Edmunter said:

Reading this I just wondered had anyone used the Nutri bullet to do this yet?

I have one but im not sure u can pressure cook it.

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Quote:

Mr. Alien said: What muda did was not create a fancy blender tek but more importantly to separe those two terms LC-LI, and no one did that before.

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What did nobody do before? The mushroom cultivator only talks about LI, and did use that term "liquid inoculation", it talks of dumping agar plates in blenders, and also of scraping the plates with the syringe needle to loosen it and suck it up, which also brings in minimal nutrients. He mentions leaving the outer ring of the agar plate behind as the edges are supposed to be more prone to contams. I thought the TMC book actually had no mention of liquid cultures i.e. injecting into a nutrient broth, I can see just one passing mention of culturing bacteria in a broth -but the main section on LI has no mention of broths.

I was always told it was the simple sugars typically used in LCs which were contam prone (along with excess water). As mentioned the ~10-25ml agar plate will be adding sugars to your water. If sugars are the main worry then your agar could have no simple sugars, just be grain based. Some say myc grown on a agar made of the intended end substrate may do better, as its already gotten used to it, so may take it easier & faster.

In this thread Workman (of sporeworks) recommended a agar of 2% malt extract, and a broth of only 0.1-0.5%
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/4332098#4332098
So his broths are as low as 1/20th of what the agar plate is. So blending up a "regular strength" agar plate is possibly making a broth he considers ideal. I understand the point that it is not given much time like this but still reckon it could be minimised. I wonder if 0.1% agar plates would be any use.

I have done many heavy LC grows, I was aware of contam issues so would let them colonise very well. I also avoid shaking grains by growing in their fruiting trays. Expanded grains suck up LC very well and I believe this is the key to rapid colonisation, its like micro bits of myc might be getting into the core of the partially dry grains rather than just sitting on top. You make expanded grains several ways, oversoaking and drying them off in a microwave to drive moisture out. Or baking/toasting grains.

I have made several "blades", the biggest is about 6" in diameter in a 5L tub and is all stainless passing through a PTFE bushing, this was for sclerotia grows, pulverising grains to expose the inner bits as it was not going to be reopened and so not contam prone. The simplest ones are simple stainless rods which are bent into an L shape. The lower part is hammered flat and sharpened. If only mixing up agar this may not even be necessary. And the forces needed in blending agar are minimal. My blades attach directly into a drill, i.e. I tighten the rod directly in the drill chuck. With this agar method there is probably no need for a drill, it could be turned by hand, so a strong bushing is not essential.

The simplest I can think of right now which is readily available would be a stainless kebab skewer

If you were lazy and did not want to bend and sharpen a blade it could possibly be used as is, you can see the rounded bit you hold should be able to blend up simple agar. The top end could be cut and stuck in a drill, or it could be bend over to give you a handle to turn it easily. A cork could be stuck on the end and twist it by hand, like starting a fire, rubbing it quickly between your palms. The bushing could be a test tube stopper or maybe an injection port. Mine are all PTFE. If you have a hole in your lid you could possibly build up a thicker lid by siliconing on little discs of plastic, so they form a stack maybe 1/2" high, then drill a hole through them all to put your skewer through. A heated skewer may be able to be pushed through the lot of them.

I have a few types of magnetic stirring jars, some which would easily blend up agar plates. I have a dismantled hot water pump which has a magnetic drive. There is a plastic part with turbine vanes in it which has 4 magnets held inside the plastic. The motor has 4 matching magnets and they are strong enough that I can spin the vanes when they are through a layer of glass. So I can sterilize jars with the enclosed magnets in the jars.

I also have large stainless ball bearings which are magnetic (some stainless is not magnetic). These are also attracted by the same motor with magnets and so I can spin the ball bearings in the jar at very high speed. A very simple device could be made like this. If you had magnetic stainless steel self tapping screws in your jar they would easily cut up agar. Now all you need is a strong magnet to attract them through the glass, it may be possible to just pull the magnet back and forward to blend it up. If not a magnetic stirring device could be made for a drill. You get a rod of metal, bend into an L, glue the magnet to the end of the L shape and stick the other in the drill, now you have an off centre magnet so when the drill turns the magnet spins around in a wider diameter, pulling the screw with it.

blackout said:

Quote:

Mr. Alien said: What muda did was not create a fancy blender tek but more importantly to separe those two terms LC-LI, and no one did that before.

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What did nobody do before? The mushroom cultivator only talks about LI.

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I have read now the TMC liquid inoculating section and it does say something about bleding agar wedges... Well muda you suck then .

Still nobody used LI term (in shroomery) before, I have seen some cases in shroomery of other guys that blended some wedges years ago but they still called it LC's, which they are! But at least now we know when someone refer to LI in shroomery that is blended myc to use it right away.

cArcace-x said:

can u disassemble it to see if there is a plastic code or something?
i dont think its PCable

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