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quikotte
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How many wedges for agar to grain?
#26870016 - 08/08/20 12:24 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Noob here.
I finally have two plates with healthy mycelium and am preparing to transfer them into 500ml rye grain jars.
The mycelium is covering almost all the plates, how much of the plate should I use for a single grain jar? I could not find much info about this. I've found resources telling me to use a single wedge for a whole jar, and other resources telling me to use a whole plate.
Should I do more agar to agar to get more plates first?
Thanks!!
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smalltalk_canceled
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: quikotte]
#26870029 - 08/08/20 12:34 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Its a question of inoculation points, colonization speed, vs the good ole sterility of your transfers.
More transfers to same jar, more vectors for contam, both from the transfer and the air
If the agar is pristine, and super convincing, I would not be afraid to use two wedges in each jar or even more
When you do this with grains, you can sometimes finish a new jar in 7-8 days, which is extremely fast. 3-4 corn kernels will colonize the jar fast.
But if you are just starting out, try to take the most new and beautiful growth, only a small piece of myc/agar, and transfer only one wedge to each jar
If you want to get a feel for it, and test your technique, do extra wedge jars *after* you are finished with the "safe" single wedge jar
Mark those glasses, check if they contam, and compare the colonization speed of them vs the singular wedges
Doing this will grow you as a grower.
Hope ur plates are clean since no picture
Edited by smalltalk_canceled (08/08/20 12:36 PM)
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jcm4620
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: quikotte]
#26870044 - 08/08/20 12:42 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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ok keep in mind here that i usually only allow my plates to grow to around the size of a 50cent pc cuz im only knocking up a cpl jars at a time. il often cut that into 4 quads and use 2 for each jar. you dont need a whole large plate per jar like i have seen some ppl use. not that it will really hurt but i dont like to allow my culture to grow out too close to the edges cuz thats where u can start to run into problems at times. but id say it depends on how many jars you are wanting to knock up with the same plate. there is no reason to really use more than 1 wedge per jar since ofetn jars are shaken to speed up the progress but i do use the 2 wedges just cuz im usually only knocking up 2 jars at time. but you can cut as many as u want. if u have 8 jars cut 8wedges just use your best judgement based on what u have for plates and what u have for jars๐คท๐ผ๐คท๐ผ i just dont like using large wedges cuz you can and will drop them at times and yell FUUUCK lol weve all been there done that. so just be careful and quick๐๐
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quikotte
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: jcm4620]
#26870774 - 08/08/20 11:01 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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I thought putting many would make it safer, I'm very happy to put only one wedge if it reduces the chances of contamination.
Thanks a lot for the answers!!
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Bsdgaou

Registered: 02/20/19
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: quikotte]
#26870781 - 08/08/20 11:10 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Just a tip: don't use whole plate, cut a circle around the rim.
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Inocuole
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: Bsdgaou]
#26870804 - 08/08/20 11:38 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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I'd stick to wedges personally. You can use the whole plate or cut a giant circle out of it if you know what you're doing but that's something you build up to and will know when you're ready for.
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c10h12n2o
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: Inocuole]
#26870847 - 08/09/20 12:26 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Inocuole, whats up man? How ya been
@OP: kinda depends on your plan. Are you doing 1 jar to make one shoebox to test a culture? Or are you making grain master(s) to expand into bags / more jars? Or do you just want to make the number of jars you need for your bulk project?
How much spawn are you trying to make, how fast?
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  C10's Agar Guide + Tips and Tricks | c10's Flow Hood Build Guide "Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are, and so makes its theory more popular and convincing." "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies" โ Friedrich Nietzsche
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Inocuole
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: c10h12n2o]
#26870855 - 08/09/20 12:38 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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I'm good, thanks. Just chiming in here and there, you know.
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quikotte
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: c10h12n2o]
#26872535 - 08/09/20 11:51 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
c10h12n2o said:
@OP: kinda depends on your plan. Are you doing 1 jar to make one shoebox to test a culture? Or are you making grain master(s) to expand into bags / more jars? Or do you just want to make the number of jars you need for your bulk project?
How much spawn are you trying to make, how fast?
I think I want to do bulk.
I don't know what I'm doing, first time I get to this point. 
I want to do whatever is most noob-proof and has the lowest chances to fail.
I want to prepare several grain jars and hopefully enough of them will not be contaminated that I can use them for bulk.
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c10h12n2o
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: quikotte]
#26872564 - 08/10/20 12:22 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Well are you just trying to do 1 monotub? Or just 2 shoeboxes? Or what?
If you want to get from agar to monotub the fastest, use 4 or 5 wedges to make 4 or 5 jars, then spawn them when they are ready
You could use one of the colonized jars to do grain to grain transfer and turn it into many more jars
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  C10's Agar Guide + Tips and Tricks | c10's Flow Hood Build Guide "Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are, and so makes its theory more popular and convincing." "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies" โ Friedrich Nietzsche
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meowjinx
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: c10h12n2o]
#26872685 - 08/10/20 03:54 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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"Noob-proof" would be smaller wedges. Logically, if the main point of agar is to find and avoid contams, then using less means that you have less of a chance of carrying contams over from the agar to the grain
I can speak from personal experience. I used my first grow as a an opportunity to experiment w/ various techniques. I did a couple of Tiger Drops (whole agar plate), several Tic Tac Toe Tiger Drops (whole plate cut into 3x3 portions for multiple inoculation points), and a sloppy attempt at G2G transfers
Long story short I ended up w/ like 4 shoeboxes + 1 monotub w/ Trich. I still managed to harvest some OZs, but only because I made so many freaking spawn jars (about 26)
My sterile technique was not so bad (I thought). I sterilized all agar for over 30 minutes and all grain for 2 hours at 15+ PSI on a brand-spanking new Presto 23 QT PC. All my jars and even my Pasty agar plates had SFDs, which are supposed to very good filters for contams. I would always turn off my ceiling fan and duct-tape my bedroom vent and let the air sit for at least 5 hours before doing the SAB work in my closet. I would always shower, wear face mask,rub my arms, gloves, etc. w/ Iso, and wipe the SAB and spray walls w/ soapy water, propane torch scalpel until red hot after every transfer. My work in the SAB itself was pretty meh. I was nervous for most steps since it was my first time, so I probably made several mistakes
But my point is that clean, healthy spawn comes from clean, healthy myc on agar. You want nothing else hopping on. Tiger Drop is a great technique, if you have the experience and eye to consistently ensure you have clean plates. Otherwise, the time you cut by using more colonized agar will be canceled out by the time you spend dumping your contaminated jars/tubs and starting over. And then you'll have the added annoyance of worrying about mold spores invading your grow areas
A good PC, properly sterilized oats, well set up SAB, etc. are all still not going to disappear whatever contams may exist within your agar
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quikotte
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: meowjinx]
#26872694 - 08/10/20 04:17 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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I am going for a single monotub.
I think I'll do a single wedge per jar, I don't mind waiting longer but I prefer to reduce the failure chances.
Thanks for the help!!
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jcm4620
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Re: How many wedges for agar to grain? [Re: quikotte] 1
#26872710 - 08/10/20 04:44 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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it wont really make a big difference cuz you will shake your jar at 25-50% anyway which will really speed things up i never grow my cultures for grain inoculation out larger than a 50cent pc and il even cut that into 4 pcs for 4 jars and i can have those 4 jars 100% in 6 days without a shake. but these are very fast pan cultures. but pstill even a good cube culture can be 100% in 10 days no problem. it just depends on the culture you have. but my general point is you dont need big wedges or more than 1 even. if they are clean it wont hurt but its mostly just a matter of personal preference. but 1 is a safer way than 2 simply just cuz each time u open that lid you have the chance of contam getting in. just work sterile and fast
Edited by jcm4620 (08/10/20 04:45 AM)
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