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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Bulk pasteurization Tek draft 1
#22064234 - 08/08/15 07:37 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Hot bath pasteurization can be done on a small to large scale with relative ease and consistency. This method works great with manure blends, wood mulch/chips, and straw. Substrates like coir and sawdust get oversaturated easily and take additional squeezing or pressing to get the moisture correct. The goal of hot bath pasteurization is 140-150F substrate temp for 90 min to kill off any unwanted organisms yet leaving the good beneficial organisms behind. When working with pasteurized substrates only clean hands, surfaces, and instruments are needed, no need for sanitizer. I like to use 5 gal paint strainers from a home improvement store to hold my substrate, they are typically found in the paint isle near the spray gun equipment. Other ideas for holding substrate are burlap sacks, used grain sacks, drawstring laundry bags or pillowcases. I will pre soak my mulch or straw in five gallon pails for 24-48 hours. After soaking i dump the pails out, add gypsum and split each pails contents into two bags. I secure the opening with some rope on a slip knot with a long tail. This keeps the substrate to a manageable size without the need of a hoist or pulleys and keeps most of the particles from collecting in the pasteurizer. I find if i pack the straw in tightly the gypsum wont fall through into the drum water.
I use a 55 gal steel open top drum with a 1500w hot water heater element. I managed to find some trimming of insulation and i place wood on top for a lid. Other good containers are steel or plastic garbage pails, brew kettles, and 300+ gal totes with the lids cut off, just to name a few. I used 12ga wires and a PVC cap with a cable gland and a ground screw drilled into the hex part of the element. This is a good element because it requires no additional circuits beyond a typical 120v 15A outlet. The only down side is it takes 5-6 hours for the water to hit target temperature with ~40 gal water. The easiest way to attach a hot water element to any vessel is drill your hole and use a 1” locknut on the inside of the drum utilizing the original elements o ring to seal it. I place two rocks around each side of the element to protect it from being bent by the weight of the bags.


Gr0wers Bulk pasteurization TEK,
Soaking is optinal but it will slightly increase the water content
1-2 days prior soak your chips or straw in pails with a hole in the lid to fill the water. Without the lid you will have to weigh down the substrate as it tends to float.

Pre heat your water to 160-170. I use a $20 Taylor probe thermometer with a temperature alarm to notify me when to unplug the element. The more you cram into your pasteurizer by weight the higher the initial temperature will need to be to hit target temp. It’s a good idea to write down your water volume and substrate amount to track any needed temperature adjustments for the next run. Do not turn on your element once your substrate is loaded! This will result in hotspots and possibly a burnt bag.
I keep my bags and ropes in the 3.5 gal pail on the table, the gypsum is on the floor. I place the pails on pails with lids to get them closer to the table level

Line pails with the strainers and load the bags with your soaked or dry straw. I like to add gypsum and espoma plant tone fertilizer ar 5% while filling to spread out the supplements. I weigh out each dry bag ensuring they're all evenly stuffed with 1600g of dry straw. With that i'll get 12 bags from one bale of pre shredded straw.

Cinch the tops with a slipknot.


Once the water is up to temp 160-170F you can start loading your bags. The top bag gets a probe in the substrate. I had to seal my probe with RTV and heat shrink to avoid water from filling the probe. If you're using a stovetop pot to pasteurize in place your PC bottom grate into the pot to prevent burning the bags when ramping the heat back up if needed.

Place a probe in your top bag to monitor core temp.

Weigh the bag(s) down using some stone or brick. Here i'm using pallet wood with bricks on top.

Place the lid on and wrap with a blanket or insulation, especially if ambient temps are low. If your doing a smaller stovetop batch and you drop below 140 remove the blanket and warm it up slowly while dunking the bag in and out of water, typically you would only need to do this once halfway through the process if at all. With a larger vessel you will have more thermal mass and see less temperature drop, so ramping the heat is not needed with 55 gal and larger tanks.

 After 90 min drain the water or if a second batch is planned pull the bags, add more water and get back to target temperature. The leftover water is primo tea for the garden especially if you’re using manures or supplements, just let it cool and dilute.
Some good rubber dipped gloves are good for handling the heat, rubber boots aren’t a bad idea either.

briefly draining the bags on a crossbeam before transferring to table

Place the bags on a clean surface to drip out and cool. Flip bags every 30-60 min to even out the cooling to speed up the process. I do my pasteurization outdoors and flies are bad around here, so I place a fan on the bags to speed up the cooling and keep the flies off. This also uses evaporation to cool the bags faster and well below ambient temp. Im typically spawning within 2-3 hours of pasteurization to keep the window for contamination down. Once the core temp of the bags is below 80F dump the bags, mix in the spawn and load your bags, pails, tubes. Pack it tight!!! Make slits, X's or whatever shaped holes every 6" or so and place into a clean room temp environment for colonization for 1-2 weeks.

Clean up is easy, I open the valve at the bottom of my drum and hose out any fine silt and sand at the bottom. My drum sits crooked on a 2x4 opposite the valve to make it drain completely. Wipe down the element to prevent caking of minerals and sediment. The bags and rope i just lay in the sun to dry, the next day i shake of the debris and place into a gal pail which goes into the pasteurizer for storage. I leave the lid off the pasteurizer once drained for a day or two to allow it to dry out and prevent rust.
I typically do 4-6 5 gal pails worth of substrate. 6-7 pails worth is about max for a 55 gal pail. When i use XL grow bags i stuff the contents of 3/4 of a pail into each bag. That gives me bags weighing in at 12-15 lbs when stuffed to just below the filter patch. Each bag gives me around 1.5 lbs of pinks over two flushes.
Edited by Gr0wer (12/07/15 11:45 AM)
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azur
God of Fuck



Registered: 04/21/12
Posts: 28,103
Loc: Daid
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22111027 - 08/19/15 11:38 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Nice write up
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22422778 - 10/23/15 12:45 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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updated with more pics
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22423248 - 10/23/15 02:20 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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purty much done.
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Yerow
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22423669 - 10/23/15 04:27 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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Aleon
The Power of Our Origins



Registered: 05/26/11
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22427530 - 10/24/15 02:33 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Gr0wer said: The leftover water is primo tea for the garden especially if you’re using manures or supplements, just let it cool and dilute.
Interesting, have you tried this? Most people claim that it kills everything you pour it on and use it for the exact opposite; as a herbicide.
-------------------- Mushroom medicines available at: www.swordandshieldwellness.com
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drake89
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Registered: 06/26/11
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Aleon]
#22427867 - 10/24/15 03:41 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Aleon said:
Quote:
Gr0wer said: The leftover water is primo tea for the garden especially if you’re using manures or supplements, just let it cool and dilute.
Interesting, have you tried this? Most people claim that it kills everything you pour it on and use it for the exact opposite; as a herbicide.
never heard of anyone actually verifying stamet's claim. with lime water either.
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poofterFroth
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Registered: 03/15/14
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Aleon]
#22427951 - 10/24/15 04:01 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Aleon said:
Quote:
Gr0wer said: The leftover water is primo tea for the garden especially if you’re using manures or supplements, just let it cool and dilute.
Interesting, have you tried this? Most people claim that it kills everything you pour it on and use it for the exact opposite; as a herbicide.
IME I've never noticed any negative effects from doing this, I've actually noticed the exact opposite. I always drain the straw pasteurization water from my barrels into my garden area. Weekly, for the past 2 years. And this seriously has done great wonders to my soil. Lots of left over straw debris gets tossed in to. Sometimes I swear most of the worms from my surrounding neighborhood are all jumping ship and coming to find refuge in the glorious nutrient rich haven my garden has become. 
But to be fair, I do only run two batches of straw before dumping it. And after the first batch I normally have to refill the barrel about halfway because of all the water the straw soaked up. Because of this I could probably do upwards to 4 batches before seeing negative effects. I don't use lime.
*i think stamets claims might be standard old-timer farmer knowledge thats kinda just lost or taken for truth in younger generations.
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: poofterFroth]
#22429393 - 10/24/15 08:51 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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What in straw water would make it a herbacide? My grass is green and lush and gets 40 gals of straw water a week for a few months now. That's just silly. Maybe with lime, or when its still 140f that would kill it.....
Does anyone see any errors or even typos? I would like to push this to be a tek.
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azur
God of Fuck



Registered: 04/21/12
Posts: 28,103
Loc: Daid
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22429628 - 10/24/15 09:38 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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In TMC, it states that you can only use the water for 2 rounds of pasteurization. After those 2 rounds, the water is toxic to plants. Idk
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: azur]
#22429649 - 10/24/15 09:41 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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I don't see anything that would make it toxic. But i only do one batch, allow it to cool and drain. I actually just got home today and realized i never drained from two days ago. OMG did it stink. The tek says to drain anyways so even if that was true it wouldn't be an issue.
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azur
God of Fuck



Registered: 04/21/12
Posts: 28,103
Loc: Daid
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22429653 - 10/24/15 09:42 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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Try doing two rounds and see if the water kills weeds
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: azur]
#22429776 - 10/24/15 10:10 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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I suppose i could. They would have to be back to back so im spawning in the same day. I hate having to spawn two days in a row.
Edited by Gr0wer (10/24/15 10:13 PM)
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Bulk pasteurization Tek draft [Re: Gr0wer]
#22478814 - 11/04/15 10:47 PM (8 years, 2 months ago) |
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Might be doing that back to back on Sunday. In other news im changing my tek slightly. Instead of soaking then dumping and bagging with gypsum and manure ill be bagging dry and adding my gypsum and chicken manure while the straw is dry. Then ill just put a bag in each bucket and soak like that. Reason being is KISS, and handling wet straw outside in the cold sucks especially since i have nerve damage on my hand and it doesn't temperature regulate well.
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