Alright so. Here's the dealio, I went to my hometown and a friend hooked me up with two jars filled with vermiculite brown rice and water he did the correct ratios and all pf tek I believe? Anyways the jars are already cooked and inoculated, you could see mycelium in one ( penny sized) and no mycelium in the other one ( bother little half pint jars I believe) but the two jars he gave me had no gas exchange holes because I had to bring them back with me home. So I get home sanitize my closet which is already clean, do some research and poke 4 small holes on top of my jars with extremely sanitized nail not going through the top layer of dry vermiculite but just poking alittle hole for the jar to breathe. Anyways he inoculated about a week ago. And I'm just wondering if the jar that has no sign of mycelium yet is ok or did it like suffocate? And if the jar with the little penny size sign of mycelium should start spreading more now that I poked holes? And yes I have bothe jars still sealed (besides the holes) in separate tight sealed tuper ware tubs. I just asked him if he inoculated around the sides or in the center haven't heard back yet.
And final question would it be ok to Re inoculate a jar? Or should I go buy more vermiculite and re make the "substrate" for the jar? If it's possible and ok to re inject the spores into the jar already prepared, cause that'd save me time with my busy schedule. Thank you all!
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Welcome to the Shroomery!
If the purpose of adding holes to the lids was to allow Gas Exchange (GE), take them out of those tubs and let them breathe!
Kudos for thinking of how to work cleanly. However, the cake in the jar doesn't care what happens around it for the most part. The dry verm layer on top is there to catch moisture and contaminates that might come in. When doing clean work going forward, use a Still Air Box (SAB). Here's some information on SAB
Quote:
h0ldthedoor said: "Clean" doesn't cut it. By working in open air, anything and everything floating in the room becomes another possible threat to your grow. You don't want this. You want to work in an area with no drafts, gusts, breezes or currents. It's not so important that the area be sterile, so much as the tools you're working with.
You need to be doing work in at least a Still Air Box. Not to be confused with a glove box, which you don't want. The point of a Still Air Box is to keep the air still, if you go taping gloves to the only openings on the box, it's going to inevitably create a billow effect every time you insert and remove your hands from the gloves (with the air entering and exiting through the only other openings, the cracks between the lid and container itself). Again, the point of a Still Air Box is to keep the air still.
Again what's important is not to have a totally sterile working environment, but rather an environment where contaminates won't land on what you're working with. Before beginning work in a Still Air Box, give it a quick misting with plain tap water and then wipe the entire inside of the Box so that it's still moist. This moisture on the interior of the Still Air Box should catch any contaminates that may be moving around. As attractive as a Glove Box may look with it's fancy built-in gloves, it's counterproductive and not what you need.
Basically a Still Air Box (SAB) is just a large tub with two large holes cut into one side for your arms to go through. Those large clear plastic storage tubs are perfect for this, though other things can be repurposed into a SAB. For example, https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/23530167#23530167 is a fine example of repurposing existing materials into a nice SAB.
Also, if you reinoculate the jar(s), you're increasing the chance of contamination and IDK what else.
If you want to get started on your own with pf tek, here's the first video in the series
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Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next. Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you. – Petyr Baelish
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