Well, the perlite tek is great in my opinion for humidifcation. Works extremely well. Cleaning it up is a bit mess but, you'll have that.

As for your terrainum, you can use a large container made by Rubbermaid or Sterlite. Sterlite makes a 96 quart plastic storage container. You can find them at Wal-Mart for abotu $8.00 They're about the size of a 20 gallon glass aquarium. 20 gallon tanks are about $30 though. (That price may not be accurate, I haven't bought a glass tank in along time:-)

As far as your jars go...you can't use tapered. Reason: the cake needs to slide out of the jar after its colonized. If there is a lip or a indentation in the jar, the cake won't be able to slide out of it. The mouth of the jar needs to be flat with the rest of the jar (like a drinking glass) or wider then the bottom of the jar.

If you have any questions, just send me a private message:-)

When I say tapered, I don't mean that it has a shoulder, which it doesn't. It's bigger at the top than the bottom, and has no neck or "shoulder" so it should slide out. It just isn't as wide and flat as the Kerr widemouth.

Also, with these rubbermaid containers, do I need to put a slanted cover over the mushrooms to keep the water droplets off of them? If so, what should I use?

The plastic containers work well. He uses a 64 qt and 32 qt with perlite. No inlet holes, just a daily fanning. He keeps the humidity at about 95%. From his experience you don't need a drip shield if you aren't spraying for humidification. He has had no trouble with condensation on the lids. If you use a clear container, wrap with paper or cloth on the sides and use a clear top or place a plexiglass window on the top.

Hope this helps.

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Cogito, ergo sum

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Originally posted by Oxygen:
So with small inlet holes in the container, the humidity will stay high enough but I won't have to ventilate the container?

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You have to ventilate the container!!
The shrooms need fresh air, so the CO2 that bulds up in the container is removed and also as shrooms need some oxigen. You have to fan the air out at least 3 times a day or even more often. You can also use an aquarium air pump - it saves you work.
Stagnant air and too much humidity are the primary reasons for contamination.

So I need both holes AND fanning or can fanning alone be enough?

Can just using an aquarium pump be enough by itself or is it just a supplement? It so happens I have an aquarium pump laying around.

I've had the lids of my jars on tight, and the holes taped per the PF Tek. However it seems to me that at some point I must need to let some air in, before the colonization is complete. Should I take the tape off? Or maybe loosen the cap a little bit? And at what day should I do this?

quote:

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Originally posted by Oxygen:
...So I need both holes AND fanning or can fanning alone be enough?...

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Fanning should be enough.
Many people think, since CO2 is heavier than air it will settle down at the bottom of the container and you can simply let it out by driilling holes in the wall. They imagine CO2 being water. But consider follwing:
The density of CO2 at 100?F is app. 10 kilo/cubic meter,
the density of water 1000 kilo/cubic meter. This means water is 100 times heavier. CO2 doesn?t simply settle on the bottom like water.

You also have to consider a thermodynamic effect called diffusion. Through microscopic small movements of the gas molecules two gases are mixed together without outer contibution, simply by themselves.
Therefore you dont have 2 layers, one of CO2 and one of air in your container but more or less a homogenous mixture of both.