|
6Curi0us.M0nkey9
Demon Slayer


Registered: 05/03/20
Posts: 51
Loc: Nirvana
Last seen: 2 years, 6 months
|
Bulk Substrate Prep/Transfer Questions
#26877992 - 08/13/20 07:27 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
I have done an infinite amount of searching on these forums and have yet to find answers to my specific questions. A lot of the information has helped, though I fear ruining my yield due to questions that could have been answered. All of these questions have something to do with bulk substrate preparation and transfer.
1) Recipe: I will be growing golden teachers and plan to spawn my cakes into straw in a monotub. I acknowledge that there are better substrates for P. Cubensis, but I have oodles and oodles of straw and am excited to make use of it. I have had trouble finding any noob specific straw recipes online. I have coffee, gypsum, and vermiculite; is it worth adding to the straw at no less than 10% volume each? If not, why?
2) Pasteurization: I was planning on premixing my substrate and moistening to field capacity and then loading it into jars. I planned on stacking them and submerging then within my PC and heating to 140-160 Fahrenheit for an hour. My issue is that every jar method I’ve seen for pasteurization uses foil over the jars instead of lids. I don’t want to do this as I fear water will leak in and fudge my moisture levels I so carefully balanced. I believe they used foil so they could poke the end of the thermometer through and gauge the interior temperatures of the jar. With the lids on, I will not be able to do this. Though, the jars seem minimally insulated, so logically the jars would heat up to the temp. of the water fairly quickly. Is there any reason I should not use the lids?
3) Pre-dunking cakes: I will be using BRF cakes to spawn my straw. I have seen that this is less than ideal in some people’s opinion, though I have seen enough people saying it’s okay that I feel confident doing it. If I have my straw at field capacity, is there any need to dunk my cakes before transferring them to bulk?
4) Transferring cakes to bulk: Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the stigma around transferring brf cakes instead of grain to bulk is that they are hard to break up??? I know I need to maximize exposed surface area of the mycelium in order to accelerate colonization, but I haven’t gotten a great answer as to how to do this. I have seen some people saying to put the cakes in a blender (seems like a terrible idea?). I have seen some people saying to crumble them with your hands, but I’ve also seen that you want to minimize excessive handling of cakes for fear of damaging the mycelium. I have also seen that you can flame a fork, and fork off marble sized chunks. Are any of these reliable methods? What would you recommend?
4a) If I do flame a fork to transfer it, how long should I wait for the fork to cool before sticking it in the cake? I don’t want to submerge it in water like a scalpel in agar for fear of contamination.
Thank you in advance for any help/suggestions! Much love!
-------------------- “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music” -Friedrich Nietzsche
|
AlsetAlokin
Student

Registered: 07/30/20
Posts: 182
Last seen: 3 years, 19 days
|
|
If it's your first grow I wouldn't suggest using straw. If you're adamant here's a tek that uses straw. https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/21168958#21168958
If you really want to transfer cakes to bulk you should follow someones instructions to a T (if possible) instead of experimenting the first go around.
Here's a good resource. https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/24945782
|
Josex
#cheat_code


Registered: 11/13/15
Posts: 8,995
Loc:
|
|
I will answer all those questions but first allow me to tell you a couple things... straw will make a horrific mess unless you do the deed outside or something, otherwise you'll get recurring suicidal thougths. And then, you have to have something like a chipper shredder to shred your straw real fine, otherwise you're also gonna want to kill yourself.
 I used to use this to shred the straw but it took too long and is less than ideal. Straw is 10 times more unruly than coir and much more contam prone. Spawning cakes to straw sounds sketch as fuck.
That being said: 1) Don't add any additives to the straw, no verm, no coffee, no anything... 2) Pasteurizing straw in jars sounds like a bad joke. There's a user called "azur", he's got a tek called "how azur gets down on straw" or something like that, look it up. 3) You don't need to dunk the cakes if you're gonna spawn them. 4)Forget about hot forks, use a cheese grater. Yes, cakes are better left as cakes, but you can spawn them if you want, it's just that there are better things for the job and it's called grains.
Edited by Josex (08/13/20 08:24 AM)
|
6Curi0us.M0nkey9
Demon Slayer


Registered: 05/03/20
Posts: 51
Loc: Nirvana
Last seen: 2 years, 6 months
|
Re: Bulk Substrate Prep/Transfer Questions [Re: Josex]
#26878374 - 08/13/20 11:45 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
Cheese grater is a fantastic suggestion thank you! I will take y’all’s advice and exchange grain for the BRF cakes. I will also use Azur’s straw pasteurization method, thank you for that resource.
-------------------- “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music” -Friedrich Nietzsche
|
6Curi0us.M0nkey9
Demon Slayer


Registered: 05/03/20
Posts: 51
Loc: Nirvana
Last seen: 2 years, 6 months
|
Re: Bulk Substrate Prep/Transfer Questions [Re: Josex]
#26878385 - 08/13/20 11:50 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
Thanks for the helpful reply. May I ask a few follow up questions based off of your answers?
1) Why not add anything to my straw? I have seen some forums suggest doing so. What sets it apart from other substrates as far as additives?
2) I love to hear that it’s a bad idea, prevents me from making a colossal fuck up. But why is pasteurization inside jars such a bad idea? Too much heat insulation preventing from pasteurizing the interior?
3) The finer the straw the better? Would I be aiming to get it into a fine powder or are 1-inch pieces okay?
-------------------- “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music” -Friedrich Nietzsche
|
Josex
#cheat_code


Registered: 11/13/15
Posts: 8,995
Loc:
|
|
1) We use verm to kinda fluff up the sub and give it a more airy consistency, but straw is just too airy by itself and doesn't need it at all. Besides, it would not mix well with verm, it would just make it dirty. Straw is so unruly the only thing it can be mixed with would be a substrate like coir or poo, but you might as well just use coir by itself if you're gonna go that route and skip the huge hassle that is straw. We use a bulk substrate only to provide a water reservoir for better yields (coir holds more water than straw btw, another reason not to use straw), your nutrition should come from your spawn only and it's more than enough. Adding coffee or any other nutritious additive to your bulk sub is an excellent way to invite competitors to the party, such as molds.
2) Straw transfers heat very bad, it needs to be submerged in water to hydrate it and pasteurize it.
3) 1 inch would be lovely but good luck with that if you don't own a chipper shredder. You can use scissors to do the job but it only takes doing that shit once to know you won't ever do it again.
I'm taking the time to tell you all this cuz I know you're gonna use straw regardless. But coir is waaaay easier to prep, very contam resistant, not a hassle at all and has a better consistency. It's just way superior than straw for growing cubes.
|
Josex
#cheat_code


Registered: 11/13/15
Posts: 8,995
Loc:
|
Re: Bulk Substrate Prep/Transfer Questions [Re: Josex]
#26878430 - 08/13/20 12:24 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
Here's an old pic of a 100% straw tub.

|
6Curi0us.M0nkey9
Demon Slayer


Registered: 05/03/20
Posts: 51
Loc: Nirvana
Last seen: 2 years, 6 months
|
Re: Bulk Substrate Prep/Transfer Questions [Re: Josex]
#26878779 - 08/13/20 03:07 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
I may use coir given all the info you have provided me. I am not closed to that option, I just bought a bale of straw for my compost and have way too much. I was hoping to put it to use. I should probably use the most contamination resistant substrate regardless, which up to this point I was actually convinced was straw. Thank you again for your help. Very nice yield on that straw tub btw!
-------------------- “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music” -Friedrich Nietzsche
|
|