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LurkerNewb
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First mycology attempt: The documentary :)
#26493672 - 02/19/20 04:20 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Hi all, long time lurker, but finally have something worth sharing. This is my first attempt in the mycology world but the past couple of years i've been perfecting my "green" thumb. I'll try to keep this short but would like to document my processes in hopes to help other lurkers as so many on here have helped me unknowingly.
Of course being my first attempt and being overloaded with information from this community, i dove in and went with the easiest route, the pf tek, but like many others, put my own spin on some things.
The only thing i didnt have that i really could've used was a legit pressure cooker, but i'll get to that.
1. After gathering spores, jars, and substrate materials i went to work. My biggest fear here since i dont have the ability to be super sterile was obviously contamination, so i went what i felt was overboard with the iso alcohol. Ios'd the jars inside and out, along with lids using soaked cotton swabs ensuring jars were dry before filling with substrate. I know its pretty much common knowledge on here but this is the recipe i used for substrate, http://www.fanaticus.com/sub-prep.htm
2. Once jars were iso'd, filled with substrate, capped off with dry verm, they were ready for pressure cooker, if only i had one. After searching forever on here, and seeing everyone say dont, i went ahead and used the Instant pot i have. I InstantPotted the jars for 120 min and let it sit for 24hrs.
3. After 24hrs i removed the jars, iso'd the exterior again and placed them in the Still Airbox. in an effort to keep this short, here's the video i followed to the T for inoculating with B+ strain,
4. Since its pretty cold here my next problem was keeping the inoculated jars warm enough. So i purchased a fully-submersible water tank heater, with adjustable temp knob. I took 2 plastic totes the same size, filled one up halfway with water, put heater on the bottom, and put the other tote in it and because of buoyancy, had to drill some holes and zip tie each corner of the totes to each other to keep the top tote submerged enough to keep the water level 3/4 up the side of it. Put the jars in the tote on a towel, covered up with a towel along with a thermometer to dial in the submerged heater, with the top on the tote, and keeping in mind growing mycelium can produce heat, i kept the thermometer at 80* exactly.
Now for the long wait...
Edited by LurkerNewb (03/19/20 07:29 PM)
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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26493690 - 02/19/20 04:32 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Week 2...
Keeping the tote in a spare bathtub with no access to natural light, the jars sat there in perfect temps, and i know i'll be criticized for this, but i literally checked them everyday, sometimes twice a day, the anticipation was killing me.
Before checking the jars every time i ensured to wash my hands well, and sprayed lysol in the air a minute or two before opening tote (tote lid was loosely on since zip ties kept it from going all the way on). Maybe it helped, maybe it was just making me feel better?
Well after 2 weeks of anticipation my first signs of mycelium showed up, and to say the least, i was ecstatic to see the beautiful results of my labor, even if it was going to fail shortly after, in my eyes, i succeeded.
Week 2 pics






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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26493708 - 02/19/20 04:46 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Week 5...
I'll note, out of 6 jars, for some reason 1 did not take, nothing showed up, and after a couple weeks, i did what i was sure would contaminate the jar, and inoculated again.
Only this time, i only iso'd the jar, and syringe, sprayed some lysol and sent it! I honestly 100% expected this to cause contamination so i didnt put much effort into creating the perfect condition. And surprise surprise, after a few days that jar started showing some signs of life as well.
For being about 2-3 weeks behind it caught up rather quickly, it was about 1 week behind the other jars for full exterior colonization. Keeping with the same pattern as above, checking everyday and admiring the growth, this is where i am today.
5/6 jars were fully colonized 1 week ago, and while i gave them the extra week to fully colonize the substrate before birthing, the 6th jar caught up. Its now in its "1 week wait period" before birthing.
Tonight i hope to make my fruiting chamber, and at the end of the week have the cakes birthed, dunked for 24hrs, rolled in dry verm, and in there. My next challenge is once again, temps. Looking at putting a heating mat under the fruiting chamber but if anyone wants to share how they kept their fruiting chamber warm please do. I have a grow tent available but would rather not drag that out unless absolutely necessary.
Week 5 pics...




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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26505606 - 02/26/20 10:08 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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So i was delayed a few extra days in getting the cakes birthed, soaked, and in the SGFC due to life. All 6 jars had at least 7 days after 100% colonization before coming out, a couple had more than 7 days.
Birthing - This went pretty much flawlessly, the mycelium had squeezed the substrate so much that they pretty much just slid out after turning upside down. To prep for this i put on latex gloves and used iso alcohol as hand sanitizer basically, letting the gloves fully dry before touching the cakes.
Soaking - i put all 6 cakes in a large bowl full of distilled water with a plate on top to fully submerge, and in the fridge for 24 hours. I saw no bruising so im guessing i was gentle enough.
Rolled all 6 cakes in dry verm and placed on foil in SGFC with about 4" of soaked perlite.
Here's some pics of the cakes soaking...

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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb] 1
#26505633 - 02/26/20 10:32 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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The SGFC is in a grow tent, with a ~5500k (i think 100watt) light bulb hanging above it, with a timer on the light, light is on for about 20 hours a day. From what i read they need at least 2-4 hours of light a day so I'm assuming I'm not hurting anything, if anyone has input on lighting schedules lets hear it.
As expected, temps are my biggest trouble right now. Holding pretty steady between 68-70 degree F, I'm hoping this wont cause too much trouble/delay, Ive got a solution on the way to hopefully get it up to mid to upper 70s.
Also with my limited time and being in a low humidity region, 100% RH is another tough task, I'm maintaining between 88% at the lowest to 98% RH, but i do have a small humidifier i think I'll put in the tent with the SGFC after i get my heating solution. Thinking this will cut down on how much misting i need to do. Is 80-90% RH enough to fruit? Will i see less yield? Smaller fruits? Again, any input would be greatly appreciated.
Fresh Air Exchange - I am fanning when i mist the chamber, but i also have a carbon filter on the intake side of the tent, and an exhaust fan that i turn on for about 30 seconds once a day to fully exchange the air inside the tent pulling that fresh air in through the filter to avoid contaminates. But I'm not sure its necessary as the tent gets fresh air when opened to mist the chamber.
Hopefully by end of week i have my heating solution installed, and humidifier inside the tent. Will update with what i did once I'm sure its going to work, i promise, it won't be anything fancy.
Pics of the current setup...


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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26519531 - 03/05/20 08:23 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Welp, been a rough past week, and a sharp learning curve.
My first problem as mentioned above was temps, they were consistently dipping into the upper 60s in the FC. I solved for this by purchasing a seedling heating mat with a temp probe. My FC is suspended over the mat so air still gets under the chamber and the heat from the mat rises. The temp probe is stuck in the wet perlite, and keeps temp in the chamber a consistent 75F after i got it dialed in.
My second problem was humidity kept dipping into low 80% range during the day when i couldn't mist every few hours. I haven't completely solved for this but Ive made improvements until i can make an automated setup.
First I put a small room humidifier in the tent but the problem with that was i have to manually turn it on and set the auto-off for an hour or else it would basically rain in the tent. My next step was i removed the cakes from the FC and ran water over/through the perlite in the chamber again, i don't think it was wet enough initially because after doing this the walls of the chamber are always covered with condensation and humidity stays consistently in the upper 90% range, so for the time being it's solved but I'm sure the perlite will need to be re-wet again in a week or so. I'll find a better solution down the road.
Few other things i changed up/did, i went from running the lights at 20 on, 4 off to a solid 12/12. On top of that i moved from misting over the FC to misting into the box hitting the cakes. After all of this it took 2 days of misting and fanning the cakes before they began popping!
Now i know this is by no means an impressive looking grow, but I'm having so much fun and learning a ton. I think now that I'm getting dialed in the next flushes/runs will be much better. Here's some pics from the past couple days.
BONUS: I plucked the first few today! The veils broke open but luckily didn't "spore" everywhere so thinking i got em out just in time. The others should be ready over the next day. Then I'll dunk and roll for flush #2.


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InfiniteDreams


Registered: 10/25/19
Posts: 1,224
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26519541 - 03/05/20 08:31 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Pretty successful for a first grow with PF tek, hopefully much more to come.
Good move to 12/12 with light, that is the general recommendation. Not sure if typo but 6500K is the recommended light frequency.
Temp should be okay in the high 60s, growth may be a bit slower than in the low 70s.
For the amount of work you are putting in, I think you would get better results from going to bulk. Look up the monotub or shoebox teks.
PS Those jar pics are beautiful. You had good success with MS injection, but it is a bit of a gamble. Consider agar for the future, given your skills you will likely find it easy and the benefits will pay forward.
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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: InfiniteDreams]
#26519567 - 03/05/20 08:43 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thanks for the feedback InfiniteDreams!
I think my light is right there close to the 6500k mark, its a very white light with maybe a hint of blue, I'll be going to florescent more than likely in the future.
Good to know on the temps, figured that was why they were a little sluggish to pin.
On the monotub. I completely agree, i have 6 jars with golden teach spores colonizing right now and after those I'll be moving to a monotub or shoebox setup. I really wanted to figure everything out on a smaller level, having 6 jars/cakes gave me 6 chances to get it right, i feel i got lucky with all 6 making it to fruit the first time. Building a little confidence however, I'm excited to move on to a monotub attempt.
For the agar, this is something i haven't read much on but I'll def look into it as I'm all for maximizing efficiency and results.
Thanks again for the feedback and suggestions!
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InfiniteDreams


Registered: 10/25/19
Posts: 1,224
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26519632 - 03/05/20 09:10 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Don't hold yourself back, you are ready:
Bod's agar comprehensive link
If you are worried, here is the easy as fuck guide Bod wrote: Bod's EAF agar guide
This one filled in all the gaps for me and got me to that pristine agar: c10's agar guide
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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: InfiniteDreams]
#26529453 - 03/11/20 04:38 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Well, finally back to post some flush 1 results. May not be the most impressive flush but i'm pretty damned happy with it. Flush 2 is already started and already looking better, i'm guessing since i've got everything dialed in. Or maybe flush 2 is always a little quicker/better looking.
Here's some pics of the results. If anyone can explain to me why i got mycelium fuzz on top of the cluster I'd be curious as to the answer, not enough FAE?


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2bilas
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26529471 - 03/11/20 04:51 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Nice work, congrats. Fuzz usually means it needs a little fresh air in there. There are some people here who would tell you fanning in sgfc is like opening a window in a motorcycle, but I disagree. I think it heavily depends on your setup and where the chamber is placed. In my case, I fan about 5-6 times a day. If I leave it alone for too long those fuzzy things start appearing.
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nix21
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: 2bilas]
#26529485 - 03/11/20 05:01 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Cut foil circles for each cake with diameter just a bit wider then cake diametre... this way cakes benefit from perllite evaporation . You are blocking that aspect with one big foil for more cakes
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A.k.a
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Registered: 10/27/19
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: nix21]
#26529514 - 03/11/20 05:21 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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The bumps on the caps are genetic you’re doing great.
If you did this well your first run at brf you’ll crush shoeboxes man. So much easier. You don’t need a tent or humidity meter or fanning. Just mix it up and wait.
--------------------
LAGM2020     
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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: nix21]
#26535670 - 03/14/20 11:14 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thanks for the feedback, i'll definitely cut circles next, everything i've read has said circles so not sure why i didnt start with that.
Thanks for all the feedback everyone, i'm hooked now, i just want to get better and better, after the GT's i've got colonizing now i'll be going shoebox no doubt. I'll get some pics up of flush 2 tomorrow hopefully.
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jcm4620
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: LurkerNewb]
#26535989 - 03/15/20 05:45 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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hey op you should remove vendors name from your post. for 1 its against the rules. and 2 spores are sold for microscopy use only and i dont think the vendor would appreciate that you are advertising that you are breaking the law with their product. we need to be smart here people. we are walking a fine line as it is and its not wise to poke the bear so to speak. plz dont take this the wrong way cuz its just like anything else in life. it only takes 1 person to fuck shit up for everyone else. know what im sayin😉
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AtmozFear
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: jcm4620]
#26536002 - 03/15/20 05:57 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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LurkerNewb
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Re: First mycology attempt: The documentary :) [Re: AtmozFear]
#26545377 - 03/19/20 07:34 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thanks JCM, not taken the wrong way at all, stupid mistake on my part, my apologies. Fixed!
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