Okay, here goes... I decided to try my hand at PF Tek.

Not too bad, eh!?
So here's what I did.
Step one, fell in love with the Shroomery and read, read, read, then off to youtube and the web. Armed with enough knowledge to be dangerous I proceeded.

I bought two syringes (B+ and Alacbenzi) from a shop on Youngsterdamned in TO, gathered the items and ingredients I required and made my goop. I had to play with it to get the oatmealish texture I wanted. (One part brown rice flour / two parts verm / add water to taste)

I filled my jars and topped them with dry verm. Careful to wipe the edges of the jars with with an ISO cloth before screwing on the lids.

Made sure my lids were perforated as recommended, tight, but not too tight. Since opinions differed between lid up or down, I tried both. Wiped the jars and around the lids with more ISO.

I then put them in the pressure cooker for the recommended time/temp/pressure and waited. I left them in the still sealed pot overnight to cool off.

Yay! It's day two and inoculation time. I didn't use a glove box or flow hood. Instead, lazy me, I just used a clear bin that I thoroughly cleaned and washed with ISO. I wore gloves and a mask to minimize infection and scrubbed my arms and gloved hands with ISO as well. I heated the needle red hot and wiped with an ISO cloth between injections.

Then I nested them in a box that fit the jars and added a few rags to keep them cozy and minimize clanging when I moved the box. I stored the box on a top shelf in my utility room.

After about a month it started showing signs of growth. Exciting stuff indeed.

After two month the jars seemed fully colonized and I could barely contain myself. It was go time!

I washed them off. I was little surprised to see there was still visible goop spots. Already birthed at this point, so no turning back. I do them all. They where a bitch to birth, I even broke one in half trying to get it out of the jar. I may wait a little longer next time, until they start receding from the jar a bit instead of just when they are all white. PS. Both halves of the one I broke fruited.

They look good from this angle.

I plopped them in a bowl that I had washed, ISOed and filled with distilled water. I used a plate that fit just inside the bowl to weight them down and put it in the fridge for a day (about 22hrs).

After rolling them in fresh verm I placed them on little foil squares on top of a bed of perlite in my diy fruiting chamber.

Now about my fruiting chamber... I dreamed this up. It's experiment time. Here are the specs. I bought a clear tub, with a clear lid from Walmart. I then drilled three largish holes on both long sides of the bin and covered the holes with gauze. On one end of the bin I cut a whole and fit a PC power supply fan using silicon and electrical tape. I spliced the fan wires to an AC adapter that matched in voltage and plugged it into a timer. The fan is positioned to suck air out of the chamber rather than blow air in. On the other end I drilled several largish holes in a tight pattern to match the fan hole and also covered them with gauze. I drilled a hole in the lid and fit it with a rubber grommet. I bought a personal humidifier, also from Walmart (20 bucks I think) and fitted a clear hose from it to the grommeted hole in the lid. The humidifier was then plugged into a separate timer. I placed a seedling heating mat under the bin and I strung a light to the wall above it, also connected to a separate timer.

Here's a closer look at the fan. Nothing too complicated. I also placed a mercury thermometer in the perlite and two hygrometer in the bin, analogue on the perlite and digital thermo/hygrometer suction cupped to the side.
My timing schedule was as follows:
Fan: on four times in a 24 hour period for 3 minutes. Humidifier: on four times in a 24 hour period for 30 min, set to start 1 minutes before fan stops. Light: on for 12 hours in a 24 hour period.
Pretty fancy pantsy, eh...

Forever it seemed like nothing was happening, then about 10 days after birthing I noticed some pinning and fruiting. I swear to God I came in my pants a little, I was that stoked. Way cool, shit is happening!





First the B+, then the Alacbenzi, in that order. Now I know who is the fast fruiter, not by much mind you. I did get a substantially bigger yield from the B+ and they where nicer fatter shrooms.

All in all I yielded just shy of two OZ (dry) over two flushes. Not too shabby for a first go at it if I don't say so myself. I did try for a third flush, but it was a no go. Green mold started infecting the cakes at that point and it was time to wash and flush the mess that was left.

That is the fancy drying method I used. A cardboard flat lined with paper towels and a fan blowing on the flat for about a week.

High tech all the way. Worked well enough.

I'm enjoying this way too much. So, think ahead, grabbed a few caps fresh off the shrooms and made some prints. This a a B+ cap being printed. So easy, I love it.

The Alacabenzi were smaller caps. The spore printing method I used was to plop a cap down on an ISO washed rectangle of foil resting on a folded paper napkin and cover it with a glass for 12 hours(ish).

Look at the nice B+ print I found while enjoying my morning coffee.

I love the ridges and the pattern it makes. Nice heavy cake of spore on the foil makes me hopeful.

I folded them up carefully, slid them into a zippy bag and stored them in my fridge crisper. Ready to use when I am.
I found this a very positive first time experience in indoor home cultivation. Maybe I was just lucky first time round. I guess I'll find out.

I have now inoculated more jars with the spore I took from my first batch. They seem to be coming along just fine after a month. Mind you I may have way more spores in my diy syringes then I got in my store bought ones.

Beer cap for perspective.
Wish me luck in my future endeavors and I will reciprocate. Comments, constructive criticism and questions are welcome.
Thank you Shroomery for all the guidance in my field research and for the richness of the information that you provided me in this endeavor.
Cheers!
Edited by drg (05/25/15 09:03 PM)
|