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Thomsen



Registered: 09/27/19
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It looks very dry that coir. You'd benefit from misting it down.
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nogoodnamesleft
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Re: My journal [Re: Thomsen]
#26953273 - 09/24/20 06:44 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Thomsen said: It looks very dry that coir. You'd benefit from misting it down.
Thanks for your input.
I think it’ll be fine. I work with this same coco on a daily basis for horticulture so I’m fairly decent at judging how hydrated it is.
There are some long fibers mixed in that are blond no matter how much you hydrate the coco. The pith itself is rich dark brown, because it is hydrated to field capacity.
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Pastywhyte
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Registered: 09/15/12
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I don’t know jack shit about plants but I do feel that coir is looking dry af.
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nogoodnamesleft
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Quote:
Pastywhyte said: I don’t know jack shit about plants but I do feel that coir is looking dry af.

This picture better describes what I was explaining.
The pith itself is hydrated to field capacity. The fiber is blonde.
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Josex
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Registered: 11/13/15
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It does look dry as hell to me too.
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nogoodnamesleft
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Re: My journal [Re: Josex]
#26954184 - 09/25/20 09:57 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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If I wanted to add moisture should I add a broad spectrum bactericide like peroxyacetic acid to the water in the spray bottle.
I have 75 gallons of 15% concentrate on hand.
How much moisture should I add?
I have VWC meters I use to Monitor my substrate pots in my greenhouses , what % saturation VWC do you guys recommend for coco substrate for mushrooms?
There isn’t anything drawing down moisture from the substrate as I keep the tray covered with foil and when I hydrated the coco I used 7.5X the dry coir weight in water.
When I hydrate the discs for use in horticulture I use 5X and the VWC meter says 90% of water holding capacity had been reached
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tryptkaloids
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Don't add anything to your tub other than water...
Spray it until glistening.
The fanciest tools most of us use to read conditions is our eyes.
In mycology you want field capacity. Look it up.
There is a living organism in there... it consumes water just as we do
-------------------- "Remember, kids, the difference between science and screwing around is writing it down" -adam savage Flowchart for Recommended plan of action. Learn the tried and true way to grow mushrooms Use the Damn search engine After you know what you're doing, take a break Pick a book, Make some chips! Josex said:Don't take the site seriously bro, ain't worth it.
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Josex
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Quote:
nogoodnamesleft said: If I wanted to add moisture should I add a broad spectrum bactericide like peroxyacetic acid to the water in the spray bottle.
I have 75 gallons of 15% concentrate on hand.
How much moisture should I add?
I have VWC meters I use to Monitor my substrate pots in my greenhouses , what % saturation VWC do you guys recommend for coco substrate for mushrooms?
There isn’t anything drawing down moisture from the substrate as I keep the tray covered with foil and when I hydrated the coco I used 7.5X the dry coir weight in water.
When I hydrate the discs for use in horticulture I use 5X and the VWC meter says 90% of water holding capacity had been reached
I have no clue what you're talking about. It looks like you're making the mistake of mixing up horticulture and mushroom cultivation. The problem is that they're like apples and oranges. Very little (if anything) of what you know about plants will serve you for mushroom cultivation.
Start reading teks here. Lots of people prep coir this way: https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/11916595#11916595
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nogoodnamesleft
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Re: My journal [Re: Josex]
#26954452 - 09/25/20 12:50 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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VWC stands for Volumetric Water Content...
Substrate water holding capacity can be measured by sensors called lysimeters. I use these in my day job.
I read that bucket thread as well as another one that actually had some guideline water calculations that are right in line with what we do in horticulture in that they recommended 5X the dry bricks weight of water to use to hydrate the substrate.
The 1400g discs that I use fill a 20L container , in the greenhouse we use 2 gallons which is exactly 5X the dry weight. I did 10,500mL and there was water at the bottom of the cooler that the coco couldn’t absorb.
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nogoodnamesleft
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Quote:
tryptkaloids said: Don't add anything to your tub other than water...
Spray it until glistening.
The fanciest tools most of us use to read conditions is our eyes.
In mycology you want field capacity. Look it up.
There is a living organism in there... it consumes water just as we do
Plants roots are a living organism, too. I understand that the mycelium consumes water. Mushrooms are 90% water by weight. I just mean relative to the substrate and it’s water content compared to the amount of mycelium growing on it I don’t think there’s been a significant dry down of the coco substrate because I have evaporation controlled.
I also know mycelium can move water through the substrate. Similar to how plants roots can.
Does mycelium colonize substrate faster in search of water?
The reason why I’m mentioning the VWC meters I use for horticulture is they quantify substrate moisture capacity. What you’re calling field capacity is when the moisture reading on the meter is above 80%
I understand watering the substrate after a flush just curious if there’s any benefit to watering during colonizing...does the substrate need to be held to field capacity the entire grow?
What approaches do commercial mushroom farms use to do this during their spawn run?
Thanks for the input.
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tryptkaloids
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The closer it is to the right water content at spawning the easier it is to maintain surface conditions throughout the first flush.
Misting isn't to water the mycelium, its to maintain proper Surface conditions
-------------------- "Remember, kids, the difference between science and screwing around is writing it down" -adam savage Flowchart for Recommended plan of action. Learn the tried and true way to grow mushrooms Use the Damn search engine After you know what you're doing, take a break Pick a book, Make some chips! Josex said:Don't take the site seriously bro, ain't worth it.
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nogoodnamesleft
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Any time I lift the foil to check, it’s full of condensation.
The surface conditions thread you linked seems like it’s talking about during pinning.
I could understand wanting increased substrate moisture at that stage
Again I’ll ask the question -
Is there an ideal substrate volumetric water content for colonization prior to fruiting
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tryptkaloids
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None of us can actually answer that question because we use our senses, not technology which is more money than they are worth for this hobby.
Im sure there is, but most of us don't have any way of measuring such a thing Would be interesting to know, but I'm sure every culture is different.
But like I said before, Quote:
tryptkaloids said: The closer it is to the right water content at spawning the easier it is to maintain surface conditions throughout the first flush.
Proper hydration of your substrate has a major effect on speed, health, and conditions of your grow.
-------------------- "Remember, kids, the difference between science and screwing around is writing it down" -adam savage Flowchart for Recommended plan of action. Learn the tried and true way to grow mushrooms Use the Damn search engine After you know what you're doing, take a break Pick a book, Make some chips! Josex said:Don't take the site seriously bro, ain't worth it.
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nogoodnamesleft
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Sounds like a nice opportunity for an experiment
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In about a month my greenhouses will be in winter mode which means no growing all repairs and upgrades so my VWC meters will be free.
I could saturate coir to different VWC % and spawn with the same spawn and record the time to pinning for the different VWC % and compare first flush yields.
The meters will also record by the minute how much moisture is being drawn down from the substrate.
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If anyone else is interested in these meters they’re called TEROS-12 and they’re made by Meter Group ( very creative company name lol )
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tryptkaloids
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Lmao, metergroup is local company for me.
Used to be called decagon devices which is arguably a much cooler name.
A friend of mine works there.
Ms cultures are too variant to say forsure what would be causing the better results
-------------------- "Remember, kids, the difference between science and screwing around is writing it down" -adam savage Flowchart for Recommended plan of action. Learn the tried and true way to grow mushrooms Use the Damn search engine After you know what you're doing, take a break Pick a book, Make some chips! Josex said:Don't take the site seriously bro, ain't worth it.
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nogoodnamesleft
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If I used an isolate then would the experiment be valid?
I’m genuinely interested in this experiment as I have the equipment to do it.
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nogoodnamesleft
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So I spawned the contaminated jars I asked about in a previous post to some coco just to see what would happen. 5.5 qts total spawn 2 just didn’t have enough healthy growth in them for me to use them.
The last jar I did To a nursery flat now just under a week later looks like by 2 weeks I will be able to put a nursery dome on it and mist it daily. It’s been growing on my deck with outside temps ranging from 45 at night to 85 during the day time.
I know coir has some anti bacterial and anti fungal properties. I’m curious if some contams can’t survive once spawned to coir allowing what healthy mycelium is alive to grow strong enough to out compete the booboo.
I used a cardboard diaper box and trash bag to do a big “beer box tek”...trash bag in the box coir and grain mixed in the trash bag then fold down the bag over the coco and wait
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Josex
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Registered: 11/13/15
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Wow you're full of theories...
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nogoodnamesleft
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Re: My journal [Re: Josex]
#26956308 - 09/26/20 03:39 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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@josex
I do have plenty. Here are some interesting reads on the inherent anti microbial / fungal / bacterial properties of coconut
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0196978105002482
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730797/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4121915/
By trade I am an agronomist so when I approach this hobby I am doing it with the same lens, it makes it fun for me.
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nogoodnamesleft
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Almost there with the good jars
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