So I'm congratulating myself on having made it this far without posting a question and just using the search bar. However I couldn't find anything about this besides one 5 year old thread where the OP never came back and posted his results. I recently went to a feed store out of town to buy some oats and picked up rye there as well. I called 7 different places around me and none of them had any so I went out of my way to get it and it wasn't until I got home that I took a closer look at it and saw that it had been dry-blended with fertilizer. There are large pellets of fertilizer mixed in with the bag, consisting of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, but it doesn't actually list the quantities or percentage. There is a toxicity label on the bag warning about contact with skin and eyes, inhalation, etc. My 1st question is: will this harm the growing mycelium that comes into contact with these pellets or would they all be broken down and released into the water when I simmer and drain them before loading into jars for the PC cycle? Would it affect contamination rates by making conditions favourable for bacteria? Do I need to worry about personal toxic exposure by trying to pick out the pellets by hand or washing them away? Would there likely be any powdered fertilizer mixed in as well? There is a large amount of dust present in the bags that I will need to rinse off anyways first, and I'm also wondering if grains this dusty are going to be more prone to contamination due to endospores in the dust, etc. And lastly, is this product likely to have been treated with fungicide as well, and would it be the kind that only affects spore germination and doesn't affect already established mycelium, such as agar inoculation? I have another week or so left to return them to the store so I wanted to find out if they're usable now and then schedule another trip out of town if I need to take them back. I realize this is a lot of questions all at once and I greatly appreciate any help. I am already deeply grateful for all the amazing information I've received from you guys and wouldn't have gotten this far without you. Shoutout to all the awesome TC's (Bod, eatyu, Frank, Violet, RR, etc.), mods and the pioneers who have gone through the hard work and failures necessary to get this craft to where it is today.
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Those are all excellent questions, and I'd think the feed store that sold them should have all the answers for you? I'm no expert, but I'd return the grain since I always stick to food grade products for my grows.
Violet did an extensive tek on amending and conditioning grain via a very controlled quantity of fertilizer, and 48 hours of 'bacterial digestion' of the grain. I now use this for almost all my grain jars. I don't have the science to say it's worthwhile or not, but it certainly hasnt hurt!
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