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Orgasmatron
Stranger
Registered: 06/14/16
Posts: 30
Last seen: 7 years, 5 months
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Worm castings & straw mini bulk grow: Casing won't colonize
#23342284 - 06/14/16 06:36 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
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Hi shroomers,
I did some successful bulk grows with horse poo 10 years ago, but then had to stop,and I've been out of the loop since. I recently decided to get back into this wonderful hobby now that I have space and time again.
Since I no longer have access to horse poo, I had to use something else. After reading around a little I decided on a 50/50 worm castings/ straw mix for my bulk.
So i pasteurized, cooled and drained to field capacity and spawned about 2 liters in a small container with a PF cake. I layered the crumbled cake with the sub and lined the bottom with a thin layer of pasteurized damp vermiculite. I only later found out that layering is not as good as mixing. I packed it down to moderately compress the substrate. I also sprinkled the surface with a little pasteurized vermiculite.
The substrate depth is about 5 inches. After a few days at 20deg C I could see very nice rhizomorphic growth. After about 9 days the sides of the sub were white and mycelium was coming to the surface but it had not completely covered the surface like snow. There was countless mycelial threads poking through the surface throughout and I decided to case at that point to prevent the mycelium from knotting up too early or drying out too much.
I cased with pasteurized 50/50 peat/verm which was drained and squeezed until no water was dripping out. I mixed in 5% calcium carbonate after squeezing, because I didn't want it to be leached away during pasteurization (I pasteurized with a pillow case submerged in hot water for 50min at around 75deg C)
I then covered the sides of the container with black plastic and put it in a large tub humidified with wet perlite . I left the container in there WITHOUT its lid for a day and a half, and misted it with a spray bottle several times in that period as well as giving the terrarium a few blasts from a small ultrasonic humidifier... as I thought that I had squeezed the casing a bit too much before applying and adding the calcium after would have dried it more.
At the end of the second day I remembered that people keep the containers covered until the casing has been colonized, so I put the lid back on loosely (it has breather holes covered with thick cellulose tissue )
After 3 days there is no sign of the mycelium colonizing the casing... Underneath everything looks healthy and smells fresh.
What to do? Did I case too early? Should I scratch the casing with a fork? Could it be too wet?
Thanks
Edited by Orgasmatron (06/14/16 06:41 AM)
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Worm castings & straw mini bulk grow: Casing won't colonize [Re: Orgasmatron]
#23342303 - 06/14/16 06:51 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Should I scratch the casing with a fork?
no
but you could post pictures
Quote:
terrarium a few blasts from a small ultrasonic humidifier.
classic noob mistake, the only time you use a humidifier is with greenhouse type fruiting chambers, not tubs
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Orgasmatron
Stranger
Registered: 06/14/16
Posts: 30
Last seen: 7 years, 5 months
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Re: Worm castings & straw mini bulk grow: Casing won't colonize [Re: Orgasmatron]
#23342455 - 06/14/16 08:31 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
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Forgot to say casing layer is about half an inch deep... not much to show with photos... I can now see a single mycelium strand poking through at the edge next to the container's wall. Does this mean the casing is too wet?
Edited by Orgasmatron (06/14/16 12:29 PM)
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Orgasmatron
Stranger

Registered: 06/14/16
Posts: 30
Last seen: 7 years, 5 months
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Re: Worm castings & straw mini bulk grow: Casing won't colonize [Re: Orgasmatron]
#23343858 - 06/14/16 03:36 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
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SO I'm guessing the lack of replies means there's not much I can do at this point? Should I just remove the casing?
Can anyone tell me if I cased too early or if I confused the mycelium by introducing fruiting conditions and then putting the lid back on the container?
I'm guessing the casing will soon get mold on it if it doesn't get colonised ...
Thanks
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PussyFart
Retired Cultivation Extrodinaire



Registered: 04/08/12
Posts: 22,502
Loc: Orbiting Earth
Last seen: 18 days, 2 hours
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Re: Worm castings & straw mini bulk grow: Casing won't colonize [Re: Orgasmatron]
#23344099 - 06/14/16 04:48 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
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4. Do not bump your own thread for at least 24 hours. It's not fair to the other posters to have your thread constantly bumped to the top. Violators will have their thread deleted.
Rules Thread-READ BEFORE POSTING
--------------------
THIS HOBBY IS NOT FOR THE IMPATIENT! PLEASE BE PATIENT, DON'T BE A PATIENT! A Tale of 10 Isolates, GT Cluster Clone Monotubs, RR's Let's Grow Mushrooms DVD, SGFC(Shotgun Fruiting Chamber), Monotub Tek, Damion5050's Coir Tek, TL's Tek List, Frank's Tek List, EvilMushroom666's Pasteurization Tek, How It Should & Shouldn't Look - NEW CULTIVATORS GUIDE *** *** AFGHAN KUSH GROW LOG *** ***
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