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tradal
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Registered: 06/11/15
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Last seen: 8 years, 6 months
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first time grower, freaking out
#21795776 - 06/12/15 01:48 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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hey guys, so this is my second thread ive made, I made one yesterday on the contamination forum, but I got very little responses from it and I really want more than 2 people giving me their thoughts and ideas.
im super new to growing, I have roughly 12 hours of interboobz study so theres a great deal I don't know. please bear with me.
my issues are as follows:
1.) I have ONE birthed cake that made little cotton balls which then immediately turned green. there is no smell, and I have no clue whats going on. look at the most recent pics in my gallery to view them. i inoculated this cake with 10ccs into every hole, the cake colonized perfectly and i had VERY high hopes for this cake... so this green shit... is really... breaking my damn heart...
2.) im using a PF tek ultrasonic humidifier setup. do I still need to mist? I am keeping the humidity at 99%. pics of my setup in my gallery as well.
3.) how can I successfully identify contaminants? ive thrown away 29 jars and ive burned through a great deal of my spore syringes. this is getting very costly. if I see gray, I toss. if I see offwhite, I toss. if I see yellow, I toss. but really, all im seeing is gray. i have a pic in my gallery of one of my jars in question. notice how on one side its light white, then on the other its like grayish?? wtf? what is that? i would toss it but someone on the contaminants forum said this was good.
4.)i sterilize my jars, then i sterilize my cake, then i inoculate. to sterilize i am boiling for 1 hour 15-20 minutes. is this enough? i DO wait for everything to cool off.
5.)i touched my cake with the green stuff on it, near the vermiculite base, and it felt very dry. i had a temp control issue and my grow room went from 81-94F. the humidity dropped to low 70%. is this cake dead? can it be rehabbed? can this green stuff be dealt with? what do i do? please tell me 
ive researched as much as i know how to. most of the crap im reading is telling me to just discard the entire cake... but so much spores went into this thing :/ ive had a couple threads say stuff like cut it in half and look for stuff inside it, but this green stuff first appeared onh the very top of the white puffy stuff. i wanted to exacto knife it off when i first saw it yesterday, but i waited for responses from contaminants forum and now instead of white cottonballs with green stuff on them, i have green cottonballs on top of white stuff. i feel like this is game over for this cake, but id love an expert opinion. please check my gallery, the cake in question will be the most recent uploads.
on a side note... i colonized my first 30 jars at 81-89F, from what i read the mycelium grows fastest just before it hits the deadly temperatures... ive since just changed the temp of my entire room to a very easily controllable temp of 70-80F with a constant average of 72-77F. should i go colder? should i go hotter? am i overthinking this? i feel like i am.
FAE(is that right?) isn't supposed to be an issue for the PF tek ultrasonic humidifier. at least that's what it said on the guide... should i be opening the top of my terrarium and wafting air at my cakes? im not doing that, but i just read a thread about someone doing that and he had really nice pictures of some shrooms.
id really really really love it if someone could get back to me asap. if you private me, ill give you my kik for faster communication.
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tradal
Stranger

Registered: 06/11/15
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795816 - 06/12/15 02:03 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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so many views, zero responses =//// can one of you looky-lous please respond???
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tradal
Stranger

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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795819 - 06/12/15 02:04 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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really just talk. tell me anything. I am all eyes and ears, you have my full 100% attention and im desperate for guidance.
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fearnoevil
Stranger than you think ;?D

Registered: 06/07/15
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795831 - 06/12/15 02:13 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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First off are you sure it's the green meanie and not just some bruising which happens sometimes? Second, how clean is your area? If you leave bread out, how quickly will it grow mold? Do you live in a warm, humid climate (contams love that kind of climate)? These affect you because if there's just a ton of contams in or around your grow it will increase the odds. Hotter, dryer climes are better, but relative humidiy can be so low as to cause other problems.
SOLUTIONS: Get a small enough area, like a closet, that will fit your grow, then clean ther shit out of it, use lots of Lysol. Always make sure you have STILL AIR when working, that means no fans or AC running when you're working. Use nitrile glove and lots of alky to wash your hands between each step, wipe with paper towels to dry alky before handling cakes/subs. When making up your sub, if you've got contams in your house and just can't get rid of them all, get some 3% Peroxide, prep your substrate a little dry, not quite field capacity, then when sterilizing your casing, also sterilize a jar of clean water. Then when mixing up the substrate in you tray, mix eqal parts of peroxide and H20, then work it throughly into the sub, adding just enough to get to full field capacity then add your spawn or cakes. The peroxide will keep contams at bay while the myc may take an extra day or two to adapt to it but it won't hurt it. I should take off and be able to colonize the sub fairly quickly. Btw peroxide does destroy spores, but myc possess an enzyme, I believe, which can neutralize the peroxide. These are just some ideas, need a bit more details to fit it to your exact situation. Good luck ;?D
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ShroominMe
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795837 - 06/12/15 02:17 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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It's toast, sorry You can keep it if you want but make sure you isolate it from anything else you're growing.
I think you're tossing too quickly. Yellow can be mycopiss (metabolites). Some cubes colonize gray and then turn to white.
81-89 degrees is too high. 75-80 is better, less chance of contams.
You should always have a few things going on, especially as a beginner, so you don't get too discouraged.
BTW boiling is not sterilizing.
I suggest reading a lot more before you continue. Don't want you giving up!!!
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tradal
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: fearnoevil]
#21795862 - 06/12/15 02:29 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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that's just it, im not sure if its green meanie. its growing ON the aerial mycelium. not the actual cake itself... or at least it was. It takes a fresh bag of bread about a month after its expiration to start molding up. I have 3 month old flour tortillas that sit in a cupboard that I eat regularly with nutella.
I use isopropyl alcohol to sterilize everything, as well as heat. I haven't done the h20+peroxide thing yet, but ive just used all but 2 of my syringes to prep 9 more cakes.
when prepping my substrate... I treat it like food... I wash my hands good, then knead it like dough. with my hands.
what details do you need? I will answer anything.
my grow is in my closet, I have a heater pointed away on the floor, and I have a ceiling AC vent pumping down and away from my grow... in my closet. I did NOT sterilize my terrarium. I was under the impression that the terrarium wouldn't need it because a fully colonized substrate is like duke nukem versus Pikachu when foreign contaminants try to beef with the cakes. should I pull my cakes and isopropyl it down?
if I prep more jars, do I do the peroxide thing while making the substrate? or do I do that after I inoculate it? how do I get mycelium for a fresh cake??
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tradal
Stranger

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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795866 - 06/12/15 02:30 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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dammit!!!!!!!! Q_Q
what killed it? how is it toast? was it possible to have cut that green stuff off and it have been good to go?
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tradal
Stranger

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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795872 - 06/12/15 02:33 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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as for boiling... I follow the directions from the guide I found on erowid.org for... pasteurizing? not sure wht the word im looking for is there. ive noticed that the cakes I prepped today were a lot more... loose than the ones I made witht he first 30. or maybe im just not remembering correctly. will the substrate be loose after its been sterilized? will it require the mycelium to make it hard?
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tradal
Stranger

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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795876 - 06/12/15 02:35 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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the cake were currently discussing has turned a dark color where I touched it about an hour and a half ago. the green stuff is just on top. are you sure I cant just cut it off?
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ShroominMe
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795894 - 06/12/15 02:47 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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You can try pouring salt or H2O2 onto the green crap. I've even read that burning it with a soldering iron works.
If you cut it out you'll just spread the contam.
I only did cakes once my first grow so I'm no expert, sorry.
This may interest you: Green Molds
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Grimley
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21795898 - 06/12/15 02:50 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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10cc's pr. hole?? That's waaay to much...
why not build yourself a SGFC?
And why make so many jars when new to growing?
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Routine is lethal!
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Machiavelliavore
Vermiculite Hater



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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: Grimley]
#21795922 - 06/12/15 03:14 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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1st off, please take a better photo.
Serious bruising and bluing can occur when mycellium dries out. Maybe try schwabbing the region you're concerned about with a Q-tip and see if anything green comes off on it, that would be a sure sign you have a contaminant. If so I suggest you cut around it. You don't need to worry about your mycellium contaminating, any colonized area will by highly resistant to contams. You can still get fruits out of partially contaminated stuff. Also sniff it once you cut. Trich tends to look a little bit yellower, feel less solid (not rubbery like myc), and smell funky.
Did you flame sterilize your needle?
Is your fruiting chamber wet? That could be a problem. It's easy to overdo it with an Ultrasonic humidifier and get water everywhere.
If you are concerned about preserving your spore syringe, perhaps try making a liquid culture of some kind. I suspect you could properly sterilize the LC without a PC, and if you are successful, you will have all the inocculant you need.
Lastly, if indeed you live in contam city, consider buying some RTV silicon ~$5, and making self-healing injection ports on your PF jars. There are many guides, if you have issues finding them let me know.
Also I thought 90 minutes without a pressure cooker was the minimum for cakes, though I think it's the bacteria that are a bitch to kill not the mold spores (could be wrong.)
From what I can see in that photo of the partially gray one, it looks like it hasn't quite finished colonizing but it's very hard to tell.
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I spawned some popcorn casings and had double-overlay cause I didn't put enough hydrogen peroxide in my automated aquarium mister. I only got one mushroom so I cut off the head part where the seeds fall from and put it in a jar of LC and sprayed it all over a tin of PF cakes I made with gravel, cardboard, and bisquick in my microwave. I think it will be good cause B+ is so potent. Triggered yet? Only a square would say "a cube is a cube."
No, this does not look right...
Edited by Machiavelliavore (06/12/15 03:18 AM)
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Sksoul
Pan handler



Registered: 10/31/14
Posts: 397
Loc: Far East
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1 10ml syringe should be able to make you 10 cakes, if not a little more. I think you need to read a little more brother. All the information you need is just a mouse-click away. Search google, instead of the in-site search function. Google will bring you back here anyways but closer to what you are looking for.
-------------------- Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
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FreeWorldOrder


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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: Sksoul]
#21796237 - 06/12/15 07:07 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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First of all, I would ditch the US humidifier and just mist and fan. Works 100x better IMO.
Sounds like you may have a trich contamination. Get that shit outside.
Start over, and next time play close attention to your sterile procedure. It sounds like you may have messed up somewhere.
Did you use a still air box, gloves, dust mask when you inoculated? Make sure to flame sterilize the needle before inoculating each jar.
Also be sure to steam sterilize for 90 MINUTES! This could very well be where you ran into trouble.
Sounds like you need to do some more reading before starting your next attempt.
Check out the RR VIDEOS link in my signature...
-------------------- "They who can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin Lets Grow Mushrooms Videos PastyWhyte's Easy Agar TEK Agar's Liquid Inoculant TEK
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Buck513

Registered: 04/17/14
Posts: 5,682
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"First time grower, freaking out"
Sounds about right.
-------------------- Fail to plan and you plan to fail. Enter the Ban Lottery
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Green Bastard
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: Buck513]
#21796491 - 06/12/15 09:02 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Get a pressure cooker?
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Inocuole
Scalpel of Evil's Bane



Registered: 11/21/11
Posts: 24,863
Loc: ★
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: Buck513]
#21796523 - 06/12/15 09:10 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Buck513 said: "First time grower, freaking out"
Sounds about right.
For real though. Gotta love the "shoot first ask questions later" types that jump right in doing goofy shit without having read anything.
Also use the edit button on your posts OP, before somebody mods you for spamming.
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tradal
Stranger

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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: Inocuole]
#21796673 - 06/12/15 09:55 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Trolls gtfo. Not here to get harassed or insulted. I'm here to get help. Maybe you didn't notice but I only registered for this site like 2 nights ago... So... Kick rocks or somethingn. If you can't help, don't reply.
I think I might have screwed myself on this new batch of cakes, I don't think I cooked them long enough... Jars are already inoculated so we'll see. I'm going to buy masks and gloves here in a bit. I thought the humidifier was the easiest ?
Also, mushrooms don't grow in my part of the world... At least not outside. Lol. Wayyy too dry and hot. Should I still find a hole to bury this cake in? Or just scrap it? I'm used to just tossing the entire thing.
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Sksoul
Pan handler



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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21796703 - 06/12/15 10:01 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Did you really inject 10 (ten) cc's of solution into each hole?
There is a ton of information out there on the pf tek... step by step guides with pictures accompanying them. this should help: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pf+tek
max 1 (one) cc per jar. wait til full colonization and let consolidate for a week to 10 days. birth, dunk, roll, fruit.
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mastercultivator
Master Cultivator


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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21796719 - 06/12/15 10:04 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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If you take clearer photos, especially of the suspected mold I'll take the time to answer your question later. Don't freak out. What does it get you anyway.
What you are asking me to do is to read a book in your post, after stating you don't know anything much, and giving me no clear photos to go on.
Do your end first then complain.
--------------------
    I'm awesome sauce with a dash of sunshine.
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Inocuole
Scalpel of Evil's Bane



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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21796726 - 06/12/15 10:06 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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I'll reply with what I think you should hear, whether or not you want to hear it, actually, thanks. A few posts ago you were begging for responses.
If you're going to steam sterilize you should be doing it at LEAST 90 minutes, but more like 2 hours to be sure, and as was stated, boiling is not sterilizing.
Or you could pressure cook them and be absolutely sure that sterilization was a success.
More than anything though, read before you do stuff, and get second opinions on what you're going to do so that you don't waste time and materials.
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/19140341#19140341
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tradal
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: Inocuole]
#21796796 - 06/12/15 10:27 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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I've already disposed of the suspect cake, I broke down my terrarium and lysol''ed it. When I pulled the cake out, it smelled like a delicious yummy shroom, and I went to pinch off the green stuff to see if it was underneath and it wasn't. I'm going to prep more substrate now and let it cook for 2 hours. I labeled everything, so I'll just see which ones grow and which ones don't.
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Inocuole
Scalpel of Evil's Bane



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Posts: 24,863
Loc: ★
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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21796805 - 06/12/15 10:29 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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I sure hope that wasn't just a case of bruising.
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tradal
Stranger

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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21796856 - 06/12/15 10:45 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Sksoul - I did it for my last cake of my first batch. I acquired a very large amount of syringes, and these things have a shelf life. I was a little too enthusiastic, I had dreams of fields of shrooms... I don't plan on doing that again. Also, thank you very much for that link. Im kicking myself right now for not letting my jars cook longer... Oh well, learn from mistakes.
Master cultivator - Ive already disposed of the cake, it was very good smelling but I wanted to get to work with cleaning everything so I just chucked and did so. I wish I had a better camera, but I dont all my pics will probably be with this camera 
Free world order - I appreciate the help and videos.
Machivelliavore - I didn't sterilize my needles with fire, they were fresh out the pack.
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misiu007
Stranger Danger



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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: tradal]
#21796993 - 06/12/15 11:22 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Here is my advice, READ. There are plenty of great TEKs on this very site that will guide you step by step and get you the field of shroomies you've been dreaming of. The fact that you didn't use gloves when inoculating, shot up entire syringe into a jar etc etc, tells me you haven't done your homework. And if you don't do your homework, youre going to fail at this. Not saying this to be an ass, just telling you what you need to do to get what you want.
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Machiavelliavore
Vermiculite Hater



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Re: first time grower, freaking out [Re: misiu007]
#21797400 - 06/12/15 12:53 PM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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I thought that 10CC was a typo, lol. And you should flame sterilize between cakes no matter what if you're doing open air nocs.
You did use the vermiculite barrier layer on top, yes?
Again, I would highly look at using self-healing silicon injection ports.
Calm down. You shouldn't be so hasty to toss everything. It doesn't even matter if there are trich spores in your fruiting chamber, colonized substrate is contaminant resistant until it expends all of its energy. Not saying cleaning is a bad idea, it's a good idea, but there's no need to freak out.
Lastly, if you're serious about "a field of shrooms," get a still air box and a pressure cooker, READ, and follow instructions more precisely.
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I spawned some popcorn casings and had double-overlay cause I didn't put enough hydrogen peroxide in my automated aquarium mister. I only got one mushroom so I cut off the head part where the seeds fall from and put it in a jar of LC and sprayed it all over a tin of PF cakes I made with gravel, cardboard, and bisquick in my microwave. I think it will be good cause B+ is so potent. Triggered yet? Only a square would say "a cube is a cube."
No, this does not look right...
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