermiculite, mixed very thoroughly, then added the BRF and mixed thoroughly some more. By the end the mixture was very even, fluffy, and slightly damp as the picture indicates.
Quote:
Webster10 said:Did you take the tin foil off of your jars after they were done sterilizing?
I did. Just before inoculating each culture jar, I went ahead and removed the foil, inoculated, and then left the foil off and disposed of it in the waste basket.
Quote:
Webster10 said:How much mL of spore solution did you inject in each hole?
Since I was doing 12 jars and only had easy access to one of my syringes, I inoculated slightly less than 1 cc into each jar, distributing the amount evenly between all four of the holes in each lid.
By the last jar, I was really hurting for more spores, and one of the holes barely got much of anything, but otherwise I did a surprisingly good job of distributing everything out evenly. (at least I was surprised that I had managed to make it through 12 jars with only one syringe.)
Hope this answers the questions so far!! 
Throw anymore that ya got right at me and I'll answer best I can!!!
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 When I was a boy, I was afraid to die. When I became a man I was afraid to live. But, when I became a little bit wiser, I became a child who walks with death. Now, I play outside every day in a never ending summer; my glory days never faded. And I smile ironically in the face of my doom.
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cronicr



Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 61,436
Loc: Van Isle
Last seen: 2 years, 1 month
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nailed it!
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  It doesn't matter what i think of you...all that matters is clean spawn I'm tired do me a favor
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Webster10
Up like Trump


Registered: 12/03/13
Posts: 9,966
Loc: Strawberry Fields
Last seen: 6 years, 3 months
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Re: My First Grow [Re: cronicr]
#19419400 - 01/14/14 08:05 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
cronicr said: nailed it!
... I really am looking forward to seeing the first flush.
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Matty_Rulez
Lurker, explorer



Registered: 01/13/02
Posts: 269
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 2 months, 9 days
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good start...
-------------------- Life would be tragic if it weren't funny. - Stephen Hawking
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Valyr
Con nulla non si fa nulla.


Registered: 05/08/13
Posts: 381
Last seen: 6 years, 9 months
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Ah yes, the good ole pk tek days . Looks very good so far OP.
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Dense Cake
Vinyl Freak



Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 184
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Re: My First Grow [Re: Valyr]
#19421001 - 01/15/14 02:06 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Thanks so much for the support, guys. Like I say, everything that I have learned has been 100% off of the web. If growing is something you are dedicated to learning and memorizing your tek, then you will have positive results.
But of course I'm still getting ahead of myself. Jars are just in my closet right now with NO growth and absolutely nothing to show for my efforts so far.
..........I'm waiting ever so patiently.
I will update with pictures as soon as I get some growth;
Any growth.
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 When I was a boy, I was afraid to die. When I became a man I was afraid to live. But, when I became a little bit wiser, I became a child who walks with death. Now, I play outside every day in a never ending summer; my glory days never faded. And I smile ironically in the face of my doom.
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Krik
Spider



Registered: 10/17/13
Posts: 29
Last seen: 1 year, 5 months
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I know they aren't recommended but I used tall 1/2 pints and Miracle Grow perlite and have had pretty fine success.
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Dense Cake
Vinyl Freak



Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 184
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Re: My First Grow [Re: Krik]
#19421170 - 01/15/14 03:43 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Krik said: I know they aren't recommended but I used tall 1/2 pints and Miracle Grow perlite and have had pretty fine success.
Yeah neither of these things seem like too big an issue to me.
I didn't personally use the tall jars like BELL SPROUT, and am really glad I got the kerr wide mouth ones that I wanted, but I imagine the only real problem is getting the cakes out intact, which can probably be done just by simply being more careful.
As for the perlite, my plan is just to rinse the shit out of that mother in the bathtub and get it really clean. I want to rinse my batches once or twice over the course of several days if I can, but if you guys know of any better way to deal with the miracle grow and all of it's algae proneness ahead of time, that would be fantastic information to have.
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 When I was a boy, I was afraid to die. When I became a man I was afraid to live. But, when I became a little bit wiser, I became a child who walks with death. Now, I play outside every day in a never ending summer; my glory days never faded. And I smile ironically in the face of my doom.
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vikingsc
Mushroom Enthusiast



Registered: 01/11/12
Posts: 1,214
Loc: British Columbia, Canada
Last seen: 6 months, 14 days
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Krik are you saying you use perlite in your cakes?
The tall ones also compact the cake too much and make it difficult to colonize the bottoms. They can work, but the widemouths are much better and colonize much quicker.
Nocc'ing up from spores can take up until a week before you see any growth, but usually within 3 or 4 days you'll see some growth.
Did you use a SAB to knock up your jars? or open air? Dis you flame your syringe at least before every jar?
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Eclipse3130
Servant of the Fungi



Registered: 10/06/13
Posts: 6,236
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 2 hours, 48 minutes
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Re: My First Grow [Re: vikingsc]
#19422627 - 01/15/14 12:35 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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I'll be watching, looks like you got everything down!
-------------------- "In The Material World One seeks retirement and grows Old In The Magical World One seeks Enlightenment and grows Wiser In The Miraculous World One seeks nothing and grows Lighter As we all tread the Homeward Path we will explore many Realms And one day... we will all Realize that all experiences are Simply Different ways in which The All-That Is Perceives Itself"
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Dense Cake
Vinyl Freak



Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 184
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Re: My First Grow [Re: vikingsc]
#19422725 - 01/15/14 12:58 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
vikingsc said:Did you use a SAB to knock up your jars? or open air? Dis you flame your syringe at least before every jar?
Hello there. This is actually one of the things I chose to skimp on. I did not inoculate my culture jars using a glove box, and instead chose to inoculate in the open air. I will describe the way my inoculation went in detail.
For the inoculating procedure, I first wiped down an island counter in my kitchen with Clorox wipes and a dry paper toil. I took my completely cooled pot and set it on my island counter to begin the procedure.
Without any gloves on (but with clean hands), I prepared my needle and syringe for inoculation. I had a clean whiskey glass on the counter to place my syringe in upside down (with the needle in the air) between each inoculation so that I could take some time to unwrap the foil on the top of each particular jar I was inoculating.
Before my first jar, and subsequently between each jar after that I flame sterilized my needle with a bic lighter that I used to use for smoking weed some month or two ago. I would hold the flame under the needle in such a way that the blue portion of it was continuously running up and down the needle for something like 30 seconds. My needle never glowed red hot, which had me worried for some reason, because I felt as though 30 seconds under the flame was not enough time to actually sterilize everything completely.
Nevertheless, once the needle had become very hot, I would slowly press down the plunger on my syringe and hear the hissing of the syringe liquid coming out of the tip and steaming up into the air. As soon as I heard that noise stop I realized my needle was cool again and immediately went to inoculate the four holes of my culture jars.
So for the first step I set my syringe down in the whiskey glass so that the needle was in the air, and never touching a surface of any kind. Second step was to unwrap each jar and throw the foil away. Thirdly, I sterilized my needle for roughly 30 seconds. And finally, as soon as the needle had been cooled from the ejection of a tiny bit of syringe liquid, I would immediately go in to inoculate.
Once I had completed the inoculation of a jar, I just moved it to the cleaner side of my island where they slowly gathered and by the end all 12 were sitting there.
As I said in a previous reply, I did not put the foil back on the jars once I was done with the procedure, and simply transported them to my site of incubation in another room of my place where they now sit.
I inoculated on January 13th and it is January 15th now. Still on signs of growth today, but I also may not be looking closely enough. I know that if the temperature is A-ok in my place I should be able to see some stuff in the next few days.
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 When I was a boy, I was afraid to die. When I became a man I was afraid to live. But, when I became a little bit wiser, I became a child who walks with death. Now, I play outside every day in a never ending summer; my glory days never faded. And I smile ironically in the face of my doom.
Edited by Dense Cake (01/15/14 12:58 PM)
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Valyr
Con nulla non si fa nulla.


Registered: 05/08/13
Posts: 381
Last seen: 6 years, 9 months
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When I actually started I didnt use a glovebox or anything either. What i did do though was I would preheat my over to 300 then open it up and pull out a rack and use that as a work space keeping my gear and such inside of the flow of hot sterilized air.
I never had a problem with this technique. Not a single contam.
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Dense Cake
Vinyl Freak



Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 184
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Re: My First Grow [Re: Valyr]
#19422819 - 01/15/14 01:17 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Valyr said:What i did do though was I would preheat my over to 300 then open it up and pull out a rack and use that as a work space keeping my gear and such inside of the flow of hot sterilized air.
Really clever; good job! Was not smart enough to employ anything like that, plus my oven is tiny and next to a wall.
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 When I was a boy, I was afraid to die. When I became a man I was afraid to live. But, when I became a little bit wiser, I became a child who walks with death. Now, I play outside every day in a never ending summer; my glory days never faded. And I smile ironically in the face of my doom.
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cronicr



Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 61,436
Loc: Van Isle
Last seen: 2 years, 1 month
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build a sab
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  It doesn't matter what i think of you...all that matters is clean spawn I'm tired do me a favor
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