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Seamonkey84
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Registered: 03/26/22
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Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse
#27710934 - 03/27/22 08:15 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Newbie myco nut here. I feel like mycology is a next step for me as a biology nut. I’ve kept exotic fish and animals my whole life, I have an indoor garden in a legal state, and I’ve made wine and mead. This seems to combine skills from all of those and takes them a step further with the need for sanitization/sterilization. Honestly the idea of having a mini bio lab setup just makes me giddy inside. So After several weeks of reading, youtubeing, and planning, I finally inoculated my first bag of grains today! I don’t have a pressure canner yet, so I bought a couple pre sterilized injectable grain bags from a local company (they’re actually a sponsor here!). For a flow hood, I put together a vertical chamber using a few plastic totes, a spare blower fan, and a HEPA filter from a air purifier. Honestly I’m really happy with the way this all fit together. I ordered the speed controller for the blower fan, and I might add some LEDs into it for work lights.



I cut the access window large enough to allow qt jars to have plenty of clearance.

I got a 4 cultured plates of a few isolates instead of spores. I decided to go with the Z-strain for my first grow.

Here I have everything prepped and sprayed down with rubbing alcohol, the blower was turned on to purge the box well before putting the items in to dry. I’m using bottles of reduced sugar apple juice as a LC solution. I figured I’d treat it like yeast since LC recipes are basically the same as yeast starters. To reduce the handling of my master culture, I took out what I needed all at once (roughly 1/8-1/4 of the plate) I performed a mycelium transfer to a blank agar plate, some into a bottle of apple juice to start a LC, and the rest got injected into a 3lb grain bag.

Fingers crossed that the filter works and I avoided contamination. When I’m all done, the flow hood collapses into itself for storage 

I got my LC and inoculated grain bag sitting on top of my plant grow tent. I’ll continue to update as I see progress or problems.
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Atomsplit


Registered: 01/16/21 
Posts: 1,547
Loc: SAB
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27710947 - 03/27/22 08:23 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Welcome! I like unorthodox approaches to anything but I think a SAB will work better than your really cool build.
But I don't see how clearing the box with filtered air can hurt. I just don't think it's a necessary step.
We can learn together.
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Edited by Atomsplit (03/27/22 08:35 PM)
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Seamonkey84
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Registered: 03/26/22
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Atomsplit]
#27710950 - 03/27/22 08:37 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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I’ve seen many videos where the person is using a vertical flow hood instead of a horizontal laminar flow. I figured Its basically a mini post it I’ve pressure chamber. I actually saw this video after I put mine together
Edited by Seamonkey84 (03/27/22 08:39 PM)
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Atomsplit


Registered: 01/16/21 
Posts: 1,547
Loc: SAB
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27710963 - 03/27/22 08:54 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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WeavieWonder
Time Travel Sucks



Registered: 08/18/16
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27710966 - 03/27/22 08:58 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Not to be hater, but if that thing works I will eat my own shoes.

Let us know how it goes.
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MycCheck



Registered: 03/05/22
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27710975 - 03/27/22 09:09 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Im 12 shoeboxes and one monotub into the game. The Zstrain was the most beginner friendly variety out of the 4 I raised
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Seamonkey84
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Registered: 03/26/22
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: WeavieWonder]
#27710992 - 03/27/22 09:31 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Fingers crossed, but we’ll know in a few days if I have contamination on the agars. Though I’m really wondering if the high rate of air flow makes the filter less efficient. I can’t keep a lighter lit in front of the opening.
Edited by Seamonkey84 (03/27/22 09:33 PM)
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LotKid
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Registered: 01/07/17
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Loc: Shakedown St.
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84] 2
#27711165 - 03/28/22 02:44 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Bobbins
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: LotKid]
#27711174 - 03/28/22 03:13 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Another day another disruptive innovation. It makes you wonder how no-one ever came up with this before.
-------------------- DeALeRsHrOoMs
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Seamonkey84
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Bobbins]
#27711263 - 03/28/22 07:45 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Well it’s not proven yet, and just reading in another post that positive pressure boxes keep circulating some of the contamination around instead of it all being blown out. If this doesn’t work, I can still use the filter part or up size it to another filter if that’s the case
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MysticMycologist
Dirt Sherpa



Registered: 10/14/21
Posts: 1,755
Loc: seeking samadhi
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Bobbins]
#27711307 - 03/28/22 08:36 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Could it be that because without laminar flow, a good SAB will out preform these contraptions? By all means, keep innovating, but I just have a feeling that my big ol’ SAB works as good or better.
-------------------- Two eyes to look, One eye to see.
Prying open my third eye

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san pedro guy
Captain



Registered: 10/22/17
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turbulent air flow is frowned upon around here.
Still Air boxes work really well and so simple it’s hard to justify anything more for small scale stuff.
Wishing you no or very low contams!
-------------------- Noob Grow Along 2022
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MysticMycologist
Dirt Sherpa



Registered: 10/14/21
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Loc: seeking samadhi
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: san pedro guy] 2
#27711361 - 03/28/22 09:54 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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-------------------- Two eyes to look, One eye to see.
Prying open my third eye

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Seamonkey84
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Registered: 03/26/22
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Last seen: 7 months, 5 days
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Yea I read that one this morning, if this doesn’t work I might just use that too box eight he filter as a horizontal flow hood, or make it bigger if that’s the case. Or just stick with a SAB
Edited by Seamonkey84 (03/28/22 10:20 AM)
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Seamonkey84
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Last seen: 7 months, 5 days
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27713724 - 03/30/22 07:16 AM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Well I checked yesterday afternoon (48hrs after the transfer) and the agars did not show any signs of contamination. there’s signs of mycelium growth on the new plate and the bare spots from where I scraped the original plate. I’ll check again today when I get home and try to take a pic.
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Seamonkey84
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Last seen: 7 months, 5 days
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27714283 - 03/30/22 03:49 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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72hr update on the agar plate. I see no contamination growing, just the transferee mycelium. I really can’t seem to get a clear pic since there’s condensation and glare on the cover. Also, the guy who I got the blank plate from used some sort of pink coloring that didn’t dissolve all the way so it looks like there’s does forming but they’re not on the agar surface. I’m not seeing any contamination on the original colonized plate either, just new growth on the areas I scrapped off.
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san pedro guy
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27714509 - 03/30/22 06:50 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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hell yea, looking good brother!
-------------------- Noob Grow Along 2022
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WeavieWonder
Time Travel Sucks



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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84] 1
#27714514 - 03/30/22 06:54 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Let's have a look at day 7.
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Seamonkey84
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Registered: 03/26/22
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Last seen: 7 months, 5 days
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: WeavieWonder]
#27716750 - 04/01/22 04:12 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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So the other night I dropped the agar plate, it landed on one edge. It was sealed and a still intact, but I knew there’s a chance it could of knocked something loose. Well now I see tiny white specks starting to grow along one side, at this point I can’t tell if it’s contamination or some mycelium that got knocked loose from the shock. So for the time being, I’m just going to keep an eye on it and see if it’s the same growth as the culture and merges or if it’s something else and takes over. In the mean time, I got my cordyceps LC in, so I im going to need to really test this with a blank plate before I get a tub of rice sitting in there. Gotta do the expansion for It first anyway.
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LotKid
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Registered: 01/07/17
Posts: 8,169
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Re: Seamonkey84’s dive into the myco-verse [Re: Seamonkey84]
#27716803 - 04/01/22 04:46 PM (2 years, 9 months ago) |
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Oh gawd, more rice
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