Hi Shroomery!
A friend of mine became interested in mycology a while back, so I decided help them out by doing a bit of research on the subject before they jumped in.
So, after lurking these forums and doing some reading on mycology I suggested it would be best for my friend to start off with BRF cakes, since neither of us own a pressure cooker and this seemed pretty straight forward.
INITIAL WORK
My friend mixed the vermiculite, water and BRF according to the tek specs, 2 batches needed to be made since the mixing bowl wasn't big enough.
12 half pints were filled, a verm barrier was added, and a holed lid covered in foil topped everything off. I have a home canning set I got a while back to make pickles that we used for sterilization purposes.
The jars were knocked up in an old computer cabinet that was sterilized with lysol/alcohol/bleach water and converted into a make shift still air box using a section of material from a new clear shower curtain.
My friend put a little under 1ml per jar, and we only had enough to inoculate 11 jars.
The jars were left on the upper shelf in the cabinet (where the screen would normally be), a small oil-filled radiator was placed 2 levels down )where the computer box would be) and the temperature was kept constant at 80F. The shower curtain piece was obviously removed.
THE WAITING...
2-3 weeks later, colonization had advanced.
One jar also stunk of rotten apples and was chucked - So we ended up with 10 good jars - Once again showing that steam sterilized in a canning pot is sufficient for BRF Cakes.
It took another 2 weeks for 5 of the jars to fully colonize, the other 5 were in different stages, minimum being about 80%. This makes sense since my friend used 2 batches of BRF cake batter, I believe one batch was "wetter" than the other - And this confirmed it.
Another week passes, the 5 "first batch" jars have been consolidating. The other 5 "second batch" jars are all at about 90-95% but they still had a small spot in the bottom corner that wouldn't colonize, and 2 of these jars had mushrooms up to 2 inches growing invitro.
My friend birthed, dunked & rolled the 5 "first batch" jars.
The next day he did the same for the "second batch" jars, all smelled good. he rinsed off the un-colonized portion under gentle running water using his gloved finger to help.
As a precaution, my friend dabbed the section that had un-colonized material with a q-tip dipped in H2O2, before giving it another rinse and then dunking it.
Dunks were 24hrs.
THE FC
My friend was torn between using a SGFC (which is popular here) or setting up a PMP. The cons with the SGFC are that it requires maintenance. The pros of the SGFC are that they have a huge following, and it seems simple to set-up.
The cons against the PMP is the cost of the air pump/hydroton, and of course the negative stigma that they have on shroomery. The pros are that it literally requires zero maintenance.
As an experiment, my friend set up a mini PMP using the airflow specs on scale to what would have been done if it were full size.
Total volume 4.2L
Hydroton layer is 3.75"
Air pump provides a little over 1 lpm - Which gives 15 air exchanges per hour. If we were to set-up a larger scale PMP, a 60L tote would be used with about 4-5" of hydroton, and a 15 lpm "hydroponic" pump giving the same air exchange.
The 2 containers forming the PMP were duct taped together forming a seal, and two 1/4" holes were drilled on the top.
1 of the cakes from each batch was placed in the mini PMP.
This literally took about 5-10 minutes to set-up, and wouldn't take much more time to do on a larger scale. IF you were to do this on a 66qt tub, the air pump would cost $35 where we live (Hydrofarm AAPA15L), tubing and air stones about $20, and 20L of Leca/Hydroton $35 (PLANT!T GMC10L) for a total cost of $90 CAD not including the tote since it's a fixed cost.
My friend will literally do NOTHING to the PMP, it's just sitting there as a control group vs the SGFC.
The SGFC was set-up to these specs:
Sterlite 1757 - 66qt
1/4" holes drilled 2 inches apart on all 6 sizes
4 inches of wet perlite on the bottom
misting 4 times/day, fanning 2.
sitting on wooden chair with 4 cans that are 6 inches high under the tote.
CFL 6500k light 12/12
It took at least 90 minutes to drill the holes using a template. 15L of perlite cost $20 where my friend lives, and it's hard to come by in large bags. So total cost not including tote was $20.
The room both these chambers are in is open and airy, with 3 doorways leading to it (2 of which are always open), and a large window.
Temperature is 70-72F
Humidity in the room is approximately 35-40%, but this is off a 10 dollar hygrometer, so I'm not sure if it's exact.
Both chambers started showing pins after 2 days on the first batch cakes, the second batch cakes seem a little slower.
It's been 1 week since first pinning.
1st WEEK
The PMP is doing good, those pins are starting to get fat on one cake and a whole bunch more little mushrooms started. The second cake has pins and a few decent stubby mushrooms. Zero maintenance.
The SGFC isn't doing as well, some of the pins grew fatter but now a few look a bit shriveled and the caps are white. I think this might be due to lack of humidity, so I took the cakes out and drenched the perlite with water in the bath tub.
The second batch cakes have some small pins on 3 of them.
While I had the SGFC apart to hydrate the perlite I took a shot of the cakes and the perlite:
What am I doing wrong with the SGFC?
Does the perlite look like the right grade? It said medium on the bag.
Should I put more perlite to bring it to 5-6" depth?
The room temp seems okay since the PMP is doing okay, so I'm guessing there's a humidity issue.
Since the room is open and it's winter (heating is on), it would be very hard to bring the room humidity to 50% as I've read in some posts.
Any info is really appreciated.
Edited by killer_bunnyu (01/02/16 08:02 PM)
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