|
edgar1337
Professional Moron

Registered: 10/07/20
Posts: 102
Last seen: 3 years, 1 month
|
4 days into PF tek - jars smell like vinegar (acidic), no noticeable growth. Is it botched?
#26979308 - 10/11/20 12:02 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
2:1:1 ratio of vermiculite, BRF, and water. Sterilized via crockpot steaming for 120min (foiled up.) Jars were put in a still-air box and once they cooled, .5-1cc was injected into each (4) hole in the lid.
4 days later (of sitting in ~74 F darkness) and there is no noticeable growth. But today they have a very very subtle acidic scent when holes are sniffed. Apparently it almost smells like weak vinegar.
You can probably surmise that the person doing this project is a noob and has no idea what she is doing. So give it to me. Is this attempt botched? The PF tek was followed to the letter, the only discrepancy was the accidental injection of slightly more spore liquid than recommended (due to needle tip clogging.)
According to her, one of the jars showed growth after 24 hours (suspicious), but it didn't look like mycellium; it was splotchy, white looking stains on the sides of the jar.
Any advice would be appreciated. I have no experience in this domain, but from google searches it seems like the smell could be contamination? And are there any red flags in the way she did the tek? Should I tell her to just trash the jars and start over, or wait and see if there is myc. growth down the line?
Also, is a pressure cooker 100% necessary? I'm starting to wonder if maybe her crockpot didn't completely sanitize the BRF, if this is indeed contamination.
-------------------- "Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not." -Carl Jung "The current state of knowledge is a moment in history, changing just as rapidly as the state of knowledge in the past has ever changed and, in many instances, more rapidly." -Jean Piaget
Edited by edgar1337 (10/11/20 12:27 AM)
|
SingularFusion


Registered: 10/31/18
Posts: 1,208
Last seen: 1 hour, 50 minutes
|
Re: 4 days into PF tek - jars smell like vinegar (acidic), no noticeable growth. Is it botched? [Re: edgar1337]
#26979348 - 10/11/20 12:41 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
sweet and sour smells almost always signal fuckery in my limited experience
do not be dissuaded by this, fails are part of the learning curve
PC is not 100% necessary for PF tek but I always used one
I recommend ebay etc for secondhand ones, anything approaching ten litres should get you started unless you really need a lot of mush all at once
on the next one, you only need a drop at each port, no more than 1ml per jar max or you may fuck up the water content of the jars and make things harder than they should be
-------------------- ๐
๐ด ๐ฐ ๐ผ ๐ฒ ๐ป ๐ธ ๐ฝ ๐ถ ๐
๐
๐ฐ ๐ฟ
|
karri0n
Mind Traveller



Registered: 08/29/20
Posts: 698
Last seen: 15 days, 9 hours
|
Re: 4 days into PF tek - jars smell like vinegar (acidic), no noticeable growth. Is it botched? [Re: edgar1337]
#26979352 - 10/11/20 12:44 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Wait like 2 weeks before deciding there's no growth. They can take a long time to germinate.
Take a look at my log. I thought I botched everything. 5 of 6 jars are still alive and I'm spawning some to shoeboxes tomorrow. 1 Jar never grew. Two others smell weird and will likely meet the trash can tek.
Wait it out, don't give up yet. SOme jars are probably bad but some might also be ok.
A crock pot isn't the best way I don't think. A regular large pot with boiling water for 90 minutes is what I did.
That might be a big issue, I believe crock pots usually reach pasteurization temps, not sterilization temps. If you had it on high and the water was boiling, then you might be ok.
Edited by karri0n (10/11/20 12:48 AM)
|
edgar1337
Professional Moron

Registered: 10/07/20
Posts: 102
Last seen: 3 years, 1 month
|
Re: 4 days into PF tek - jars smell like vinegar (acidic), no noticeable growth. Is it botched? [Re: karri0n]
#26979417 - 10/11/20 03:13 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Thanks for responding. Thing is, she sniffed every last jar and they all have the same vinegary, acidic, and pungent odor. I've heard mycellium takes anywhere from 3-14 days to show growth, but it seems for small PF tek BRF cakes, the usual time is about 3 days to start seeing signs of growth.
I think I'm going to advise her to trash them and restart. Wasting another week on jars that all bear tell-tale signs of irregular odor seems like it isn't worth it.
I found a few cheapo pressure cookers on eBay, but I doubt she will want to spend the money on it. She's impatient, and has already spent over $100 on this project.
Does anyone have advice for how to make a more robust steam sterilization using a pot/pan? Should she have it steam cooked for longer than 2 hours? The PF tek claims that without a pressure cooker, as long as you steam cook it for 120min there is a high chance of success.
Only thing is, I'm worried cooking it for so long might add/remove the careful balance of moisture the PRF substrate is supposed to have.
-------------------- "Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not." -Carl Jung "The current state of knowledge is a moment in history, changing just as rapidly as the state of knowledge in the past has ever changed and, in many instances, more rapidly." -Jean Piaget
|
CrashTest
Stay Learning


Registered: 06/21/20
Posts: 623
Last seen: 6 months, 29 days
|
Re: 4 days into PF tek - jars smell like vinegar (acidic), no noticeable growth. Is it botched? [Re: edgar1337]
#26979423 - 10/11/20 03:24 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
A crockpot isnโt going to sterilize anything. With PF tek you need a large pot with a tight fitting lid, and to lift the jars above the water, and you need to steam sterilize the jars for 2 hours. I normally donโt see any growth in mine until 5+ days, pe varieties more like a week.
You donโt need a pressure cooker for BRF/verm, but for any other grains you will. PF tek with BRF is the only method that can utilize steam sterilization. Even still youโre not actually going to get full sterilization, the best we can do is give the myc the best chance to outpace any contams. Also use micropore tape over the holes after you inoculate. A couple layers is fine
I used this tek
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/24179086
--------------------
this account is automated, any posts related to activities or advice thereof are strictly opinions from numerous online sites and are for informational purposes only - CrashTest2020
Edited by CrashTest (10/11/20 03:26 AM)
|
|
|
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Shroomism, george castanza, RogerRabbit, veggie, mushboy, fahtster, LogicaL Chaos, 13shrooms, Stipe-n Cap, Pastywhyte, bodhisatta, Tormato, Land Trout, A.k.a 280 topic views. 22 members, 179 guests and 31 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ] |
|