
Total flush for first cake to ever grow: 32g wet (its still in my dehydrator, so no dry weight)
Here info about my setup--it's pretty long. Sorry.
So, I've been lurking for the past 9 months or so, and just got my first harvested cake (the one in pic but the veils didn't break for a day and I didn't take pictures before harvesting for reasons). I followed PF Tek, made sure I was at 2:1:1 ratio for the sub/brf/water, was uber careful during inoculation with sterilization, so on and so forth.
The only variance I have is that I did put together an automated chamber, because I sometimes can't check on the baby cakes for a few days at a time. I suspect this is why my harvest came in at 32 grams wet, but was a large pinset of small mushrooms (from what I've read this is likely a good thing, as I am sure my previous source was growing for size)
Basic set up is:
- Fruiting Chamber itself: 32 qt sterilite just like the ones for Bod's Unmodified Bulk Tub Tek. I was concerned about overdoing FAE holes, since I have the fogger set up which should bring in air as well (mentioned below) and so I just have holes on the left and right side of the tub. Outside of the holes, A computer fan is mounted to pull air out of the tub. I figured if the airflow back in was too small, it would develop a suction when the fan was on for a while and never saw this. But, I could be wrong about how airtight the airtight tubs are (wouldn't surprise me).
One fan runs for 10 minutes out of every 30, the second fan runs for 30m out of every 2 hours. I did not notice super fuzzy bottoms on my stalks (stipes?), so I figured air flow was adequate, but I did have to increase my intervals and lower my fogger automation trigger down to 82 RH (so it kicks in when it goes down to 81) to get active pinning.
I had one pin pop up on a single cake at 3 days and then the poor lonely baby sat there not growing for another 3. During this time my tub had condensation I didn't like on the walls and lid. I dropped the automation RH trigger and fanned manually then let the automation continue with the lower RH threshold while leaving my lid slightly ajar (put the lid back on a half inch off center). Next day I had ~20 pins on the first cake and the other cakes had started pinning as well as noticeable growth. I bumped my RH automation back up to 95 RH, kept the extra fan going and sealed it back up, checking it as often as possible to make sure I was not building up condensation again. This has been my strategy: keep RH high as possible without condensation since everything is the same temp as the room itself if my FAE isn't shit.
- Humidity: a shoebox sized tub on the floor that I refill as needed with filtered water. I have an ultrasonic fogger in it, a pipe running from it up to the front upper left of the FC. A computer fan mounting to the outside of the fogger chamber blows the fog into and up the tube. I have found if I set it on 96RH or higher, it runs nonstop and never achieves it and eventually I'll get condensation. At 95RH setting, it will stop for significant periods of time and my automated fanning seems more adequate and I don't get too much condensation.
- Heat: I have a space heater in my grow room. EDIT: realized like an idiot I didn't put my settings for it. It is set to 78 which is high, but its on the opposite side of the room from my FC and colonization shelf, which I have a thermometer on which reads 76. The thermometer inside the tub regular reads 75.1-76.7, occasionally breaking into the 77 range, but I've never seen it above 78 or below 68.
- Light: 12/12 cycle around the 6k lumen mark from a top mounted LED above the FC. Additionally, I have an overhead light that is 6k as well that I leave on during the day whenever I do my morning check and then shut off when I do my nighttime check, when I am available. If I can't visit the room, I just leave the light off, so they just get the light from the attached LED.
- Air Quality: I do have a heavy duty HEPA filter in the grow room, as i have an insane mold allergy (which is why I wanted to try growing my own--better supple for my demand and maybe I can eliminate allergic reactions I got from time to time). I can smell mold sporulating from like 10-15 feet away. To the extend that when my husband and I moved his stuff in after the wedding, I smelled a box across the room, found it, and threw it out. Otherwise, my sense of smell is shiiiit and his is way better than mine (I smoked for so long before quitting that my sense of smell has never returned, so my mold sensing abilities have always amused me).
The room is built in my nearly unfinished basement--My husband set up wooden framing for a 10x10 room, we did plastic for the walls, floor and ceiling. The magnetic door definitely lets in a fair amount of airflow from the basement however, which is why I have a HEPA filter designed for a room twice its size in there.
I use the InkBird IHC-200 and ITC-308 for my controllers. I also have a wireless really crappy thermometer and hygrometer that feeds live data to my phone wherever I am. I say crappy because it cost $20, the data feed and graphics blip out if my Inkbird says its 96+ and can even spasm intermittently between 90-95. It consistently runs 5-7~ RH% higher than the Inkbird. I did do the 100% humidity towel wrap to the Inkbird, so since I've pinned down the variance between it and the tiny digital one, I just calculate in my head.
Issues I had:
1. As mentioned, the fanning seemed not to vary as much as I would like. I would like to get it tuned better so that the fogger leaves small near invisible droplets (which it does now), then niore importantly the fans get rid of it (which will lower humidity enough to kick the fogger back on -- but the fanning process would ideally be subtle and around the 2 hour mark.) However, Unless I bump the humidity down, the water droplets on my cakes get bigger than I would like as the water accumulates. I remedied this with the second fan & timer (30m on/ 1.5 hr off), but the most effective way to handle it was to pop the lid open at a crack.
Would a better solution be to drill more holes on say, the left side of the container, and then run the right side fan exclusively for FAE so that its pulling air in and through the new holes? I'll happily get some FC and grow room pictures taken, but I won't be able to until late tonight or tomorrow.
2. I think the FC lid being open for so long and standing water at the bottom may have introduced contamination but I am not sure if the FC has contaminants in it and I still have 8 cakes in there. (The cakes are rolled and DEC'd ontop of lids, and I have another barrier between them and the floor)
After cake posted in pic had its veil break, I harvested by cutting at the base of the stalks, all except 3 small mushrooms about 2" in size (this morning). It smelled fine at this time. I popped it back in and by afternoon the remaining three had grown to almost match the first round and their veils had broken -- notably their caps were much more open than the first round I harvested.
At this point, I pulled the cake out and noticed some greying that was bordering on blueish to me, but not obviously blue like the bruising pictures I've seen around (I was so determined to get the cake taken care of I did not take a post harvest picture, sorry). When I saw that I gave it a good sniff and it definitely did NOT smell mushroom-y like the cakes in jars and at birth did. But! It ALSO did not give me an allergic reaction, which I will get at the first white fuzz of mold when I clean dirty dishes out of the husband's office.
I tossed it anyway (in the backyard, but I am not in a climate that will allow them to grow naturally). I don't want to take any chances. After taking care of that one I did go back to my room and did a big sniff from the top of the FC. Nothing mold-like hit me, but I did notice a stale and off scent from the FC. I think it might be in the standing water.
I am planning to let the cakes in there fruit, they are about a day away, maybe two at most. But, should I pull them out and wash the tub with soap first? If throwing the cakes away isn't necessary then I won't, but I am more concerned with longterm issues from a contaminate than this current flush and its cakes.
Also, I did buy coir. Originally, I was planning to put this under my plastic grating at the bottom of the tub to absorb any water accumulation and help with humidity since it is hard to contaminate. I was planning to wet it to just under field capacity--like get it to field capacity then squeeze a handful or two as dry as I can to lower it slightly.
Then, I was debating doing half my current consolidating jars in a humidity chamber.
Should I just clean the tub? Or should I clean AND do the coir at the bottom? Or should I add in pastuerized coir near field capacity to soak up the water thats there (which seems like a terrible idea, but *shrug* Wouldn't by the first stupid thing I did!)
The cakes are fruiting well with 2-3" mushrooms that have not formed into opening / obvious veiled caps yet, so dunking in a closed environment probably to get the possibly evil spores off isn't an option unless I wanna let all those babies go. They do seem like they are doing better than my first cake as well. The mushrooms are almost the same size but going by shape and texture, I think they're where the first cake was at two days ago.
I have another 17 colonized and almost done consolidating jars on my shelves. So, tossing them all for safety is definitely an option, but I also know I need to know how to deal with molds, as no matter what I do, I'll still get some here and there. I figure as long as I don't get even close to needing my epipen and my cakes are doing ok, then maybe I should try to sanitize the room and tub and see how it does.
Edited by spaceflight (07/02/20 04:11 PM)
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