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Babylon
Shaman


Registered: 05/15/11
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: Sockadin] 1
#26572310 - 04/01/20 11:30 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Sockadin said: Yeah so I am starting to really believe that location is as important in dealing with RH problems or issues as FAE.
In botany you see all of these temperature zones for growing different fruits and vegetables but for some reason mycology doesn't mention it alot.
Go with your gut. It's fine to mist sooner than me, my house is 50-60 RH on any given day. I have a bad ass climate control unit, but it is an old leaky house. So you should be good. Also I thought RR lived around the same longitude as you do so the air is drier than it is down here by the equator.
Mycology is almost exclusively indoors, we have a lot more control over the climate indoors. The variability in humidity is certainly important, but we have a lot more control over that even than we do over what the weather is like outdoors.
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: Sockadin]
#26572770 - 04/02/20 08:06 AM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Glad to hear I'm on the right track, Sockadin. Speaking of misting, I have what I think are some completely shitty hygrometers I bought off Amazon and Home Depot for like $5.00 a piece. I am wondering if you guys think that I should be biting the bullet and buying two decent quality hygrometers, one for each of my SFGCs? Its very hard to get accurate readings for at least one of them, possibly the other one in my SGFC. I can get them up to over 90%...sort of, by misting. And cheating, not just misting the cakes, but spraying the hygrometer. Although, in my defense, even an hour later, after spraying the unit, it maintains its humidity reading.
Edit: The takeaway here is, that I have no Earthly idea what the humidity is in my terrarium. lol But, I misted about an hour ago, and I have noticed that BOTH units I have in there now, still agree on 90% humidity.
Also, if you guys think I need a hygromteter, RogerRabbit suggested staying away from digital hygrometers, and buying a good quality analog unit from a cigar shop, presumably people use them for their humidors. But his videos are coming up on...what, 20 years old? So I have to wonder if digital tech has made those models better than an analog?
Edited by LSA Woodrose (04/02/20 08:11 AM)
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woofwoof
such mushrooms!



Registered: 01/04/19
Posts: 1,127
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose] 1
#26573222 - 04/02/20 12:34 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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skip the hygrometers. Just keep the perlite moist and watch your cakes surface conditions. Mist and fan buddy, mist and fan...easier than doing a lean and dab
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Sockadin



Registered: 01/03/10
Posts: 7,244
Last seen: 2 months, 20 days
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: woofwoof] 1
#26573227 - 04/02/20 12:36 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hygrometer are unreliable. Most are poorly calibrated. If you hygrometer is off and reading a high RH It can be a confusing mess.
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose]
#26573259 - 04/02/20 12:53 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Yeah, Sockadin, that is exactly what I'm finding, they are a confusing mess. Although, with very frequent misting, I now see that both hygrometers I have in the SGFC are "agreeing" at 90. But I take it with a grain of salt.
woofwoof, I am misting both the cakes and the perlite. I also started doing something else. I will post some pics in a little while, but basically, since I have only birthed 11 of my 24 cakes, my 70 Quart SGFC has some gaps. I intend to eventually squeeze a total of 16 cakes in there, which should fit. Then, the 32 Quart Sterilite box I bought yesterday, and drilled all my holes, will easily fit 8 cakes when they are ready.
Anyway, what I'm doing is every day, I slowly pour water directly over the perlite, both in a huge gap in front and in the larger spaces between the cakes. Last night and a couple of hours ago, I poured 16 fluid ounces in, and I put newspapers under the terrarium, as well as pots to catch the water that comes out. So far, it seems 16 ounces is a little too much to simply soak the Perlite. Both times, I caught about 3/4 cup of water that didn't stay in the perlite. So extrapolating, I am thinking that from now on, if I keep slowly pouring water (kind of drizzling it) into the perlite, I need to stick to a total of 8 fluid ounces before I start to overflow the perlite.
lol For whatever that's worth.
Oh and I put those first 10 cakes into the terrarium about 26 hours ago, and the other 3 went in about 18 hours ago.
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose]
#26573263 - 04/02/20 12:55 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Oh, one more thing: I have NO CLUE what you guys mean by watch my cakes surface conditions. To my eyes, they look exactly the same both before and after I mist them. I keep looking for those droplets of water, but all I really see is that characteristic dark color of the verm later over the cakes.
Is there something else visually I need to be on the lookout for? Because I'm just not seeing what I am supposed to be looking for.
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woofwoof
such mushrooms!



Registered: 01/04/19
Posts: 1,127
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose] 1
#26573266 - 04/02/20 12:57 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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You got this man! Rooting for ya over here
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woofwoof
such mushrooms!



Registered: 01/04/19
Posts: 1,127
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose] 1
#26573270 - 04/02/20 01:00 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
LSA Woodrose said: I keep looking for those droplets of water
this is surface conditions. Ideally you want to always see glistening of tiny water droplets like dew. If your up for experiemnt, you can leave a cake to dry for a bit, then do a good misting on another and compare how they look. If it looks dark, its pretty wet. Just do more fanning as the fanning will help evaporate.
What are you misting based off of? Schedule? Appearance? What triggers you to do misting?
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: woofwoof]
#26573293 - 04/02/20 01:13 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
woofwoof said: Just do more fanning as the fanning will help evaporate.
Wait, wait, hold up. Before I respond to the rest of your post, I need to get this out there in case I am screwing up. I remember being told specifically not to fan. I also remember reading it on a few sites, including this one. I don't remember the spefics of why exactly, but I think it had something to do with either drying cakes out of something with the CO2 - oxygen exchange? I may also be remembering wrong. Soooooo...if I need to fan, I had better get started immediately, if not sooner.
As for your other points, I am misting on or close to a schedule. The common wisdom I have read seems to be 5-6 times a day. So I calculated this to be once every three hours, starting with when I wake up in the morning. I figure that they need it first thing in the AM since I hadn't misted since before bed the previous night. lol Last night so far being the only "previous night." But the verm always looks dark, so I assume that's a good thing?
Oh, and the only time I anticipate missing a "three hour" interval misting is if I am out doing a really long bicycle ride, at which point I will immediately mist when I get home from my ride around The Big Apple.
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woofwoof
such mushrooms!



Registered: 01/04/19
Posts: 1,127
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose] 1
#26573301 - 04/02/20 01:19 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Misting and fanning is for PK Tek.
If you have a monotub or shoeboxes, no need to fan.
When I did pf tek, I fanned bit more than misting. but yes, you should be fanning
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: woofwoof]
#26573306 - 04/02/20 01:20 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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OK, then, thanks for letting me know! So, how often do I fan and how much? I know this sounds silly but am I fanning for 10 to 20 seconds each time, do I fan for just a couple of seconds, or more than both? Am I fanning rigorously or very gently and light?
Edited by LSA Woodrose (04/02/20 01:22 PM)
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woofwoof
such mushrooms!



Registered: 01/04/19
Posts: 1,127
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose]
#26573317 - 04/02/20 01:27 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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If your misting ever 3 hours, I would fan it every our and half to two hours. Or use a small fan and put it in opposite corner of the room so it slightly gets to your SGFC. Or if you have a ceiling fan, keep it on low and just keep your misting schedule.
Or you can do what I did, take lid from the tote and use that as a fan. As far as manually fanning, I would fan it for about a minute or two each time slot if you you do it every hour and half to 2 hours. You can do it right before and after you mist
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: woofwoof]
#26573323 - 04/02/20 01:31 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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OK just to check the frequency, you were saying every 90 or 120 minutes. So, in essence, I’m fanning double the amount of times that I’m misting, which would be every three hours, correct? I did use the lid to fan right after I made that post above. But I only get it for about 15 seconds. I didn’t realize I should be doing it for a minute. So to review, I’m going to fan every 90 to 120 minutes, and do it for about a minute or two each time with the sterilite lid?
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woofwoof
such mushrooms!



Registered: 01/04/19
Posts: 1,127
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose] 1
#26573333 - 04/02/20 01:36 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Correct!
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Mateja


Registered: 07/14/16
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: woofwoof]
#26573355 - 04/02/20 01:44 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Fanning is outdated and serves no purpose at all.. Just mist the substrates as needed to replace the moisture that has evaporated off and make sure the perlite surface is always moist to avoid cakes drying out too fast.
-------------------- Cakes inside Water Tub
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: Mateja]
#26573361 - 04/02/20 01:46 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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OK, sorry, with two different answers here, I’d like to either get a consensus or maybe some other people chiming in as well. I did Google fanning the cakes, but the only thing that kept coming up was misting not actually fanning.
Edited by LSA Woodrose (04/02/20 01:47 PM)
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Mateja


Registered: 07/14/16
Posts: 7,948
Loc: Here
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose]
#26573377 - 04/02/20 01:57 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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There's a lot of weird advice being passed to New growers, be wary of reg date and post count when taking advice.
-------------------- Cakes inside Water Tub
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Mateja


Registered: 07/14/16
Posts: 7,948
Loc: Here
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose]
#26573382 - 04/02/20 02:01 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
LSA Woodrose said: Is there something else visually I need to be on the lookout for? Because I'm just not seeing what I am supposed to be looking for.
You're looking for noticeable loss of moisture on the substrate surface. The tiny droplets on the cakes should decrease in quantity and size noticeably before you mist again. If evaporation is going slowly or seems to have stopped then there's no need to mist.
-------------------- Cakes inside Water Tub
Edited by Mateja (04/02/20 02:01 PM)
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LSA Woodrose
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: Mateja]
#26573388 - 04/02/20 02:07 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Mateah said: You're looking for noticeable loss of moisture on the substrate surface. The tiny droplets on the cakes should decrease in quantity and size noticeably before you mist again. If evaporation is going slowly or seems to have stopped then there's no need to mist.
That's what I'm saying, though. I am not seeing "droplets" on the cakes. Even one second after I mist a cake. I even grabbed my reading glasses to see if I could see droplets. But all I see is the very dark verm layer. The only water that I see is on the sides of the SGFC either right after misting or right before my next misting.
Edit: Also, while we're talking about misting, something I now realize may be semi-serious just popped into my head. Should I be misting with distilled water? For the past 24 hours, I realize now that I have been using tap water in a spray bottle. My reasoning was that dunking the cakes was also in water from my sink. But now, I'm not so sure.
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Sockadin



Registered: 01/03/10
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Re: I Need A Lot of Help to Start Cultivating Mushrooms - Total N00b Here! [Re: LSA Woodrose]
#26573586 - 04/02/20 04:13 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Yeah so if you have vermiculite covered cakes your not gonna see water droplets yet the mycelium will eventually colonize it and you will get a better understanding of what Metaeh means. I think you could run half in the SGFC and make one of his HC tubs with Coir and see which works better. He knows his shit. He has had good results from it.
Also tap water is fine at this stage.
Edited by Sockadin (04/02/20 04:14 PM)
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