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AvgWhiteMycologist
Freshly Inoculated Mind
Registered: 01/30/18
Posts: 5
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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First Time Monotub. (PC).. Quality check anyone?
#25081018 - 03/21/18 09:06 PM (5 years, 11 months ago) |
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I started my journey with a failed PF tek a few years ago and didn't try again until about 6 months ago. My second PF tek/SGFC gave me about 1/4oz of PE after about four flushes before I felt so sorry for my cakes and how they looked, I trashed them. Most of my mushies were 1.5" or so, but lanky stems and small caps, or really short. It wasn't about growing the quality for me, it was about getting them through the fruiting process so I could see how they respond to their environment, what they like, what they don't, what they need, and how they handle being mistreated a little bit. In the daylight, I'm a director of engineering, so I have an engineer's approach to this kind of stuff, and a such, I think I found a hobby I can really do well.
As my BRF cakes were fruiting, I was preparing WBS (first time) and bought some spores from a well-respected vendor. I followed the WBS tek to the letter - as I do for everything the first time around to get a good baseline. I'll adjust to my liking after I understand the baseline, but I'm not there yet. My first strain (Malabar) TOOK OFF. It colonized the first half dozen jars I noc'ed (~1+cc per jar) up in about 14 days with one shake somewhere around the 6th day. The second strain (a variety of Penis Envy) colonized a little slower but when I shook the jar, caught up with the malabar almost.
A sample of the malabar spawn in wbs

A sample of the penis envy spawn in wbs

I wanted to do a HP tek, but I was having trouble finding a good local source of anything dried/dehydrated so my wife would be ok with me using it in the house We live in PA, and it's still winter here... Can't imagine pasteurizing horse dung in the house, so I went with Damions 50/50. Again, by the book... well, almost. I'd seen debate about whether or not your substrate could/should include coffee grounds. Some say it's worth it, others say it's a waste of time. So, I didn't add the coffee grounds, but I did replace 2 of the 5 qts of water called for in the recipe with the same coffee recipe I use when soaking my WBS. Both spawn strains seem to be responding really well to my substrate, so I guess it's working - although I don't know enough to know 
Again, we live in PA and it's cold here. I can't get my room with my tubs up over 70 deg without a costly space heater, so they're growing in cooler temps. I'm ok with that. I read cooler temps during fruiting promote slower but bulkier growith, which will be my ultimate goal: bulk. I have two tubs fruiting right now, and one tub colonizing it's substrate. Here's my setup:
66qt clear tubs (26.50 x 16.50 x 12.75 Inches26.50 x 16.50 x 12.75 Inches). My substrate is about 3" thick and I have 1.5" polyfill holes just above the surface along the sides, and one on each end about 4.5" above the bottom row. On the sides, the holes aren't directly across from each other. I offset them to even out the air exchange without introducing more holes and risking my RH levels. I'm misting and fanning twice a day, once in the AM before work, and once in the PM (about 12 hours later). I don't use a spritzing sprayer like you'd find in a garden center. I get my hair cut at sports-themed salon for men. The women there use a fine-misting sprayer you can buy at a beauty supply store. This puts out a MUCH finer mist which doesn't bruise anything and leaves these super-fine droplets for my mycelium to suck up and evaporate.
I use a small 5" electric fan to fan on it's low setting. It clip mounts to the rim of the tub and I've found the right angle to make sure the air circulates swiftly but not in bursts which might do damage of some sort. I let this fan go for about 90 seconds before putting the lid back on.
My electric freezer was a concern for some on this site when I mentioned it in my one and only other post - stating the dangers with bacteria, but I should mention this is not a refrigerator with circulating air. This freezer is basically a solid aluminum box. I regulate temps with a low-watt CFL on a timer based on the # of jars I have, as they do keep the incubator warm on their own.
My only mistake (that I know I've made so far) is that the second day after I put my first tub into fruiting, I left the lid off for about 6 hours with the fan going. I thought I parched my mycelium... I was going to try a quick soak, but I'm not afraid to fail if it teaches me a lesson. All-in, it's $15 for the spores, $8 for the tub, $3 for the coco, $0.50 for the seed and gypsum... Add my time. It's not a failure if it teaches me... So I let it go. I'm glad I did. After a few mists, it came right back... It looked like cauliflower... hyphal knots everywhere... And then 72 hours later the pins started growing shafts...
I'm excited as you can tell. I also feel like I'm a little bit autistic for this shit, lol. I've been lurking in the shadows on this site for a few years getting to know you and your techniques... I trust you and I'm asking you if you think I'm on the right track or if I need to change something, what might that be? Thanks in advance...
Here's what I have going about 10 days into first flush in the Malabar tub:



The largest stems are about as fat as dimes to give you a little perspective...
Over in the penis envy tub (about 7 days behind the malabar tub):

It looks like cottage cheese. I see some of the knots turning yellow/brown, so I bet when I check in the morning, I'll have my first full-blown pins in this tub too.
The last tub is doing well, but I can't get a good pic without disturbing, so...
Anyhow... How does it look? Growth in the middle of the tub suggest good growth or no? Any reason why I don't have better pin sets on the perimiter?
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elasticaltiger
Like Tigers in Coitus




Registered: 06/24/13
Posts: 8,418
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Everything looks pretty normal to me.
-------------------- First time growing cakes? DON'T make a Shotgun Fruiting Chamber The Shmuvbox. - The Old TC's Like it Afraid to Start Growing From Your Own Prints? Drop it Like a Tiger! No Pouring. No Syringes. No Cutting. No flaming. No Contamination. No Bullshit. "The best thing to do while your waiting is to start more stuff. I usually got so much happening that I have tossed projects simply because I didn't have time for them. -Pastywhite QFT Pastywhite's Easy Agar Tek (PastyPlates) Tiger Drop Video Demos By munchauzen Van Gogh would’ve sold more than one painting if he’d put tigers in them.―Bill Watterson EZEKIEL 23:20
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UnsungHero
Endure & Persist


Registered: 11/21/17
Posts: 495
Loc: root@remotehost
Last seen: 1 month, 7 days
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Not gonna read all that. Tubs look great.
-------------------- "The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear."
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verum subsequentis
seeker of truth



Registered: 03/22/16
Posts: 8,732
Last seen: 1 year, 9 months
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Re: First Time Monotub. (PC).. Quality check anyone? [Re: UnsungHero]
#25081288 - 03/22/18 12:13 AM (5 years, 11 months ago) |
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lookin good but i got a hundred dollars on a pretty descent blobfest in that penis tub.
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AvgWhiteMycologist
Freshly Inoculated Mind
Registered: 01/30/18
Posts: 5
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Well, I wanted to throw a quick update in.
My Penis Envy tub now looks like cauliflower but turning molasses in color I hope it keeps going as well as it looks. My Malabar tub is doing better than I ever thought I'd do.

Those are my Blue dream babies and mamas in the background. 
Thanks to this site and you all for the help so far. I'm having a good time learning this hobby.
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verum subsequentis
seeker of truth



Registered: 03/22/16
Posts: 8,732
Last seen: 1 year, 9 months
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nice lookin mushroom man. so, you know about the penis blobs, right?
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LemurLemur
Pray for Boog



Registered: 01/30/17
Posts: 6,004
Loc: Drinking on the roof
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I loooove how blue those cuts are
--------------------
 (when my data is fast play Lemur in chess at chess.com)[ [gradient:#D40B29,#18C418]Any1 expecting a trade from me i havent forgot about you pinky promise, i fr promise shits just shit rt now[/gradient]
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AvgWhiteMycologist
Freshly Inoculated Mind
Registered: 01/30/18
Posts: 5
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Should have taken your bet.... That tub fruited for almost three weeks and gave me 288g dried. Tell you what. Keep the hundred and invest it in the "I tried to troll and failed"fund. I'm done with this site. You people can be the biggest bunch of assholes. It's fucking fungus. People pay people to remove this stuff. Once I figured out that all it needs is to eat, breathe, and be kept clean... The rest is basically "derp".
What a shitty thing to try and troll over... A tote full of grains and coco fiber with holes in it. Proud?
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verum subsequentis
seeker of truth



Registered: 03/22/16
Posts: 8,732
Last seen: 1 year, 9 months
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i guess you are talking to me. come on man, supposing that a PE tub is going to blob out is not trolling. i'm not even sure that you are talking to me. did your Penis envy tub not blob out?
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