RogerRabbit said:

Misting your Mushrooms and Fruiting Chamber

It’s very important to keep your casing or vermiculite layer on the cakes well misted throughout the fruiting process. Don’t spray your cakes directly, but rather aim your misting bottle up in the air, so that the mist falls gently on the cakes and developing fruit bodies. Most of the mist will actually fall on the perlite, replenishing the moisture that has evaporated into your fruiting chamber or terrarium. I recommend three or four misting sessions per day. Gently mist your entire terrarium until the cakes ‘glisten’ with moisture. Obtain an inexpensive mechanical hygrometer from a local cigar shop, and then calibrate it by wrapping a damp towel around it for an hour. Next, unwrap the damp towel and adjust the screw on the back so the dial reads 99%. Try to keep your humidity level above 95% all the way through the fruiting process.

After each misting, use the lid of your terrarium to ‘fan’ the inside of the box to remove any stale air that may have accumulated inside. With certain species, such as P cubensis, fanning is not usually as critical as with less CO2 tolerant species such as Oyster mushrooms, which will grow large, fat stems and small, under-developed caps if the air in your terrarium is not exchanged enough. Remember that with oyster mushrooms, we usually discard the stems and only eat the caps, so you want lots of bright light and fresh air.

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Rot said:

I'm a noob but I do know you shouldn't mist them directly

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It rains in nature and even baby mushrooms can handle rain.
But not giving them a chance to evaporate off the moisture before you mist again can cause them to abort.

You can mist cakes directly but standing water on top of pins that stay wet for several days in a row
is not the best environment for developing your fruits. That's why my choice of FC is one that doesn't dry out cakes that drastically.

This cake didn't get misted even once and it wasn't rolled in vermiculite either.

Mateah said:

Rot said:

I'm a noob but I do know you shouldn't mist them directly

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It rains in nature and even baby mushrooms can handle rain.
But not giving them a chance to evaporate off the moisture before you mist again can cause them to abort.

You can mist cakes directly but standing water on top of pins that stay wet for several days in a row
is not the best environment for developing your fruits. That's why my choice of FC is one that doesn't dry out cakes that drastically.

This cake didn't get misted even once and it wasn't rolled in vermiculite either.

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rainout said:

Also remember as other said evaporation and FAE are the 2 key points to when the fungi starts pinning, so try ventilating a little, by removing the top two or three times a day, or maybe put a fan nearby to your SF, but never point it directly. I will also remove the foil, if you already have perite there is no need for it. some indirect sunlight could also help, and maybe some heat. What is the temperature of the SG?

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RogerRabbit said:

I experimented with every hole size possible before settling on 1/4" (6mm).  Best performance was with 3/8" holes, but you have to mist more.  Since most people are lazy I settled on the 1/4" size because in most cases the terrarium can be handled with a misting or two per day.
RR

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pussyfart said:

Fanning is not a replacement for constant FAE.

You would need to fan several times per hour.

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Quote:

The physics of the shotgun terrarium are that evaporation causes a temperature drop, thus the air molecules are closer together.  This results in higher pressure within the air spaces around the perlite.

The substrates and/or lights provide slight heating within the body of the terrarium.  This results in relatively lower pressure.  This low pressure area above the perlite(high pressure) results in airflow to balance the pressure.  This in turn leads to more evaporation from the perlite, continuing the process.  This is why a shotgun terrarium handles FAE automatically.

The CO2 does not settle to the bottom.  In addition, the CO2 from mushrooms is mixed thoroughly into the O2, thus it travels out through the holes in the sides and top as part of the natural circulation.  It doesn't enter the denser air within the perlite and spill out the bottom.
RR

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RogerRabbit said:

JayBrasco said:

fewer, you dont want alot of humidity to escape. only enough on the BOTTOM to get rid of CO2

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Bad advice.  Fresh air exchange causes a loss of moisture from the cakes or other substrate, and this loss of moisture is the number ONE pinning trigger.  Noobs worry too much about humidity, which is easily corrected with misting.  You MUST mist to make up for the lost moisture.  In the old days, people would toss cakes in a sealed up chamber and hope for a couple of mushrooms before green mold set in.  Today, you can easily get three or four times the harvest the early growers did by using a proper terrarium that provides both fresh air and high humidity.

Furthermore, why you guys think CO2 is heavy like water and will drain out holes in the bottom baffles the mind.  If all the CO2 settled to the bottom, we'd all be dead due to the power plants and cars, cows, etc., that are puking out tons of CO2 by the minute.  The CO2 MIXES with the air and thus must be exchanged WITH the air.  It isn't a sweet little layer on the bottom of your fruiting chambers.

As for only reading 80% humidity in a shotgun terrarium with a humidifier running in the closet, it proves your hygrometer is screwed.  I can put a shotgun terrarium in an open room with the lid totally off and get higher humidity than that.

I seriously doubt anyone has lower humidity than I do.  It's below zero outside and I use a large cast iron wood stove to heat my cabin.  My properly made shotgun terrariums all read 95% or greater.  I keep a cool mist humidifier running near the wood stove, and it's nice and cozy in here, even though there's nearly five feet of snow on the ground outside.
RR

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bodhisatta said:

Sgfc has hundreds of holes it gets FAE 24/7 automatically.
If you can't be around to mist every other day at the minimum maybe growing isn't going to be an option. You'll miss a harvest and have spore explosion if you cant visit your grow at least 3-4 times a week.

bodhisatta said:

Eirenaios said:

A SGFC isn't an option for me; I have a hard time seeing how it can be an option for anyone with a job. There's no way I'm going to be available (at home) to mist 3 times a day. Add on top of that the fact that sometimes I don't come home at night (staying at the girlfriend's) or have the occasional business trip lasting several days.

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It was made by RR when he was working 10-12 hour shifts plus travel plus having a life as a way to not have to babysit cakes. And to handle cakes for weekend trips with no one around. Requires less work than brushing your teeth twice a day. Mist em once in the morning once at night. Basically one of the most automated FCs for cakes that there is.

You shouldn't be measuring humidity anyway. Pay attention to the cakes not some ridiculous gauge.

RogerRabbit said:

curiousgeorge91 said:

But if the SGFC is so good that it doesnt need improvement then why does it need to be fanned multiple times a day?

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Says who?

Perhaps for 'best' results, it should be fanned with the lid whenever you mist, but the fact is, I and many other people who work long hours have left them unattended and had excellent results.  I've left a shotgun terrarium full of fruiting cakes closed up for over 24 hours, and the CO2 level has never exceeded 1000 ppm.
RR

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RogerRabbit said:

The shotgun terrarium already is automatic.  It works based on natural circulation patterns, where air travels from areas of high pressure to low.  I designed it when I was working 12 hour days, with an hour of travel time and couldn't be there for 14 hours per day, and still needed to sleep during that off time.

You mist to make up for substrate moisture lost due to the automatic fresh air exchange, which happens even at 99% humidity.  There is no free ride.  If you put an airstone and bubbler in the terrarium, the slight positive pressure that is created screws up the operation, destroying the entire principle that makes it work.
RR

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