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Schlumpf
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Registered: 06/13/20
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My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips?
#26892128 - 08/21/20 04:45 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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This is the box I've built based on a Growbox TEK. Humidity levels have reached 100% quickly (condensation on the walls), which is why I have opened the lid a little bit.

If fresh-air exchange is so important, I wonder whether these growboxes don't unduly restrict the airflow? There are two big holes covered with Tyvek fabric which was recommended in said TEK - one hole near the bottom, the other one opposite near the top. Then again, others seem to have had open and semi-open fruiting conditions... My room conditions are around 27 °C / 80 ° F, 60% rH.
The casing layer (vermiculite, peat moss, lime, gypsum) has become quite hard, maybe because I haven't misted the grow yet..? I'm worried I would get another trich contamination like I did with my last grow - after all, what's stopping mold from the air from settling and growing on the casing layer?
Also, there are blank parts of the casing layer without any primordia so far in some of the other boxes, while the rest of the layer has had primordia for several days already. Could this be due to the hardness of the layer? I have loosened up the bare parts a little bit with a fork.
The substrate itself is quite wet, as I can see water droplets from the outside of the small boxes.
Edited by Schlumpf (08/21/20 06:39 PM)
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Goatrider
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Registered: 04/08/20
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Loc: Germany
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Schlumpf]
#26892942 - 08/22/20 05:58 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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I haven't seen such a hole placement before. Made the upper hole with a roundhouse kick?  Usually there are holes at substrate level on the long sides, and one hole on top of the short sides.
I guess you put too much of gypsum in there, so it hardens of course. You can grow open air, but you have to maintain on moisture all the time.
A casing is for spending moisture, not for colonizing, as it's not much nutritive. Some sprinkle lime on top for a high ph value, as trich and other contams prefer lower acidic value. Personally i never do casings for cubes, just a top layer of coir. Coir is mold resistant, so is your spawn when fully colonized. Mold spores may land there by spawning open air, but they don't find something to colonize yet.
So for sure if you got early trich, it's your spawn. Or you sterilized the casing, that's even worse.
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Schlumpf
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Goatrider]
#26893266 - 08/22/20 10:43 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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I may indeed have used too much gypsum so the casing layer hardened noticeably and probably the mycelium took longer to penetrate the casing layer.
Actually it looks like I've got yet another trich contamination...  How am I even supposed to prevent this?? The layer has to be kept slightly moist after all...

See the two mushrooms at the top? There is a thin layer of whitish/blueish something, and one mushroom I cleaned with a cotton bud so you can see the difference...
Edited by Schlumpf (08/22/20 10:44 AM)
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Roger Clemency
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Schlumpf]
#26893305 - 08/22/20 10:57 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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It does look like some kind of mold growing on the mushrooms themselves.
Kits are notoriously unreliable and all that I’ve seen are started with spore syringes which can often be dirty. There could’ve been some mold growing along with your myc from the beginning.
As far as casing layer - it’s purposely made to hamper mold germinating by pasteurizing and using the lime to adjust PH, and because you use materials that are non or barely nutritious.
When you start with healthy grain spawn (inoculated from clean agar) it is contam resistant, if you have bacteria in your spawn it will leave it susceptible to mold.
-------------------- Sour grapes, sweet revenge Heaven starts right where hell ends
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Goatrider
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Loc: Germany
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Schlumpf]
#26893320 - 08/22/20 11:06 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Nothing to save, sorry my friend.
You got different things here going wrong, rethink your sterile work on agar and grains, and try some shoeboxes. Instead of an unnecessary casing you want to apply a top layer of coir. A casing isn`t the cause for contams, but is a waste of time if you don`t get hands on the fundamental stages. Just move through bods teks and start with a new perspective.
Edit: Roger was faster
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Schlumpf
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Roger Clemency]
#26893324 - 08/22/20 11:09 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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The spores were from a syringe, but the spawn itself looked fine. I did pasteurize the casing layer for 1+ hour at around 90 °C (I didn't have the setup to keep it controlled at 60-70 °C as recommended in the RR video). I'm really confused. Some have recommended these casing layers, now I'm reading the opposite. I'll go with some of Bod's TEKs for the next grow, I think.
Edited by Schlumpf (08/22/20 11:10 AM)
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Goatrider
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Schlumpf]
#26893337 - 08/22/20 11:15 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yeah that`s way too much for pasteurizing. You partially sterilized the casing, what is always an invitement for molds you have got now. Never mind, just start a new batch
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Schlumpf
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Goatrider]
#26893361 - 08/22/20 11:22 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Goatrider said: Yeah that`s way too much for pasteurizing. You partially sterilized the casing, what is always an invitement for molds you have got now. Never mind, just start a new batch 
Too much pasteurizing and only partial sterilization? It sounds like it was both too much and too little?
I will start anew and take a look at the agar I've been reading so much about. I did not feel confident to tackle that with my first grow, but too many have recommended it so I have to take a closer look.
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Roger Clemency
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Schlumpf]
#26893369 - 08/22/20 11:26 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Agar is step #1 in mushroom cultivation. Straight Spores can work but it’s truly a shot in the dark since they’re too small to see what you’re really inoculating with. Even once they germinate and colonize grain you won’t always be able to see bacteria or a white mold that’s not causing much trouble yet.
Pasteurization and sterilization are two different things. With coir alone or coir and vermiculite you don’t need proper pasteurization. With hpoo or straw or anything like that in your sub you need it to be properly pasteurized. Held between 140-160ish for one hour and then cooled off. This kills mold spores while keeping beneficial bacteria alive. You also have to pasteurize peat moss casings.
-------------------- Sour grapes, sweet revenge Heaven starts right where hell ends
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Schlumpf
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Roger Clemency]
#26893390 - 08/22/20 11:33 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Why couldn't you just throw away the casing layer? Assuming the spawn itself is fine and fully colonized, the mold couldn't have gotten hold of that, thus it's still clean?
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Roger Clemency
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Re: My grow has reached the fruiting stage: tips? [Re: Schlumpf]
#26893416 - 08/22/20 11:47 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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You’ve got live mold growing on your mushrooms themselves, I don’t think the spawn is clean but even if it was at one point the mold was able to germinate somewhere and is now moving along and taking over.
-------------------- Sour grapes, sweet revenge Heaven starts right where hell ends
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