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Yahra
Meow


Registered: 03/06/23
Posts: 2,810
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Help me increase my success rate with PF tek 1
#28381454 - 07/01/23 02:23 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Hi.
TL;DR: I am not successful growing shrooms, even with PF tek. I need help to increase my success rate.
I started growing this year on the 7th of april.
Since then, i did 3 batches of BRF PF jars which most of them i lost to mold.
1st batch: 8/11 2nd batch: 1/10 3rd batch: 4/10
Losing only 3 jars to mold on my first grow was pretty lucky i think. This was my most successful batch so far.
Second batch was a bit special, only 2 of 10 jars even germinated, of which i lost one to mold.
My last try, 3rd batch is just terrible. Only 4 out of ten jars made it to the water tub.
I have no clue what's going on there. I follow Zirans updated PF tek to the T but still...
Any suggestions what is REALLY neccessary for a good success rate?
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SirPsycho
Purple Belt in Google-Fu



Registered: 01/01/20
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: Yahra] 3
#28381457 - 07/01/23 02:24 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Ask about free prints: Ps tampanesis, subtropicalis, cubensis(ESS) and Pan cyanescens
Balance in life is like running on ice.
π
π
π
£π
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"Mist your balls and fan your asshole" - Pandaskis, 2023
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Yahra
Meow


Registered: 03/06/23
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: SirPsycho] 2
#28381459 - 07/01/23 02:29 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Damn. I didn't know i need a helmet and a stethoscope.
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SirPsycho
Purple Belt in Google-Fu



Registered: 01/01/20
Posts: 7,340
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: SirPsycho] 2
#28381462 - 07/01/23 02:32 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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On a serious note there's two things possible.
One, you're not following instructions exactly.
Two, your MSS is full of mold spores.
And yeah full armour is important cause of the way damage resistance is calculated, those open slots really mess you up. But you could just git gud, learn to roll and not get hit. Scrub
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Ask about free prints: Ps tampanesis, subtropicalis, cubensis(ESS) and Pan cyanescens
Balance in life is like running on ice.
π
π
π
£π
£π
π
π
π
π
π
   
"Mist your balls and fan your asshole" - Pandaskis, 2023
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Yahra
Meow


Registered: 03/06/23
Posts: 2,810
Loc: Earth
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: SirPsycho]
#28381467 - 07/01/23 02:38 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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I make the syringes myself from prints i got from a fellow Shroomerite.
But i noticed that the mold mostly starts growing from places other than the inoculation points.
I suspect fungus gnats, so i bought micropore tape today to rule that out in my next grows.
Found several of them in the dry verm layer and that would explain the differently colored molds using the same syringe, i think.
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SirPsycho
Purple Belt in Google-Fu



Registered: 01/01/20
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: Yahra] 2
#28381472 - 07/01/23 02:44 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Yahra said: I make the syringes myself from prints i got from a fellow Shroomerite.
But i noticed that the mold mostly starts growing from places other than the inoculation points.
I suspect fungus gnats, so i bought micropore tape today to rule that out in my next grows.
I would suspect your technique making the syringes or the cleanliness of the person taking the prints. 
You should seriously look into getting a pressure cooker. Plenty of your countrymen and neighbours spoke up about getting their pressure cookers. I really suggest you speak them. Just from who I remember responding off the top of my head I can tell you both Adas and Tweeq are very friendly, helpful and generous.
Please consider this very seriously cause right now you're fighting windmills
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Ask about free prints: Ps tampanesis, subtropicalis, cubensis(ESS) and Pan cyanescens
Balance in life is like running on ice.
π
π
π
£π
£π
π
π
π
π
π
   
"Mist your balls and fan your asshole" - Pandaskis, 2023
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Yahra
Meow


Registered: 03/06/23
Posts: 2,810
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: SirPsycho]
#28381474 - 07/01/23 02:51 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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I try to overcome my aversion to Amazon or EBay, really.
But in the meantime i wonder how to have success with PF tek since it's THE tek which is resistant to contaminants, even without a pressure cooker.
Is this just a lie, a fairy tale?
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SirPsycho
Purple Belt in Google-Fu



Registered: 01/01/20
Posts: 7,340
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: Yahra] 1
#28381477 - 07/01/23 02:54 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Yahra said: I try to overcome my aversion to Amazon or EBay, really.
But in the meantime i wonder how to have success with PF tek since it's THE tek which is resistant to contaminants, even without a pressure cooker.
Is this just a lie, a fairytale?
I assume you mean resistant, not prone, and that only applies to bacteria.
When the contam is another fungi you don't really stand a chance. They are generally much more aggressive than cubensis and some, like certain species of Trichoderma, will act like myco parasites and just straight up feed on your myc.
--------------------
Ask about free prints: Ps tampanesis, subtropicalis, cubensis(ESS) and Pan cyanescens
Balance in life is like running on ice.
π
π
π
£π
£π
π
π
π
π
π
   
"Mist your balls and fan your asshole" - Pandaskis, 2023
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Yahra
Meow


Registered: 03/06/23
Posts: 2,810
Loc: Earth
Last seen: 6 hours, 25 minutes
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: SirPsycho]
#28381489 - 07/01/23 03:01 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah, resistant. My German brain mixed things up.
But i managed to correct it before you hit the reply button. 
Dang. So pressure cooker it is. Hoped to get away without one.
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Bajazly
Stranger... Than You Think



Registered: 09/02/22
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: Yahra] 1
#28381497 - 07/01/23 03:05 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Yahra said: Yeah, resistant. My German brain mixed things up.
But i managed to correct it before you hit the reply button. 
Dang. So pressure cooker it is. Hoped to get away without one.
Learn to use it to cook with as well and you will be a happy boy. PCs can do wonderful things to food and they do it much quicker than conventional cooking too.
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fahtster
Now With 33%More Faht



Registered: 06/17/06
Posts: 9,722
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: SirPsycho] 2
#28381499 - 07/01/23 03:05 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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I think the culprit has been discussed already for sure.
1. Do what youβre going to do with the tape. Personally, I keep solid painters tape on until I get decent growth at the inoculation point and then I replace with two layers of micropore, removing one layer at ~75% colonized. But a couple layers from the get go will probably suffice.
2. Make your verm layers a bit thicker. With 8oz canning jars, I make the layer to where it goes all the way down to the grass ring the lid sits on when fully screwed. When I add the verm layer, I make it over heaping so that I have to press down on the mound to screw the lid on. That makes sure that as the cake shrinks as it gets colonized, thereβs still plenty of verm to fill any gap that the shrinking creates.
3. Steam your jars longer.
Those things should be done first and make an extra control jar that you donβt inoculate with your next batch so you can see if the cooking is doing what it should be doing.
Thatβll tell you a lot and if your syringe making procedure needs revamping.
Really do try and get a pc. This mushroom growing thing is so much easier and reliable with one.
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Yahra
Meow


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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: fahtster]
#28381506 - 07/01/23 03:13 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Thanks, very useful info regarding the tape.
Btw. i think my steaming procedure is on point.
The 2nd batch i mentioned of which only 2 jars out of ten germinated showed me this.
The other 8 jars did not grow anything after 14 days, not even mold.
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Pandaskis
Eating Bamboo



Registered: 03/14/23
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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: Yahra] 1
#28381509 - 07/01/23 03:16 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Yahra, do you have instapots in Germany? Or is it possible to get that through customs as opposed to a pressure canner?
I know Way uses an instapot, and Stipe-N-Cap has written about it working for even grain sterilization, it just requires longer cook times.
As for the grows. If you saw a fungus gnat the last time in one of your jars, then its likely theyve been getting in... I know youve seen me ranting about those, cause I was so excited to do a pf tek grow thinking it was going to be basically 100% success. And about 60% of my pf tek jars molded out, despite using a pressure cooker to sterilize; most with some visible invasion of fungus gnats when i dissected them. Another 20% of them that looked fine triched out when I spawned them into bottle tek quart jars. (Im also going to guess that it may have been due to fungus gnats). I know it wasnt the LC i used to inoculate them (tested on 5 agar dishes, and they were spotlessly clean), or my sterile technique.
Im going to say that if you see one fungus gnat theres probably a shit load more where you dont see them, eggs take 4-6 days to hatch and adults lay up to 200 eggs at a time. pupas take about 3 weeks to reach maturity. Theyre brutal. Im hoping the micropore just solves your problems.
In the mean time, why dont you test your spores on agar, (i believe you can do it without a PC) to see just how contaminated they are, so that you can remove that as a potential factor.
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Yahra
Meow


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Re: Help me increase my success rate with PF tek [Re: Pandaskis] 1
#28381522 - 07/01/23 03:28 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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I really do believe that most of the mold is due to the gnats.

It often starts right below the dry verm layer.
I hope the tape and the sundews fixes this.
Testing the spores on agar is a really good idea. Will do this before i start my next batch.
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