|
Bardy



Registered: 04/02/14
Posts: 2,184
Last seen: 6 hours, 42 minutes
|
Uncle Ben’s Tek…..
#28223193 - 03/10/23 02:02 AM (10 months, 14 days ago) |
|
|
Hello… so I’ve never grown myself but I’ve seen a lot of hate on this forum for Uncle Ben’s Tek. So my question to all you knowledgeable people is; what’s so bad about it?
Thanks 😊
|
dowodenum
Noob Pope



Registered: 08/05/19
Posts: 1,268
Loc: 🇨🇦
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: Bardy] 4
#28223197 - 03/10/23 02:10 AM (10 months, 14 days ago) |
|
|
--------------------
 🅃 🄴 🄰 🄼 🄲 🅄 🅁 🄸 🄾 🅄 🅂
|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,501
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: Bardy] 8
#28223234 - 03/10/23 03:55 AM (10 months, 14 days ago) |
|
|
The Uncle Bens Tek, as it's now called, can work and sometimes does. It's just that the likelihood of success (20-25% or less) is far lower than other tried and true methods.
It was tried on The Shroomery some 10-15 years ago. Cultivators earnestly tried to get it to work as well the more traditional methods. There was some success, a lot of failures, the same kind that people experience now on Youtube and Reddit. It was discarded as a viable Tek, often revisited to improve it, but discarded again.
Old Teks from here often get found out by the Internet at large many years after the fact. The history gets lost and what's old becomes new again.
The 30 year old PF-Tek after all this time is still recommended to people without a pressure cooker. It works, is foolproof, with a very high success rate, probably 90% or more.
The older, by I don't know 70+ years, spores to agar to grain to substrate method is still preferred after all this time for people with a pressure cooker. It's the easy way for home growers to get professional results.
If new growers want to try the UB Tek, that is up to them and I really want them to get many mushrooms out of it.
When people 'hate' on the UB Tek, it comes, most of the times I hope, from a desire to see new growers succeed.
|
HappinessStan
Fungivore



Registered: 10/10/12
Posts: 1,612
Loc: Worcester, UK
Last seen: 3 hours, 2 minutes
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: veggie] 2
#28223248 - 03/10/23 04:33 AM (10 months, 14 days ago) |
|
|
Rice is a bad grain, shooting spores into grain is almost always gonna result in some contamination due to spore syringes being inherently dirty, you have a tiny window to see growth amd check for contamination. Why spend all that money on a spore syringe to basically waste it to a load of bags of rice when pftek is slightly more work but much more reliable.
|
WanderingAka
Amateur Mycologist



Registered: 11/18/22
Posts: 125
Loc: Lost in Space
|
|
|
Bardy



Registered: 04/02/14
Posts: 2,184
Last seen: 6 hours, 42 minutes
|
|
Awesome answers, thanks heaps for learning me. When I finally get round to growing my first time I won’t be wasting anything on spores to grain
|
HappinessStan
Fungivore



Registered: 10/10/12
Posts: 1,612
Loc: Worcester, UK
Last seen: 3 hours, 2 minutes
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: Bardy] 2
#28224090 - 03/10/23 05:09 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Bardy said: Awesome answers, thanks heaps for learning me. When I finally get round to growing my first time I won’t be wasting anything on spores to grain 
Nice attitude, rating incoming. Either do spore syringe to pftek, or dive in and do spores>agar>grain>coir in a shoebox or mono. Don't be put off by agar, it's amazingly easy after a few tries. Definitely build a still air box, as large as possible. Arms high up but comfortable(about where your elbows would sit). Metal rack to raise your work. Don't listen to shit on reddit or YouTube. Keep asking questions and posting pics of everything you do. We are here to help. I'll send you a spore print or swab if you so desire.
|
AyePlus
Stony Danza


Registered: 12/18/14
Posts: 3,393
Loc: Fairfield, Connecticut
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: veggie] 1
#28224121 - 03/10/23 05:31 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
veggie said: The Uncle Bens Tek, as it's now called, can work and sometimes does. It's just that the likelihood of success (20-25% or less) is far lower than other tried and true methods.
It was tried on The Shroomery some 10-15 years ago. Cultivators earnestly tried to get it to work as well the more traditional methods. There was some success, a lot of failures, the same kind that people experience now on Youtube and Reddit. It was discarded as a viable Tek, often revisited to improve it, but discarded again.
Old Teks from here often get found out by the Internet at large many years after the fact. The history gets lost and what's old becomes new again.
The 30 year old PF-Tek after all this time is still recommended to people without a pressure cooker. It works, is foolproof, with a very high success rate, probably 90% or more.
The older, by I don't know 70+ years, spores to agar to grain to substrate method is still preferred after all this time for people with a pressure cooker. It's the easy way for home growers to get professional results.
If new growers want to try the UB Tek, that is up to them and I really want them to get many mushrooms out of it.
When people 'hate' on the UB Tek, it comes, most of the times I hope, from a desire to see new growers succeed.
Where have you been all my life… always good to see some new old faces, thanks for your hard work modding the animal house that is the cult board
Hello
|
machinym
hmm


Registered: 03/10/23
Posts: 68
Last seen: 2 days, 14 hours
|
|
Quote:
HappinessStan said: Rice is a bad grain, shooting spores into grain is almost always gonna result in some contamination due to spore syringes being inherently dirty, you have a tiny window to see growth amd check for contamination. Why spend all that money on a spore syringe to basically waste it to a load of bags of rice when pftek is slightly more work but much more reliable.
I don't think rice is a bad grain, but the rice in UB is already very wet and practically begging to be taken over by wet rot.
Also no one has mentioned this yet, but I can't believe newbies are putting a single layer of micropore tape on their UB bags. You can literally see through the holes in micropore tape. No wonder so many of the bags get contam after break-and-shake; you're forcing outside air through a shitty filter.
|
dowodenum
Noob Pope



Registered: 08/05/19
Posts: 1,268
Loc: 🇨🇦
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: veggie] 1
#28224181 - 03/10/23 05:56 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
veggie said: The Uncle Bens Tek, as it's now called, can work and sometimes does. It's just that the likelihood of success (20-25% or less) is far lower than other tried and true methods.
It was tried on The Shroomery some 10-15 years ago. Cultivators earnestly tried to get it to work as well the more traditional methods. There was some success, a lot of failures, the same kind that people experience now on Youtube and Reddit. It was discarded as a viable Tek, often revisited to improve it, but discarded again.
Old Teks from here often get found out by the Internet at large many years after the fact. The history gets lost and what's old becomes new again.
The 30 year old PF-Tek after all this time is still recommended to people without a pressure cooker. It works, is foolproof, with a very high success rate, probably 90% or more.
The older, by I don't know 70+ years, spores to agar to grain to substrate method is still preferred after all this time for people with a pressure cooker. It's the easy way for home growers to get professional results.
If new growers want to try the UB Tek, that is up to them and I really want them to get many mushrooms out of it.
When people 'hate' on the UB Tek, it comes, most of the times I hope, from a desire to see new growers succeed.
Deserves its own stickied thread.
--------------------
 🅃 🄴 🄰 🄼 🄲 🅄 🅁 🄸 🄾 🅄 🅂
|
myc_ousin_vinny
Keeping_It_Real



Registered: 04/29/20
Posts: 1,415
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: machinym] 1
#28224186 - 03/10/23 06:00 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
machinym said:
Quote:
HappinessStan said: Rice is a bad grain, shooting spores into grain is almost always gonna result in some contamination due to spore syringes being inherently dirty, you have a tiny window to see growth amd check for contamination. Why spend all that money on a spore syringe to basically waste it to a load of bags of rice when pftek is slightly more work but much more reliable.
I don't think rice is a bad grain, but the rice in UB is already very wet and practically begging to be taken over by wet rot.
Also no one has mentioned this yet, but I can't believe newbies are putting a single layer of micropore tape on their UB bags. You can literally see through the holes in micropore tape. No wonder so many of the bags get contam after break-and-shake; you're forcing outside air through a shitty filter.

Edit: I stole this image from the below post the other day 😎 Not sure who created it but it’s funny. https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/27808630/fpart/7/vc/1
Edited by myc_ousin_vinny (03/10/23 06:19 PM)
|
dna24
Darth Randal



Registered: 04/19/22
Posts: 360
Loc: Savages
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: machinym]
#28224274 - 03/10/23 06:43 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
machinym said:
Quote:
HappinessStan said: Rice is a bad grain, shooting spores into grain is almost always gonna result in some contamination due to spore syringes being inherently dirty, you have a tiny window to see growth amd check for contamination. Why spend all that money on a spore syringe to basically waste it to a load of bags of rice when pftek is slightly more work but much more reliable.
I don't think rice is a bad grain
but it is, to properly hydrate it and then leave to colonize results in mushy stuff everytime compared to seed and other more hardy grains with decades of proven worth
--------------------
 FUCK STIPE 
|
B Traven
Stranger



Registered: 03/10/20
Posts: 2,478
Loc: Central Megalopolis
Last seen: 4 hours, 21 minutes
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: dna24] 3
#28224305 - 03/10/23 07:00 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
What everyone else said, especially veggie...
Also, I think there's a problem of imbalance here. TEKs, as I understand them, are specific plug-and-play recipes that people have figured out and written up.
PF tek is the best and oldest example I'm aware of. PF tek also sort of sets the standard for a TEK that manages to side-step agar, and even a PC if needed/desired. In that sense, it also introduced a more loose approach to getting mycelium to colonize and fruit, more of a "going back to the drawing board" so to speak.
The basic processes of germinating spores on agar and dropping them to grain, or even making a liquid culture/liquid inoculant, aren't really "TEKs". They're just basic microbiological techniques, used in some form by most commerical mushroom farms and breweries. When someone writes up an "agar TEK" or "grain TEK" or "coir TEK" of some sort, it's really more of a compilation of specific procedures and little hacks that someone has worked out. They're not re-inventing the process of cultivation, just trying to make it easier and more streamlined for a specific source material or setup.
Conversely, "UB tek" seems to be connected to a zealous notion of being part of a "new vanguard" of "free thinkers" that are really going to get psilocybe production out to the masses, in opposition to all the toxic and crusty old gatekeepers who trash UB and push their agar agenda. There are people who turn up here that, even when acknowledging UB's flaws, have to defend it in some significant way as a concept, a movement, and entry point or whatever for new growers. Like, basically people with 6 months' experience growing trying to talk over us and directly to "noobs," and let them know that UB tek is OK for starters. Which is particularly absurd when PF tek still hasn't gone anywhere.
That's how cults work, not science.
And it's annoying as shit, which leads to "hate."
-------------------- Beware of advice- even this.
Edited by B Traven (03/10/23 07:03 PM)
|
myc_ousin_vinny
Keeping_It_Real



Registered: 04/29/20
Posts: 1,415
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: B Traven] 4
#28224312 - 03/10/23 07:06 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
We HATES it!
|
Mycolorado
Hobbyist


Registered: 07/23/16
Posts: 8,528
Loc: Interdimensional Bootcamp
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: B Traven] 1
#28224322 - 03/10/23 07:10 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
|
CocaineBuffet
Stranger



Registered: 08/29/19
Posts: 3,455
Last seen: 6 hours, 27 minutes
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: Bardy] 1
#28224466 - 03/10/23 08:56 PM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Bardy said: Awesome answers, thanks heaps for learning me. When I finally get round to growing my first time I won’t be wasting anything on spores to grain 
King/Queen shit
|
Lefty68W
Stranger


Registered: 03/11/23
Posts: 102
Last seen: 2 months, 9 days
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: dna24] 2
#28224640 - 03/11/23 02:46 AM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
dna24 said:
Quote:
machinym said:
Quote:
HappinessStan said: Rice is a bad grain, shooting spores into grain is almost always gonna result in some contamination due to spore syringes being inherently dirty, you have a tiny window to see growth amd check for contamination. Why spend all that money on a spore syringe to basically waste it to a load of bags of rice when pftek is slightly more work but much more reliable.
I don't think rice is a bad grain
but it is, to properly hydrate it and then leave to colonize results in mushy stuff everytime compared to seed and other more hardy grains with decades of proven worth
If you are ending up with mushy rice you aren’t hydrating it properly. My brown rice jars don’t get mushy. I have had nothing but success with using rice.
Here is 1 of my brown rice jars after a break and shake. Notice my rice is dry and not mushy. This is what a properly hydrated rice jar looks like.

Use what ever grain works for you. But if you experience has been mushy rice, the rice wasn’t hydrated properly. It should not be mushy
Edited by Lefty68W (03/11/23 02:50 AM)
|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,501
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: Lefty68W] 1
#28224688 - 03/11/23 04:52 AM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
What you say has merit, Lefty, but that doesn't apply here. Bardy is referring to the mushy pre-cooked brown rice found in food stores, and a method used to try and grow mushrooms with them, The UB Tek. Totally different things. Apples and Oranges.
|
Lefty68W
Stranger


Registered: 03/11/23
Posts: 102
Last seen: 2 months, 9 days
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: veggie] 1
#28224706 - 03/11/23 05:37 AM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
No he was talking bout reg rice as a grain. Go back and read the comments. Someone else said while UB is trash reg rice isn’t a bad grain. That’s when he said rice ends up a mushy mess.
That’s why I chose to stop lurking and atleast post a pic of some of my rice jars. To show that no rice doesn’t and shouldn’t be mushy.
That’s also why he said “when you hydrate grain” you dint hydrate UB bags. Plenty there to see he was referring to reg brown rice as a grain
Edited by Lefty68W (03/11/23 05:40 AM)
|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,501
|
Re: Uncle Ben’s Tek….. [Re: Lefty68W] 1
#28224708 - 03/11/23 05:51 AM (10 months, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Yes, I am aware of that.
|
|