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Shaneb423
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First Grow...may be contaminated :/
#27010191 - 10/29/20 11:40 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Hi everyone, I've been a very amateur cube hunter for about a year. Have had some good finds after several failed attempts (you can see some of those in my previous posts). The nice finds, I was so sure they were P.C. that I didn't even post them. I wish I would have now, because they were beautiful! Unfortunately, I am unable to find enough to enable a steady micro dose regiment and an occasional higher dose. Therefore, I decided to try growing my own. I acquired a spore syringe from reputable source and followed the pf tek how-to in Dr Mandrake's book to the T. The video show's my results after two weeks of inoculation.  Could it be the spore syringe?? I don't want to point fingers, but it seems odd that everyone of the 4 jars has the same, what seems to be, mold or bacteria growing in them. maybe that's not that odd... I put the inoculated pf tek in a cardboard show box that had two holes in the sides for airflow. I sprayed the inside of the box with 10:1 bleach before hand. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Yumyumyumyum
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010202 - 10/29/20 11:44 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Looks fine! You think its contaminated what gives it away the black slurry? I bet it smells funky to boot.
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coversall
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Yumyumyumyum] 1
#27010205 - 10/29/20 11:46 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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What's with all the black stuff in the jars?
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Yumyumyumyum]
#27010210 - 10/29/20 11:49 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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yes, the black moldy looking stuff. that's normal?? Shouldn't I have more of the white fuzzy stuff that turns into mycelium??
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: coversall]
#27010213 - 10/29/20 11:50 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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I have no idea what the black stuff is. It wasn't there when I inoculated the jars.
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coversall
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010266 - 10/29/20 12:19 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yeeesshhh yeah if that black stuff wasn't part of the tek then I reckon those jars may be FUBAR.
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kenpodragon
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: coversall]
#27010292 - 10/29/20 12:38 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Toss it.
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Greens21
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010326 - 10/29/20 12:56 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yumyumyumyum was being sarcastic. Yes, they’re contaminated
-------------------- I've been trying to justify you In the end I will just defy you
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Greens21]
#27010350 - 10/29/20 01:07 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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I thought so, just new at this lol. Any idea what could have gone wrong? Like I said, I followed mandrake's instructions on brown rice flower tek to the T 1. correct mixture of all ingredients 2. sterilized with foil taped to top of jar with autoclave tape (I used an instant pot pressure cooker. Everything I can find online says it sterilizes as good as an autoclave) 3. let the jars cool overnight in the cooker so not to expose to contaminants 4. built SAB with gloves. I know there's some discrepancy about just putting holes vs gloves. 5. cleaned the inside of the SAB with 10:1 bleach solution. 6. took jars straight from pressure cooker into SAB. (Also had spore syringe in there) 7. took needle out of sterile packaging and placed on syringe. 8. heated needle with lighter 9. inoculated jars in four locations against the side of the jar. 10. placed jars in a cardboard shoe box that I had sprayed with bleach solution and placed them in a dark closet that was around 72 degrees.
I don't know where it went wrong or how to get much cleaner while inoculating. I wiped down the counter I was working on with bleach and even sprayed it in the air to try to kill anything I could. made sure air was off, etc..
I'm wondering if the spore syringe could have been contaminated to begin with... thought???
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coversall
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010685 - 10/29/20 03:43 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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So I'm not familiar with Mandrake's instructions. Maybe you could expand on that?
Other than that, where'd the syringe come from?
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: coversall] 1
#27010736 - 10/29/20 04:13 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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sorry, I just assumed it was a well known book. I say Mandrake, but I believe he probably got a lot of info from the shroomery. He names Roger Rabbit from here in the book. I explained the basics in the last post. It's all pretty standard stuff, I just got all the info and background out of the book. He also referenced Paul Stamet's books. I've read one of Paul's on identifying Psilocybe mushrooms and I kinda wish I would have gotten paul's book on growing and cultivating gourmet and medicinal mushrooms :/
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coversall
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010740 - 10/29/20 04:17 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Cool, without looking at the book myself I'm just guessing it's a pretty standard PF tek it describes. BRF, verm, water mixture, dry verm layer on top?
If that was how it went then I suppose you could double check your pressure cooker gets to 15 psi. If it does then hit the reset button, try a different spore source and give it another go.
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LogicaL Chaos
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010751 - 10/29/20 04:21 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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YIKES! Black mold, the worst kind of infection cause they can be toxic if u inhale the spores. U would just throw those whole jars away.
If u can, invest in some wide mouth half-pint jars. A much better choice 
U need to work on your sterile technique inside the SAB would be my advice.
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: coversall]
#27010764 - 10/29/20 04:26 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yes, typical BRF tek. Oh, my spores came from mushrooms.com. A sponsored site here at the shroomery. As for the pressure cooker, it doesn’t operate at 15 psi, but somewhere around 14. However, when I looked into that it seems that all 15 psi pressure cookers actually cook a little lower than that because it releases at 15 psi. In the book he said to do half pint jars for 20 minutes. I did 30 minutes just to be safe. Maybe he meant 20 minutes for each jar… Wasn’t very clear. I did four jars, maybe I should do more like an hour or more?
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LogicaL Chaos
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010768 - 10/29/20 04:28 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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I seriously doubt its your PC thats the issue. I noticed in your OP you are using a cardboard box for your SAB:
Quote:
I put the inoculated pf tek in a cardboard show box that had two holes in the sides for airflow.
I think thats your source of the black mold. Your SAB should be PE5 plastic or glass Only.
Also wipe with iso alcohol or flame-sterilize the syringe after inoculating each jar as well.
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: LogicaL Chaos]
#27010775 - 10/29/20 04:35 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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No, my SAB is plastic. The box was just something I put them in to let the mycelium start growing after inoculation. I did flame sterilize the needle... just disheartening. I was so excited man lol!
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LogicaL Chaos
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010781 - 10/29/20 04:38 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Ah yes, I read that wrong. I would avoid cardboard altogether in the process, as it could be a vector for infections. Next time, perhaps tape the holes of jars might help.
Also, did you clean the top 2 inches of the PF jar squeaky-clean before adding the dry vermiculite layer?
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: LogicaL Chaos]
#27010793 - 10/29/20 04:44 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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I think I got it pretty clean. I wiped it as good as I could. The point was so that there will be no space created by particles to let contaminants in correct? Yeah, I thought about taping the holes, but I thought they were supposed to have access to air during that process. I probably missed that. There’s been a lot of learning with all this lol. Also, there was only about 3/4 of an inch of dry vermiculite on top of my jars. They were only 8 ounce jars.
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LogicaL Chaos
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27010828 - 10/29/20 05:09 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Hmmm, perhaps it was your syringe Hard to say, so many factors here.
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Shaneb423
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: LogicaL Chaos] 1
#27010860 - 10/29/20 05:30 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Thanks for all the help everyone! I guess this is all part of the process. 🤪
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adhoc


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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: Shaneb423]
#27011009 - 10/29/20 07:06 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Shaneb423 said: In the book he said to do half pint jars for 20 minutes. I did 30 minutes just to be safe. Maybe he meant 20 minutes for each jar… Wasn’t very clear. I did four jars, maybe I should do more like an hour or more?
I think this is at least part of the problem, 20 30 minutes is nowhere near enough time no matter how you're doing it. I used Ziran's PF Tek writeup for my first grow and that recommends 90-120 minutes for steaming (what I did) and 45-60 minutes for a real PC. An IP is going to be somewhere in between there, I'd guess. I think there have been some threads about using an IP recently, ought to be able to find them by searching.
Edited by adhoc (10/29/20 07:08 PM)
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Pearl
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Re: First Grow...may be contaminated :/ [Re: adhoc]
#27011751 - 10/30/20 09:44 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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On the next go:
Pressure cook for longer, 90mins to 2hours
When you make the jars, only use the jar, lid, brf/verm/water mix, verm to top off last 1/2 inch to act as a contam barrier. Once they're made, cover lid with foil that has no holes in it.
Leave the foil on while pressure cooking, but take off when ready to inoculate. The only reason it is there is so there's no water going into the jar during the cook.
Leave the jars alone for 2 weeks after inoculating. If you move them around, you're basically negating the point of having a verm barrier.
If it still fails that badly, it's def the syringe/source. My money is on the pressure cooking time as the cause for this one...
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