after all it is just 1 half pint jar split into 11 parts???????

KaKaraK

I think I might have added a bit too much h20, that would account for the dampness, and it would make it more compact like, right??
will the excess h20 hurt my project?

Say, our recipe calls for 45 ml(=cubic centimets) water. I have a measure cup which holds 250 ml with 5 ml scaling. Now these lines are about 1 mm apart. It?s very hard to measure it very exact to the point. One milimeter up or down is possible, thus making me to measure either 40 or 50 ml or somwhere in between.
And it makes a BIG difference, if you put 40 or 50 ml of water per jar in your substrate.

If I do 5 jars at once, then I have to measure 225 ml water, thus I get either 220 or 230 ml or between, but as you can see, the relative mistake is much smaller(like 5 times smaller).

As I said before, I first mix vermiculite with water, and then add BRF.
This way I get individual kernels of vermiculite covered with a thin layer of BRF.
It gives a very uniforme substrate.

I tried it your way at the beginning, but I quickly switched to my, since it?s more convenient, faster and yield a more uniform substrate.

But if you do well with your technique(and you obviously do) then stick to it.

BTW, it?s not me, who first had the idea of mixing the substrate this way. I first saw it in the Fast Food of the Gods Teq, it says

Quote: ...The idea is to coat the wet vermiculite particles with the dry powder as you stir the mix with the spatula. This sounds trivial but it makes all the difference...

The teq itself didnt work for me, but the mixing of substrate is first class.