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OfflineDeezy P
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Deezy P's Beginners Guide
    #22193216 - 09/05/15 03:33 PM (8 years, 4 months ago)

I recently attempted my first monotub grow which consisted of 2 64 qt monotubs made from WBS/whole oats inoculated by MS and spawned to coir/verm/gypsum. Thanks to the wonderful supportive community we have here and countless members who helped me directly and indirectly, I couldn't have asked for a more satisfying success. With this post I hope to assist other new growers with concerns they may have by sharing my own concerns I had myself, mistakes I made while going into this project, and what I learned along the way. This is in no way any kind of tek, but more of a report of my first experience with monotubs that I hope others will find useful as a reference for their first grows as well. I am in no way an expert, so please take any information herein lightly.

As I'm sure anyone with experience will tell you, the first step before doing anything is to read, read again, and read some more. I buried my face in these forums for hours upon hours, and you won't get far without utilizing the vast information available here. Frank's 12 Steps to Shrooms helped me greatly, and I attribute a lot of my success to Frank himself. Pay attention to that guy, and you won't regret it  :super: 

What I learned while prepping my grains

I originally chose to use WBS in my qt jars due to it's availability and wide use throughout the shroomery by many cultivators. However, I knocked up 12 jars of WBS with MS, and after 4 weeks only produced 3 successful jars. It took a week and a half before I saw even the first sign of mycelium growth in a jar, a week more for the other two, and then a solid 4 weeks from inoculation for the 3 jars to be fully colonized. The other 9 never showed any signs of growth.

I believe I may have overcooked the WBS, leaving it too saturated for the mycelium. While some may consider WBS to be the optimal grain choice, I found that a lot of beginners (as well as myself) seem to have difficulty getting the water content of WBS right, and so I began to research alternate grains for a 2nd attempt to fill my remaining 9 jars.

I was able to purchase a 50lb bag of whole oats for less than $15 from a local rural feed supply. I found the prep to be friendlier than WBS as it was much easier to determine when the water content was right. I used van der griegen's whole oat prep for reference, which really is as easy as it looks. Oats can absorb a generous amount of moisture, so there's plenty of wiggle room for the correct water content.

After the oats were boiled, I laid them out on towels until they were dry to the touch. I then loaded them about 3/4 full in my jars, PC'd as usual, and then once cooled I used 1 of my 3 successful WBS jars as a master jar and carefully transferred colonized WBS into the newly prepared oat jars (inside my still air box, of course). The oats fully colonized within a week, and I was ready to spawn. Due to its friendliness to beginners and relatively cheap cost, I highly recommend considering using whole oats as your grains.

Side notes:
- Density of mycelium growth is not an indication of its health or future yields. The mycelium produced from the oats appeared very "whispy" and thin compared to the WBS which did concern me. The thin mycelium carried over from the jars to the tubs which made it a little difficult to determine full colonization of both, but in the end did not seem to affect my yield. I read that some mycelium can be whispy and produce huge yields, and others can be thick and produce nothing. Don't worry if yours does the same.
- Sitting your grains out to dry does take some time, so if possible maybe placing a fan in front of them will help speed things up (on low, of course, so that you don't blow them away). I used a hair dryer, but I felt it only slightly sped things up.  :shrug: 
- Performing a G2G was relatively easy, despite my weariness of opening my sterilized grain jars to spoon colonized grains in. I had no contaminates and it worked wonderfully. Don't be afraid to branch out and try new methods (G2G, cloning, LC...). Just read and always be sure not to cut corners in your sterilization techniques.

What I learned while prepping my spawn

I followed Franks 12 steps to prep my coco coir. I've seen  the bucket tek referenced as a half-assed way of prepping coir, but I had no problems with contaminates and this seems to be the most popular way to sterilize coir. The process is pretty simple, but it is important to start off by adding slightly less boiling water to your bucket with the coir/verm than what it calls for. I made the mistake of not reading up on this subject thoroughly, and as a consequence I learned the hard way.. I had boiled roughly enough water for my two buckets with a little extra figuring more wouldn't hurt. I divided the entire pot of water evenly between the buckets, and after I had let it sit and sterilize, I realized it was way too saturated with water. I then spent the next 2-3 hours squeezing water out of handfuls of coir, until it was back to field capacity. It sucked.

It is important to understand the term "field capacity." To quickly test the water content of your coir, you take a handful and squeeze it. If your coir is at field capacity, a few drops of water should come out. If you cannot squeeze any water out, you need more water. If a stream of water comes out, you need less water. Some people suggest you can add more verm to even the moisture content out if it's too wet. But if there is too much water, you will have to spend some  time squeezing water from the mix. That is why it is better to be too dry rather than too wet. You can add water easily, but it is a bitch to remove it. Don't do what I did.

Side notes:
- If preparing more than one brick of coir, do NOT attempt to use a single bucket. One brick will easily fill a 5 gallon bucket upon expanding, a that takes enough effort to mix as is.
- It is not necessary to break the coir up before adding it to the bucket, but I DO recommend it. I however did not, and I underestimated the difficulty of mixing the coir and verm evenly after left to sterilize in the bucket. I would not say it was hard, but I'll admit that I broke a sweat in the process  :lol:  Make it easier on yourself.

What I learned while constructing, colonizing, and fruiting my monotubs

Monotub holes and FAE: I followed Franks instructions for where to place the holes in the monotubs, but I only had a 1" hole saw available. I kinda stressed that 1" holes would restrict FAE too much, but it actually turned out great. I never had an issue with retaining moisture/humidity, but I [[[dialed my tubs in]]] and felt the polyfil was a bit too tight, restricting FAE and causing some of my fruits to abort. I took a little bit of polyfil out of each of the bottom holes, then removed the polyfil from the top holes and replaced them with literally just a pinch of polyfil. This seemed to work much better.
***PLEASE keep in mind that I'm referring to my 1" holes. I'm simply sharing my observations from my own personal experience. I believe that generally larger holes are used (Franks 12 steps calls for 1.5"), so take this information lightly. Dialing in your monotub like a boss works wonders, I just had to slightly adjust from there for it to work for my specific setup***

At one point in my 2nd flush, the polyfil fell completely out of one of the top holes without me noticing, and this actually seemed to help produce some of the monsterous fruits below. It could be coincidence, but in my opinion it seemed that all of the fruits on that side grew better than the rest. I remember reading one of the trusted cultivators stating they always fruit with one hole open (possibly Frank), and they may be on to something.

Also, when beginning to make my holes I put a little too much pressure on the drill and took a big chunk out of my tub. I stuffed with polyfil as I felt needed, and my tub still did just fine. Don't stress about the size and EXACT placement of your holes.

I never took the lid off of my tub while it was colonizing until I opened it to take a quick picture of the cake because I was concerned with its "thin" colonization. Whether this was coincidence or I triggered it by opening the lid I am not sure, but less than 2 days later I then spotted the first pins. People say you can briefly open the lid during colonization without affecting the tub, but I wouldn't chance it. Just be patient. Unless you see discoloration or you tub isn't colonizing at all, chances are your tub is just fine.

Liners: Due to mixed info among the forums, I did a no-no and chose not stick exactly with Franks 12 steps and didn't include a liner inside either of my tubs. I did get side pins and fully mature fruits from the sides, but I personally saw them as more of a bonus rather than a nuisance. They were a bit of a pain to harvest, but I did not mind them much. Some of my biggest fruits actually grew up from the sides. Still, I can see the benefits of liners and why some would prefer to use them. I think it's just a matter of preference.

Spawning: I spawned my grains to my tub by dumping each jar in a pot of cold water for about 20 mins, draining the water VERY CAREFULLY, and then evenly distributing the grains between the tubs and mixing with the substrate with my bare hands. It probably would have been wise to at least use gloves, but sterilized my hands and arms with alcohol, and still I had no problems with contaminates. While mixing though, it is very important to evenly distribute the spawn throughout the substrate. If you see patches with more grains than sub, break those up. You will not be able to do this later. This helps with even and fast colonization, and also my fruits didn't ever seem to grow on exposed grains (on the sides or top).

I also did not use a casing layer, and was happy with my yields. Can't say much else than that. I plan to case at least one tub next time around to observe the advantages and disadvantages.

Sunlight: From the time I spawned my tubs they received indirect sunlight. I have windows in my grow room with window shears, and they seemed to allow the right amount of light in. I've read that if you can see in the room, that's enough light because too much light can adversely affect the mycelium. However, before I had a clear understanding of the difference between indirect light and direct light, I had been adjusting the shears over my windows to allow slight beams of sunlight to shine on the tubs. This was throughout colonization, and through the majority of my first flush, and my fruits came out very dense and somewhat "stout" compared to the rest of my flushes. I don't know quite what that means, but that was just my observation.

What I learned while harvesting and storing my fruits

Harvesting: Knowing when to harvest is pretty simple. For maximum potency, most people say to harvest just before the veil breaks, and it's easy to tell when that is. You can look at pictures to get a better idea, but if you see a fruit that you think looks like it's veil is about to break, it probably is. Regardless though, there can't be much of a difference of potency between before the veil breaks and after, so I didn't worry about that too much. However, it was unappealing to have the caps open and drop spores all over the fruits below, so for that reason I tried to harvest before the veil broke. People also say harvesting early reserves energy for the next flushes, but I don't know the legitimacy behind that.

When it comes to how to harvest, I found cutting the fruits at the base to be much easier than the twist and pull method. I tried picking the fruits on my first flush, and it left me with exposed craters in my cakes, and dirty fruits that took forever to clean, even after drying. I purchased some razor blades for box cutters and used those along with just some sharp kitchen knives to harvest for the remaining duration of my grow, both of which I was very happy with. If you cut at the base of the fruit, you really aren't losing much of it at all, and it leaves you with a clean fruit ready to eat or dry. And none of my stumps rotted or started to mold. Each stump was just reconsumed by the mycelium, and pins seemed to have no problem growing on them. I would attempt to harvest my fruits with a butter knife before I ever tried to pull a mushroom again. I highly recommend cutting over twisting and pulling.

I inoculated with MS, so my flushes were not very even. Sometimes I would have 2 or 3 fruits fully mature while others had just started pinning. If this is your case, just harvest as you go. Sometimes after harvesting I would be left with 2 or 3 fruits a day or two short of being mature, but waiting for them didn't seem worth the wait so I'd go ahead and harvest them too. This is all preference, and I found harvesting a fruit next to the other will not affect it, so in the event of uneven harvests, just do what you feel is best.

Drying and Storing: Once my fruits were cut, if I planned to eat them soon I would store them in a paper bag in the fridge. The one time I did store a few in a plastic bag, they started to develop a slimy film on the surface, so paper bags are a must for storing fresh fruits. But I wouldn't keep them fresh past a week, they will start to darken and become flimsy, and then you're risking food poisoning.

If the fruits were not going to be ate soon, I would throw them in my food dehydrator at about 100F. My larger fruits would take about 2 days to become cracker dry this way, while the smaller ones and aborts took about a day. I have no experience drying fruits any other way, but I highly recommend investing in a dehydrator. You can often find them reasonably priced at local thrift shops. Just be sure before you remove a fruit from the dehydrator that it is CRACKER DRY. This means that if you attempt to bend the stem, it will crack and usually snap in half. If you can bend it freely it needs to dry longer. Do not cut corners while drying, a little moisture has the potential to ruin your entire harvest.

Once completely dried, you'll want to prepare a container with a desiccant at the bottom for long term storage. I personally baked epsom salt in my oven for about 2 hours at 425F, filled a gallon sized glass jar with about an inch of the prepared epsom salt at the bottom, and covered that with a paper towel to separate it from the fruits. Epsom salts are safe to consume (they're sometimes used as a laxative), and extremely cheap, and (at least in my household) are used for many various purposes. It's worked great for storing my fruits so far, and so I recommend considering this cheap and effective solution as well.

Here's my jar:


Dunking a monotub: This is easier than it seems. After harvesting, I would tape my holes shut, place the tub in my bathtub, and fill with cold tap water. I used my shower head, and if I was to spray the cake, it would tear away bits and pieces. Try not to do that. Spray/pour the water onto the walls of the tub instead. Also, the cake floats, so to submerge the entire cake in water I would place another smaller tub on top of it and fill that tub with water to weigh the cake down. I would leave it overnight, and then drain it the next day. Be careful not to break your cake or let it fall out while draining. And as long as the majority of the standing water in the tub has been drained, that should be sufficient. No need to do any more than that. Then remove the tape, replace with polyfil, put back into fruiting conditions, and wait for the next flush.



That's it! I really enjoy this hobby and the community that surrounds it. I hope sharing what I learned throughout this project will benefit others with questions similar to what I had coming into my first monotub grow. As a closing statement, here's some pictures I took during and after my harvests!

     
   
   

Peace and love  :peace:


Edited by Deezy P (04/09/16 09:05 PM)


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Invisiblenatedawgnow
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Re: From one beginner to another - My first attempt at growing with monotubs [Re: Deezy P]
    #22193310 - 09/05/15 03:56 PM (8 years, 4 months ago)

:thumbup: five shrooms for you!


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OfflineCrimsonSpectre
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Re: From one beginner to another - My first attempt at growing with monotubs [Re: natedawgnow]
    #22193383 - 09/05/15 04:12 PM (8 years, 4 months ago)

Nice write up! Thanks for sharing!


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There is more than one way to skin Schrodinger's cat, but I prefer to use Occam's razor.


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OfflineDeezy P
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Registered: 09/23/12
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Re: From one beginner to another - My first attempt at growing with monotubs [Re: CrimsonSpectre]
    #22193759 - 09/05/15 05:40 PM (8 years, 4 months ago)

Thanks guys appreciate the feedback :thumbup:


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^^53.4 grams^^

Deezy P's Beginners Guide


Edited by Deezy P (09/06/15 11:19 AM)


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Offlineuninc4life2010
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Re: From one beginner to another - My first attempt at growing with monotubs [Re: Deezy P]
    #22193957 - 09/05/15 06:34 PM (8 years, 4 months ago)

This is a really good write-up!  Props to you!


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InvisibleTheEaglesGift
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Re: From one beginner to another - My first attempt at growing with monotubs [Re: uninc4life2010]
    #22194086 - 09/05/15 07:11 PM (8 years, 4 months ago)

Nice job.


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OfflineDeezy P
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Registered: 09/23/12
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Re: From one beginner to another - My first attempt at growing with monotubs [Re: TheEaglesGift]
    #22196771 - 09/06/15 11:21 AM (8 years, 4 months ago)

This is what I love most about the community, so much positivity. Thanks everyone


--------------------
                     
^^53.4 grams^^

Deezy P's Beginners Guide


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