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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
First grow GT PF Tek * 1
    #28486462 - 09/29/23 07:07 AM (3 months, 28 days ago)

I'd like to document my first grow experience as I've never grown anything before. The goal is to have a log I can look back on for reflection and get feedback from other users.

I am doing a PF tek. Finding 1/2 pint jars was impossible in my location, and almost all available jars here get narrower towards the top. The only suitable option was 225 ml cylindrical jars, so the cakes are a bit smaller.

The grow room is my kitchen, which was very dirty before I thought of doing this. It's old and it needed renovations but I don't consider my place a permanent living location so I didn't want to deal with it.

In order to get the room ready I took out anything non-essential, taped up the windows with plastic as there were some small gaps that allow dust and small bugs to get in, and started cleaning the floor daily with a bleach solution, along with spraying all surfaces with a disinfectant. Left slippers in the room that will never be taken out so I don't wear any outside shoes while I'm there. Sprayed the inside of the cupboard where I put the jars with disinfectant several times. Brought in a picnic table as a work surface which was also sprayed with an alcohol + h2o2 disinfectant and another one with more chemicals in it. The day before the syringes arrived I got some antibacterial and antiviral disinfectant fumigation cans, sealed the door as best I could and lit a can to hopefully clear out any mold, bacteria or other possible contaminants from the room.

I got a pressure cooker which fits exactly 12 jars with a small plate on the bottom to keep the bottom jars from touching the metal.

Yesterday I started the process. I had to grind my own brown rice into flour as I didn't get the flour I ordered delivered on time.

Then I washed everything that will be used, all the bowls, the jars and the lids. For the mixing part I used gloves that I sprayed with disinfectant after putting on.

The mixture needed 2 additonal 1/4 cups of water to achieve proper consistency and there was a lot left over, as the amounts were calculated for 1/2 pint jars. Next time I will make 2/3 of the total mixture. Added a 1 cm dry layer of verm on top, and 2 layers of aluminum foil over the lids.

Pressure cooked for 1 hour, then I took the jars out about an hour after opening the cooker, and left them on the table to cool off quicker. After about another hour they were at room temperature so I started preparing for inoculation. I took a shower, new clothes, put on gloves, sprayed disinfectant on the gloves and on my arms up to the elbows, and put on an n95 mask and a looser fitting mask with a carbon filter in front of it. I used a big gas torch for sterilization. 1 jar was soaked with excess water from the pressure cooker and I discarded it. The other 11 looked OK.

At this point I prepared the syringe and noticed something that could mess the whole thing up. I didn't want to unpack the needle beforehand and it seemed smaller through the packaging. The holes I put in the lids turned out to be not wide enough to fit the needle. I thought about my options and decided to take the chance and open the lids for the inoculation, as I didn't want to waste my whole day of effort up to this point and I have enough syringes for 3 more attempts.

I sterilized the needle between each jar and tried to work as quickly as possible once I opened the lid. I ended up using a bit more than 10cc for 11 jars as it took me a bit to get used to applying very light pressure to the syringe.

Once all the jars were done I put them in a container which was placed into another container. The bottom one had some water in it with an aquarium heater, but after reading a bit in the forums today I decided to discard this setup and just leave the jars in a container in the cupboard at room temperature.

Now we wait and see if the whole batch will be ruined by me opening the jars.

I am not sure how to proceed with the fruiting chambers. I got 2 70 liter bins. Initially I wanted to try one as a SGFC and another one as a Poor man's pod with 2 air stones inside and see which performs better, but I see a lot of posts saying that the SGFC will be a lot better. Also, at this point I don't know if there will be enough surviving cakes for 2 chambers. Any opinions on this are more than welcome.



Edited by LyleChipperson (12/05/23 01:36 PM)


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OfflineKinoko314
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28486498 - 09/29/23 08:03 AM (3 months, 28 days ago)

Did you use a SAB or was this in open air?  Even if it was open air you may be okay since we're not talking about grain jars.

Did you make sure to get the needle in far enough to pass the dry verm layer?  This is critical.

Take the foil off during colonization.

SGFC has become outdated, and PMP is ancient.  It might still be good if you are going to jam pack it full of cakes, but the preferred method now is a water tub.

Also, use iso for gloves, and lysol for nothing.  Getting all clean is more important when you're doing SAB work.  The spore syringes themselves are usually dirty, so it was probably overkill for doing pf-tek.


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Invisiblewrongbenson
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Registered: 07/20/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Kinoko314]
    #28486592 - 09/29/23 09:20 AM (3 months, 28 days ago)

Also first time grower here. +1 for the water tub which I think is pretty foolproof and super low maintenance.

I almost finished harvest of 2nd flush on my 1st grow, and my 2nd grow should be ready to harvest in the next week


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Kinoko314]
    #28486619 - 09/29/23 09:47 AM (3 months, 28 days ago)

Quote:

Kinoko314 said:
Did you use a SAB or was this in open air?  Even if it was open air you may be okay since we're not talking about grain jars.

Did you make sure to get the needle in far enough to pass the dry verm layer?  This is critical.

Take the foil off during colonization.

SGFC has become outdated, and PMP is ancient.  It might still be good if you are going to jam pack it full of cakes, but the preferred method now is a water tub.

Also, use iso for gloves, and lysol for nothing.  Getting all clean is more important when you're doing SAB work.  The spore syringes themselves are usually dirty, so it was probably overkill for doing pf-tek.




Thank you for the tips, I took the foil off the jars.

This was in open air. I just looked up SAB and will make a box for the next attempt.

The needle got quite deep, when almost completely inserted it was close to the middle of the jars.

The water tub seems a lot easier to handle, I will set one up. Do you fill it with distilled water, bottled water, water with a bit of H2O2?

Iso is difficult to get in my area. The only available options are 90% and 99.9%. Can I get 99.9% and dilute it with distilled water to 70% concentration?


Edited by LyleChipperson (09/29/23 09:49 AM)


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Invisiblewrongbenson
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28486624 - 09/29/23 09:54 AM (3 months, 28 days ago)

The water tub is filled with tap water and yes it is very simple.

You can get ISO 91/99 to 70%. Just punch it into google and it'll spit out how much distilled water to add


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: wrongbenson]
    #28488911 - 10/01/23 01:45 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

So I have the first signs of growth at day 3 and it doesn't seem to be good.

The jar i photographed has another spot on the side that is smaller than this one but looks the same. Another jar has 1 smaller spot that looks the same. All the spots are around inoculation height, but I can't be certain if the needle went there as I had to open the jars for inoculation.

Should I toss them immediately? I went through the sample pictures thread but I couldn't match it with any of the good or bad sample photos.



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Invisiblehellofresh
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Registered: 09/22/23
Posts: 215
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28488918 - 10/01/23 01:53 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

Never done pf cakes before but the black looks no good. I would give it a day just for learning and observe how it grows out but personally I would toss anything growing black mold.

Can you buy agar in your area?


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OfflineKinoko314
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: hellofresh] * 2
    #28488931 - 10/01/23 02:12 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

Could it be blobs of spores from inoculation?

I'd wait and observe for now.


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OfflineScrewup
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Kinoko314]
    #28488933 - 10/01/23 02:13 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

Quote:

Kinoko314 said:
Could it be blobs of spores from inoculation?

I'd wait and observe for now.




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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Kinoko314]
    #28488942 - 10/01/23 02:22 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

I moved them away from the other jars and will give them more time to see what develops.

The syringe I bought definitely wasn't black with spores, there was one small coagulated visible spore mass inside that I tried to break up by shaking the syringe before inoculation. I did notice that a lot of the visible spores ended up going into 1-2 jars, so blobs of spores would be the best case scenario.

Agar may be available for purchase but so far I can only find malt extract agar in 2 local laboratory supply sites that might only sell to companies, I'll have to spend more time researching my options. The minimal orders are 250g of agar mix and 480 petri dishes and I'm not about to start a whole lab at home.


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OfflineKinoko314
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28488991 - 10/01/23 03:18 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

It may be bad news for your jar, but I wish you luck.

250g of agar will last you a while, but it isn't a crazy amount.  It's easier and better to just get light/dark malt extract, and agar (sometimes called agar-agar), and mix them when you make your batch of agar for plates.

You could get some reusable polypropylene dishes instead of buying a case of polystyrene disposables.


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OfflineMrJong
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28488997 - 10/01/23 03:21 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

Looks like spores to me, does the same kind of "washing off" when it's smothered around. Like others have said just watch what happens, if it's mold you'll know very soon anyway.

Quote:

LyleChipperson said:
Agar may be available for purchase but so far I can only find malt extract agar in 2 local laboratory supply sites that might only sell to companies, I'll have to spend more time researching my options. The minimal orders are 250g of agar mix and 480 petri dishes and I'm not about to start a whole lab at home.




You can make agar mixes with a lot of other stuff than malt extract, for instance you can use BRF, just make sure you first boil and mix it, then filter it through cheesecloth or something otherwise your result won't look clear and will have random pieces and blotches of flour. You can also use grain soak, potato and dextrose, even just washed down coffee would work I believe.

I remember a post around here that listed like 20 different recipes and the quantities for each.


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Invisiblehellofresh
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Registered: 09/22/23
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28489013 - 10/01/23 03:34 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

One of my first times growing I put spores directly to grains. The mold grew quickly and thick with the same kind of black marbling. Although you should wait and see what happens you already put in the work. I wouldn't stress your other 9 jars are probably fine. Kinoco and screwup are hopefully right and it's just spores.

I'm not sure where you are but you can usually find agar in Asian food markets if you can't buy it online. You only need a few grams.

Have a look at this thread I think you should probably be able to find everything in the store.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/19208976


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OfflineMrJong
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: hellofresh]
    #28489023 - 10/01/23 03:39 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

Quote:

hellofresh said:
I'm not sure where you are but you can usually find agar in Asian food markets if you can't buy it online. You only need a few grams.
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/19208976




Every bio food store has agar around here. And yeah, you only need 1.5g to 2g of agar per 100ml of water.

As for petri dishes you can usually find some in smaller quantities on every other mush spore supplier's website, or on sites specializing in jars and other glassware. Also you can find some on amazon, but I wouldn't trust it that much and haven't tested it myself. If you really can't get any, any small round jar or other similar stuff can also do. Just make sure you pre-sterilize them or use a no-pour tek if you go that way.


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OfflineKinoko314
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: MrJong]
    #28489024 - 10/01/23 03:39 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

I would avoid coffee agar, but the others are good.  Starches should be everything mushrooms need, which is why you can use a variety of grains.


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OfflineMrJong
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: MrJong]
    #28489040 - 10/01/23 03:51 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

Quote:

MrJong said:
I remember a post around here that listed like 20 different recipes and the quantities for each.




Found it again, worth reposting IMO, lots of random interesting recipes in there.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/26795122/fpart/all

I'd avoid anything not cereal based though, the species we grow are not interested in stuff like meat.
But it goes to show you can get really creative with the stuff you put in there.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Kinoko314]
    #28489047 - 10/01/23 04:00 PM (3 months, 25 days ago)

Thank you all for the replies!

Plain agar is easy to find so I will look up the available recipes and see which would be the easiest to put together. Potato starch or dextrose should also be easy to get.

I have to keep everything to a small scale for now as I don't currently have the privacy I like to have, so the DIY approach would fit me better anyway.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28490516 - 10/03/23 12:38 AM (3 months, 24 days ago)

I think it’s looking better and the black stuff seems to be from the spores. Looking from the side it doesn’t go in but rather looks like it’s stuck to the glass. All the other jars are starting to show small spots of growth.



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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28492833 - 10/05/23 07:37 AM (3 months, 22 days ago)

The jars are progressing slowly, so I'll use the waiting time to learn more about how to handle agar and grain.

I have 20 glass petris and 20 more coming. The potato starch ended up being the hardest to find, but I was able to order online. Agar and dextrose were easy to find. Finding a big enough box for SAB was also a challenge, but I found a wide 100 liter box today that should work out well.

I have about 9 ml of the GT spore syringe left, how many petris can I inoculate with it? The ones I have now are 75 mm/15 mm and I have 80mm dishes coming in.

Coco coir was also difficult to find, but I was able to get a bag of already expanded coir. I'll have to look up how it's used as most information I saw was on coir bricks.


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Invisiblemeta_mmxxii


Registered: 08/03/23
Posts: 598
Loc: PNW
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28493005 - 10/05/23 11:22 AM (3 months, 22 days ago)

Quote:

LyleChipperson said:
The jars are progressing slowly, so I'll use the waiting time to learn more about how to handle agar and grain.

I have 20 glass petris and 20 more coming. The potato starch ended up being the hardest to find, but I was able to order online. Agar and dextrose were easy to find. Finding a big enough box for SAB was also a challenge, but I found a wide 100 liter box today that should work out well.

I have about 9 ml of the GT spore syringe left, how many petris can I inoculate with it? The ones I have now are 75 mm/15 mm and I have 80mm dishes coming in.

Coco coir was also difficult to find, but I was able to get a bag of already expanded coir. I'll have to look up how it's used as most information I saw was on coir bricks.



9ml will do hundreds of plates as you only need a drop or 2 per plate.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: meta_mmxxii]
    #28498957 - 10/10/23 03:09 PM (3 months, 16 days ago)

So while waiting for the jars to colonize, I did a test run of mixing agar, PC my glass petris (I don't have an oven), setting up the SAB and pouring the agar in the petris. I left the petris in the SAB and will check them tomorrow, maybe try out inoculation from the syringe if it looks ok. It was a bit of a shaky first time, with maybe too much movement going on inside and the dishes felt very slipery and awkward to handle, so that will take some getting used to.


If I am leaving the dishes overnight, should I wrap them first? Or do you just wrap after the inoculation?

What is the preferred way of inoculating agar from a spore syringe? I couldn't find a consensus in the threads I found. Should I add a drop directly on the agar, or drop on a loop and scrape the agar in a z pattern?


Edited by LyleChipperson (10/10/23 03:10 PM)


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28508340 - 10/17/23 03:57 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Jar update: 1 jar got contaminated, I noticed it beginning 3 days ago and moved it in a different room. The other jars look good, all of them are 90-98% colonized at this point.

I noticed a small bit of growth on some agar plates from the first batch I made so I'm waiting to see what develops. I did a second batch 2 days ago with less agar-agar, as the first batch had some dishes where the agar solidified before it covered the entire bottom of the dish. The second batch had much better coverage so I'll stick to using 3 - 3.5 g of agar per 400 ml water in the future.



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OfflineBluewidow
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28508426 - 10/17/23 05:15 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Woo congrats keep it up!

I am in the same boat reading thread after thread, trying to figure out everything it can get a little confusing.

how are you going to fruit the PF Jars?


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Bluewidow] * 1
    #28509220 - 10/18/23 09:38 AM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Quote:

Bluewidow said:
Woo congrats keep it up!

I am in the same boat reading thread after thread, trying to figure out everything it can get a little confusing.

how are you going to fruit the PF Jars?




I'll be using the water tub tek suggested previously in the thread.

If all goes well and I can get a harvest, I'll make a few spore prints and move on to agar and grain. I'm already inoculating small batches of agar in a SAB to see if my work is clean enough.


Edited by LyleChipperson (10/18/23 09:39 AM)


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OfflineBluewidow
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28509653 - 10/18/23 03:38 PM (3 months, 8 days ago)

Quote:

LyleChipperson said:

I'll be using the water tub tek suggested previously in the thread.

If all goes well and I can get a harvest, I'll make a few spore prints and move on to agar and grain. I'm already inoculating small batches of agar in a SAB to see if my work is clean enough.




Great, i am glad you decided on the water-tub. that is what i am planning on doing as well, just waiting for some of my jars to colonize, already lost one to trich :frown:. Best of luck to you friend!


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OfflineMushroomMommy
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28509989 - 10/18/23 09:28 PM (3 months, 8 days ago)

Just read through your log/journal and am eager to see how your grow pans out—definitely going to follow this thread.

I’m pleasantly surprised you’re having such success given that you used a spore syringe directly in (as opposed to agar first) and didn’t use a SAB. I hear GT is very forgiving/great for beginners.

I am on my first grow as well and just moved colonized grain to monotub a couple days ago


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: MushroomMommy]
    #28510300 - 10/19/23 08:20 AM (3 months, 8 days ago)

I moved the jars and petris to a warmer room as the temperatures dropped suddenly the past few days and it's 64 degrees where they were previously.


Quote:

Bluewidow said:
Great, i am glad you decided on the water-tub. that is what i am planning on doing as well, just waiting for some of my jars to colonize, already lost one to trich :frown:. Best of luck to you friend!




Sorry to hear that. I lost one as well but so far I've been very lucky with how this is going. Good luck with your grow!


Quote:

MushroomMommy said:
Just read through your log/journal and am eager to see how your grow pans out—definitely going to follow this thread.

I’m pleasantly surprised you’re having such success given that you used a spore syringe directly in (as opposed to agar first) and didn’t use a SAB. I hear GT is very forgiving/great for beginners.

I am on my first grow as well and just moved colonized grain to monotub a couple days ago




Not only did I use a spore syringe directly with no SAB, I also had to open every jar for inoculation because the holes were too small for the needle... And I didn't pack the upper dry verm layer tight enough in all the jars as I can hear some of it rattle inside when I pick some of them up. Very forgiving so far. Good luck with your grow! I'm already itching to try out colonizing grain.


We are in the final stages of colonization, most jars are 100% covered so in 2-3 days I think I can safely say they will all be consolidating, and middle/end of next week should be time to birth them.

I read in some threads that using hot water to hydrate coir is no longer considered necessary. I have pre-expanded coir in a bag, should I just add cold water to it until I get it to field capacity?


Attaching a photo of some clean jars.


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OfflineKinoko314
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28510335 - 10/19/23 09:21 AM (3 months, 8 days ago)

Quote:

LyleChipperson said:
I read in some threads that using hot water to hydrate coir is no longer considered necessary. I have pre-expanded coir in a bag, should I just add cold water to it until I get it to field capacity?




You can use cold water if you want.  I figure you might as well at least use warm water though.


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OfflineMushroomMommy
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28510384 - 10/19/23 10:43 AM (3 months, 8 days ago)

Quote:


I read in some threads that using hot water to hydrate coir is no longer considered necessary. I have pre-expanded coir in a bag, should I just add cold water to it until I get it to field capacity?




The cold vs hot debate is really about how much you trust the source. While it IS technically pre-pasteurized during the compression phase, it’s possible to have gotten contaminates like fly eggs or airborne pathogens during storage. Especially if stored outdoors like you might find in a garden center—less likely if marketed for use in an indoor terrarium/vivarium for a pet. At the point you’re using the coir in the process of mushroom cultivation, you’ve already done so much to avoid contaminates and get to that point, so why risk it when you’re halfway through?

When preparing coir for use in a terrarium or vivarium the hot water recommendation is more about speed than anything else. It will expand quicker using hot water than cold.

If you’ve already got a bag of pre-hydrated and it came from a pet store, as long as it’s a popular item sold at the store and hasn’t been on the shelf for ages, I say go for it and just add distilled water until at field capacity 😊


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Edited by MushroomMommy (10/19/23 10:44 AM)


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: MushroomMommy]
    #28510736 - 10/19/23 03:40 PM (3 months, 7 days ago)

This bag of coir is old and has stayed outside at least for a little while, so I'll use boiled water.

Since it's already expanded I have no idea how much water it would absorb, so I'm thinking of adding a small amount initially and adjust if needed.

My BRF and verm mix was probably underwatered. I recently found some videos on field capacity and water was dripping after light to moderate squeezing. When I did it I was going mostly off of written descriptions of seeing 2-3 drops, so I added water until I had to squeeze very hard for several seconds to produce 1-2 drops of water.

When I found out I was thinking that might lead to trouble, but the jars seem to be doing great so far.


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OfflineKinoko314
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28510748 - 10/19/23 03:54 PM (3 months, 7 days ago)

FWIW I consider field capacity to be a few drops with a very hard squeeze.  I know people's squeezes are different anyway, but it always worked for me.

You can add water to your coir by weight if you have a kitchen scale.  It may be a little harder to weigh the bag on it, but maybe it has a weight measurement on the bag and not just a volume.  For Eco Earth I use 3.5x the weight of the substrate worth of water.  For example, 100g of substrate, 350g of water.  For Coco Bliss people use 4.6x.  I don't know what your "magic number" will end up being, but probably somewhere in that range.

However you do it, try not to overshoot on the amount of water.  It sucks to have to squeeze water out of all of it.  It's much easier to add a little at a time until you get there.


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Offlinefiddle_headS
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28510752 - 10/19/23 04:02 PM (3 months, 7 days ago)

You really need to have the use of an sab, you may have gotten lucky but each experience is different and there are a million+ factors. Spores to grain=bad. open-air inoc: not a good idea for beginners or kind of in general with few exceptions. Felt like I needed to say this. I read your log and think you may have something, just keeps close eye on it. Hoping you get fruit and go to Home Depot get a 104qt or bigger Sterilite for your sab mate.
Cheers good to have ya!

The sab is really absolutely indisposable


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: fiddle_head]
    #28511321 - 10/20/23 02:39 AM (3 months, 7 days ago)

Thank you for the tips!

I do have an SAB and I have been using it for the agar work. When I did the PF tek, I had found mostly older guides that didn't mention SABs at all, so I hadn't prepared one at the time.

I'm using glass petris and I noticed a lot of condensation in some of them as they got out of the pressure cooker that still isn't going away. I wonder if leaving them spread out for 1-2 days would help, as the remaining condensation was mostly on the bottom of the stacks of 4-5 dishes. The dishes were wrapped with a single layer of cling film.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28517643 - 10/25/23 11:27 AM (3 months, 2 days ago)

So, I will most likely birth the cakes this weekend. Most of them were fully colonized about a week ago, some had tiny spots left that were colonized over the past few days, so this should give about 6-8 days of consolidation for almost all cakes. One still has a spot that isn't colonized but there has been visible progress in the past days and it should be done by this weekend.


I have several options ahead of me that I haven't decided on yet:

1. Birth all the jars this weekend.
or
2. Leave the last jar for an additional week and then put it in with the others.

and

3. Split the jars and put half in a shoebox and leave half to fruit from the cakes
or
4. Put them all in the water tub tek and don't bother with testing a shoebox. They are smaller jars (225 ml) so even with a small box I'll probably have to use at least half of them.

I'm also trying to take good pictures of my agar plates so I can get some feedback and so far they suck. I have some growth, but a lot of the plates got contaminated or still aren't developed at all. I probably should have used a narrower strip of cling film as it's too much and it hides details from the photos, but with the glass petris the tops move around a lot and I'm not sure if a narrower strip would stay attached. The second batch of plates had a lot of moisture on the inside after pressure cooking and I think that caused some contamination from the water droplets on the agar. Adding some sample photos.
I would appreciate tips on how to set up the plates so photos come out detailed.





Edited by LyleChipperson (10/25/23 11:29 AM)


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28521278 - 10/28/23 03:09 PM (2 months, 29 days ago)

I birthed 9 cakes today, left the last one to finish colonizing. Going in the water tub tomorrow.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28523024 - 10/30/23 05:20 AM (2 months, 28 days ago)

The water tub got nice and misty overnight. The coir layer might be thicker than 10mm in some places but it was difficult to get it to stick to some of the cakes, next time I’ll have to add a bit more water and make it slightly stickier.



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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28523563 - 10/30/23 03:38 PM (2 months, 27 days ago)

~ 30 hours after placing the cakes in the tub and shutting the lid, I can see the first signs of myc growth on the coir.



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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28525137 - 11/01/23 04:37 AM (2 months, 26 days ago)

3 days in the tub now, the coir is getting colonized but it's going slow. I opened the lid yesterday and put it on backwards to allow some FAE, that seems to have helped things a bit. The added FAE made the lid dry out, but the sides are still covered in condensation and I can see tiny droplets on the long coir strands, so the conditions should be good.



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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28530296 - 11/05/23 09:41 AM (2 months, 22 days ago)

Progress pic from earlier today
After opening the lid I misted 2 days ago and again today


Edited by LyleChipperson (11/05/23 09:44 AM)


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Invisiblemeta_mmxxii

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28531016 - 11/05/23 06:29 PM (2 months, 21 days ago)

I believe most people that use glass petri's dry sterilize them in the oven to avoid the condensation issue with those. I don't use them so I would not be able to help guide you through the process, but I am sure there is someone in here that can explain.


--------------------
Lots of up-to-date Teks:
Trusted Cultivators Teks

The most comprehensive explanation of things I have read on the forums:
Ultimate Tek Compendium

Another very good read for new members:
The Hitchhikers Guide
              🅃 🄴 🄰 🄼    🄲 🄻 🄸 🄽 🄶 🅆 🅁 🄰 🄿


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: meta_mmxxii]
    #28532457 - 11/07/23 01:01 AM (2 months, 20 days ago)

I looked up the petri teks and I've done 2 batches in the oven at 180c for an hour.

These guys appeared overnight.



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Invisiblemeta_mmxxii

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28532623 - 11/07/23 07:55 AM (2 months, 20 days ago)

Quote:

LyleChipperson said:
I looked up the petri teks and I've done 2 batches in the oven at 180c for an hour.

These guys appeared overnight.





congrats soon you will have many!


--------------------
Lots of up-to-date Teks:
Trusted Cultivators Teks

The most comprehensive explanation of things I have read on the forums:
Ultimate Tek Compendium

Another very good read for new members:
The Hitchhikers Guide
              🅃 🄴 🄰 🄼    🄲 🄻 🄸 🄽 🄶 🅆 🅁 🄰 🄿


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: meta_mmxxii]
    #28535216 - 11/09/23 07:51 AM (2 months, 18 days ago)

All the cakes now have pins and I'm misting twice per day. I probably kept the cakes a bit drier than I was supposed to before the pins, but I found that they can take more sprays before the drops start to merge and become too big. The added jar was the last one to be colonized and I didn't want to make a mess with coir just for 1 cake, so I only cased the top and put it in with the others.



On the agar front, I now have some T2 transfers from my best petri inoculated with the same GT that I used for the cakes. The growth on agar sucks so far, but I'm doing the best I can until I can get a spore print off this current grow.

All of the T1 transfers look like this, the T2s are from yesterday and the day before so no growth yet.



I did a test run of inoculations with my B+ spore syringe and so far it's a complete disaster. Some plates are still completely empty, every other one has been a bacterial mess. No mycelium in sight. I'm inclined to blame the syringe, my technique with agar may not be up to par yet, but I am able to get some clean plates with the transfers.


Edited by LyleChipperson (12/05/23 01:38 PM)


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28536640 - 11/10/23 06:58 AM (2 months, 17 days ago)

I guess I should have put the cakes on some aluminum foil, a lot of them started growing pins out of the bottom and heading towards the water. I turned over 2 cakes since they were way more developed on the bottom than the top side, but a pin broke off the second cake so I won't risk moving the other ones. Instead I'll just pay attention that the shrooms don't touch the water and harvest them before that happens. The pin that broke off was my first taste of a fresh shroom and I was expecting something a lot worse... it just tasted like a regular mushroom.


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OfflineAdvil_Liquigels
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28536665 - 11/10/23 07:16 AM (2 months, 17 days ago)

Quote:

LyleChipperson said:
I guess I should have put the cakes on some aluminum foil, a lot of them started growing pins out of the bottom and heading towards the water. I turned over 2 cakes since they were way more developed on the bottom than the top side, but a pin broke off the second cake so I won't risk moving the other ones. Instead I'll just pay attention that the shrooms don't touch the water and harvest them before that happens. The pin that broke off was my first taste of a fresh shroom and I was expecting something a lot worse... it just tasted like a regular mushroom.





Man, I wish i had your tastebuds.


--------------------
Wa sa, dew


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Advil_Liquigels]
    #28536993 - 11/10/23 11:01 AM (2 months, 17 days ago)

It was unexpected, I’m usually sensitive to earthy and bitter flavors and I tasted nothing like that.

Progress pics


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Invisiblemeta_mmxxii

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28537001 - 11/10/23 11:07 AM (2 months, 17 days ago)

Mushrooms are delicious!


--------------------
Lots of up-to-date Teks:
Trusted Cultivators Teks

The most comprehensive explanation of things I have read on the forums:
Ultimate Tek Compendium

Another very good read for new members:
The Hitchhikers Guide
              🅃 🄴 🄰 🄼    🄲 🄻 🄸 🄽 🄶 🅆 🅁 🄰 🄿


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InvisibleWay
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: meta_mmxxii]
    #28537011 - 11/10/23 11:16 AM (2 months, 17 days ago)

:chefskiss:

Killing it man!


--------------------

That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Way]
    #28538690 - 11/11/23 12:46 PM (2 months, 15 days ago)

The caps of the first pin cluster that grew opened already, it seems too early as most of them are still very small. Researching the possible reasons now.



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InvisibleWay
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28538699 - 11/11/23 12:54 PM (2 months, 15 days ago)

Genetics, conditions, or contamination.

Your conditions look pretty good.
BRF is pretty contamination resistant and your jars looked decent.

I'd chalk it up to genetics and keep going. Likely you'll get bigger ones on the next flush anyway. Congrats on the shrooms!


--------------------

That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Way]
    #28538775 - 11/11/23 01:53 PM (2 months, 15 days ago)

Thank you! I'll wait until morning to check for other open caps and harvest them. Tomorrow I'll be working on another pf tek setup for a fellow enthusiast, so the timing would be perfect :mushroom2:

Edit: I looked around for pictures of other PF Tek flushes to get some perspective and it seems that my shrooms aren’t that small and the flush is pretty close to being done. I got a closer look and I can already see new tiny pins starting to form on most cakes.




Edit again:  Am I supposed to dunk the cakes after harvesting the first flush or will that tear away the coir?


Edited by LyleChipperson (11/11/23 03:47 PM)


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28539622 - 11/12/23 12:46 AM (2 months, 15 days ago)

Harvested the first flush, 478g wet.


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InvisibleWay
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28539634 - 11/12/23 01:10 AM (2 months, 15 days ago)

That is a good looking watertub.  Yeah you can dunk and roll again. If some coir falls off its fine as long as you replace it. :thumbup:


--------------------

That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Way]
    #28551652 - 11/21/23 02:24 PM (2 months, 5 days ago)

The first flush ended up as 33g dry after 26 hours in the dehydrator.

I gave it a small test at home with 1g dry and had a light to moderate trip lasting about 3 hours. I tried to watch a live show I like but couldn't pay much attention. I noticed slight visual effects in the blown out lights that were lighting the show stage. I stopped the show and just thought about stuff and paid attention to how I interpret my thoughts. It was like a dial was turned up - negative thoughts had a higher potential of making me go into a negative direction and be affected emotionally, same with positive thoughts giving me more positive emotions. Then I spent some time petting my dogs and giving them affection, which gave me even more positive energy than usual. For most of the trip I was lying down or sitting as I wasn't sure how it would affect my motor skills, but I got tired of that and spent the last hour of the trip taking a brisk walk on my treadmill and listening to music. I found that I can move well and felt very in tune with my body. I workout regularly and noticed how I can feel every muscle activating and working when I moved around, as well as noticing even slight changes in my posture.

The aftereffects have been very positive so far - decreased hypervigilance/social anxiety, inreased capacity to feel positive (and negative) emotions. This is very important to me as I had to adapt to a negative environment growing up by shutting down my emotions and as a result I have been very disconnected from them for most of my life. I hope I can get away soon and try a 2 or 2.5g dose in a more isolated location so I can relax and not worry about anyone interrupting me. There is a lot more progress to be made and now I firmly believe that the shrooms can help me get to where I want to be.

The second flush is coming along, but it's more uneven so I guess I'll have to keep the dehydrator running and do it in several batches. First flush of the cased jar is almost here as well. Here's how things are looking at the moment:



I wanted to give grain a try as I have a couple petris with clean growth and I have to use them soon. I tried this rye tek https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/12968910 but my grain was done after the initial 15 min boil and 2 hour soak. It's probably overdone as I had quite a few popped grains. Even if it fails, I'll go ahead and use 1-2 petris for 5 smaller jars just to go through the motions and be better prepared for the next attempt.


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InvisibleWay
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28551707 - 11/21/23 03:08 PM (2 months, 5 days ago)

Nice, I'm glad the trip worked out for you. Don't forget you can save fresh shrooms in a paper bag in the fridge for up to a week or so. That will allow you to save them and run more in a dehydrator batch if you want.

You're on the right path. For a no soak rye prep, I've had great success with this tek. Some burst grains can make the shake a bit harder but really isn't a big deal :thumbup:


--------------------

That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Way]
    #28553875 - 11/23/23 10:34 AM (2 months, 4 days ago)

Second flush is done, 194 g wet. Loaded up the dehydrator and I'm expecting about 10g dry.

Since the slowest cake is still taking its time growing the first flush, I moved all the spent cakes below the rack and added more water to submerge them completely. This time I'll let them soak for 24 hours as I think that the 3 hour soak I did wasn't enough. The cakes dried out quicker when compared to the first flush. Hopefully I'll get a bit more out of them as I still have to keep the tub going for the cased cake.

I was able to get 8 spore prints from 4 big caps with 4 hour and then 24 hour waiting time, so I should be self-sufficient for my next grows.

I dealt with the overly wet rye by spreading the grains in a tray in 3-4 thin layers with paper towels in between. After about an hour the towels had absorbed a lot of moisture and the jars look good, there's no visible excess moisture. Thank you for the tek suggestion, Way. I'll give it a go next time as it seems a lot more appropriate for my rye.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson] * 1
    #28556045 - 11/25/23 01:39 PM (2 months, 1 day ago)

The slow jar finally finished its furst flush, it took its time but did well in the end. I never noticed until now that a small pin on the bottom turned into the biggest mushroom of the flush and pushed the whole cake up. I got 62 g wet.



Now I think I'll give the B+ syringe a try, it failed miserably when tested on agar so I'll probably just load 10 jars, inoculate with 2ml per jar and get some prints or clones if it fruits.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson

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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28559443 - 11/28/23 12:58 PM (1 month, 29 days ago)

2 days ago I used up the B+ syringe on 10 jars, so I'm waiting to see how it goes.

6 days ago I did a2g in 5 smaller jars, about 600ml size, using 2 petris. 1 T2 clean dish was split in 4 and used to inoculate 4 jars. For the fifth jar I used a whole T2 dish from a different starter plate that grew slower, but I didn't want to split the first dish in more than 4 pieces. The whole dish was split in 4 before transfering to the fifth jar.

Today, the 4 jars that got 1/4 plate are still showing no growth on the grain, but the agar has visible growth on the bottom that is now facing up. The fifth jar with the whole plate has a bit of mycelium reaching for the grains that are directly touching agar. Overall it seems like growth is slow, but at least there's no contamination yet.

My buddy's PF tek got green growth in 6 of 8 jars and I can only think of the syringe being contaminated, we followed the same procedure I did except we used a SAB and made his inoculation holes big enough so the needle can go through. It was going very slow, it took 2 weeks for any visible mycelium to show and just a couple days after there were very big spots of green. All the green growth was towards the top of the jars, so I wonder if this points to any specific issue. I told him to use his B+ syringe and if it also fails, I'll use the smallest spore print I made, but I'll dump the whole thing into a syringe and see if we can get some good growth out of that.


Edited by LyleChipperson (11/28/23 01:01 PM)


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InvisibleLyleChipperson


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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28562134 - 11/30/23 01:01 PM (1 month, 27 days ago)

3rd flush is on the way, I harvested 6g wet today from 1 cake that grew them way quicker than the others.

The grain jars are now all starting to visibly colonize, I guess complaining about them gave them a nudge to get it going :smile:

I was thinking about long term stealthy storage and I decided to go with capsules, the pressing unit and empty caps should arrive tomorrow, so I'm excited to get that going.


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OfflineAlexandrDughin
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson] * 1
    #28562239 - 11/30/23 02:29 PM (1 month, 27 days ago)

Read all of your grow journal.
Great job :smile:


--------------------
Psilocybe Semilanceata Experiment


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InvisibleLyleChipperson


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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: AlexandrDughin]
    #28563837 - 12/01/23 01:54 PM (1 month, 26 days ago)

I got a size 0 press and caps as there were no other options locally. Spent a couple hours and put everything I had in capsules, but it was difficult to get an accurate measurement for dosage. I have 2 0.1 g scales and I couldn't get a reliable reading on either with anything less than 10 caps. It turned out that even using 10 caps wasn't accurate enough as the calculations based on that lead to missing 4-7 g when comparing the dry total before grinding and after filling. In the end I weighed the entire batch which took just under half of one cap pack and compared it to the weight of the other half of the empty caps, and the calculation came out to more material being packed in than I had before grinding :confused: So I gave up on trying to be super accurate and I'll just count the caps as 0.35-0.4 g each and leave it at that.


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OfflineAlexandrDughin
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28567953 - 12/04/23 08:28 AM (1 month, 24 days ago)

So it took you about 1 month and 1 week +-, from spores to harvest, right ?

I'm asking this because i also intend to grow some GT's from spores that i finally managed to get here.

Problem is i will have to travel away for 1 week near the end of this month.


--------------------
Psilocybe Semilanceata Experiment


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InvisibleLyleChipperson


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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: AlexandrDughin]
    #28568249 - 12/04/23 12:34 PM (1 month, 23 days ago)

I just harvested 4 more cakes and I have 3 left, they should be good to go tomorrow.

Quote:

AlexandrDughin said:
So it took you about 1 month and 1 week +-, from spores to harvest, right ?

I'm asking this because i also intend to grow some GT's from spores that i finally managed to get here.

Problem is i will have to travel away for 1 week near the end of this month.




No, it took about a month for the jars to be colonized. Then another month from the point I birthed them to get 3 flushes.

If you prepare your jars in the next few days, colonization should take you about until the end of the month if everything goes ok. You can birth the jars after you come back from your trip, but from that point on you'll have to keep an eye on them. Keep in mind that it may take you more or less time than it did for me, but the cakes will be fine if you leave them in the jars for a few extra days after colonization + consolidation.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson


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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28576895 - 12/10/23 11:28 AM (1 month, 18 days ago)

It's time to wrap up this grow.

9 cakes of 225 ml jars with 3 flushes + 1 cake with 2 flushes gave me ~ 870 g wet, 56.2 g dry.

I will probably get a 4th flush, but it will be too small to matter. The only reason I still keep the cakes around is because I'm waiting on my grain jars and B+ pf tek jars to colonize so I can move on to them.

This GT I have seems to be a slow-ish colonizer with average yields and potency, so I'll be looking for better genetics for the sake of efficiency.

Now it's time to focus almost entirely on agar. My agar work so far turned out to be mostly transferring bacteria around, so I only had 3 potentially clean plates for transfers. I broke 1 plate accidentally today, so I'll be taking 5 transfers each from the remaining 2 plates to hopefully get enough inoculant for more grain jars soon, since it's very likely that the plates I used for my currently colonizing grain were also contaminated.

I will also start 4 new plates with my own spore prints, but they will probably take a while to clean up. I'm looking forward to getting access to the marketplace at the end of this month to see if I can source some better genetics and other varieties and species.

The goal is to get and keep around enough clean inoculant with good genetics so I can do 1-2 small scale grows per year to cover my needs.

I would like to thank everyone who took their time to comment and offer me advice, you were all very helpful and I appreciate that. I will stick around to pester you with more questions as things move along :biggrin:


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InvisibleWay
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Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson]
    #28576909 - 12/10/23 11:35 AM (1 month, 18 days ago)

Nice job man. Congrats on a successful first grow again.

Did you end up trying to clone any fruits? I'd really recommend that if it's not too late. I had a really hard time getting my first clean culture and then I took a clone and I instantly had a culture that was clean and genetically viable.

Definitely a faster way to clean genetics than taking spore prints from fresh fruits. If you take multiple clones you'll get different results as well so you can just grow out each of them and pick which ones work best for you.

Good luck on whatever the future holds for you and I'll be watching your next grows. :thumbup:


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That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson


Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Way]
    #28576972 - 12/10/23 12:27 PM (1 month, 17 days ago)

Thank you, Way. I'm excited to try out new species and varieties, but I'll have to improve my agar work until then to make sure I'm not just wasting my time.

I wanted to get clones from the second and third flush, but life kept getting in the way as I was quite busy right around picking time for both flushes, and I didn't have plates prepared in time. I wasn't sure if it's OK to take clones from shrooms that were kept in the fridge for several days so I didn't try it.

Most of my prints are very sparse, either my shrooms don't make that many spores or I didn't keep them around long enough before picking. The other day I prepped 2 syringes, one 20 ml and one 10 ml to try out Bod's spore syringe tek and it took me 6 whole prints to get them to a point where you can see a lot of tiny clusters in there. I tried out using my syringes on agar 2 days ago to get more starting dishes but most of the plates don't have any signs of growth yet and the ones that do are bacterial, they look yellow-ish when viewed from the bottom.

It seems like I'll have more free time now so I'll prepare plates once the 4th flush is ready and I'll take as many clones as I can. I want to get a shoebox grow going so I can move on to that method and make enough caps at least for a year ahead. I'd like to be able to focus on getting better genetics so I have to get the supply issue out of the way first.


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InvisibleWay
The


Registered: 01/14/23
Posts: 4,336
Loc: A long way away
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: LyleChipperson] * 1
    #28577006 - 12/10/23 12:48 PM (1 month, 17 days ago)

I totally feel that. You are safe to use fruits that have been kept in the fridge for several days though. The interior of the fruit will still be sterile when removed from the fridge.

You may have more success with spores if you start utilizing sterile swabs. You can buy 100 packs of them on amazon for under 10 bucks and all you need to do is swab the cap and then swab the agar. That should get you a much cleaner sample than trying to mess around with caps that you can't get to print and spore syringes. You can also swab fruits and store the swabs for future use as well. Swabs are pretty kickass imo and less work.

If your aseptic procedure is on point when you take your clones, all you should have to do is a single transfer (just for good measure) and then you can be ready to inoculate more grain. You'll be ready to start a new shoebox in a couple of weeks going that route. With spores you have to wait for germination as well as multiple transfers to clean them up usually.

Your supply issue will sort itself out very fast with one or two good shoeboxes. If you have any passion for this hobby at all, you'll quickly end up drowning in mushrooms. A lot of us just grow for fun at this point and don't even keep the fruits around any more.


--------------------

That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.


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InvisibleLyleChipperson


Registered: 09/29/23
Posts: 61
Re: First grow GT PF Tek [Re: Way]
    #28583836 - 12/15/23 11:05 AM (1 month, 13 days ago)

One cake surprised me with a couple pins that started growing immediately after the third flush, so I tried to take 10 clones today. We'll see how that goes.

Other than that all the transfers I made from my cleanest looking plates went bacterial, along with the plates where I tried a drop of my own syringe, so I'm emptying all of them and I'll be waiting on the clones only. I'll hopefully have some new genetics arriving soon so that will be the next step. In the meantime I'll look for swabs, they definitely seem a lot less fussy to use.

Edit to add: My grain jars are looking bacterial AF, I shook them at around 80% since they were going very slow and after that they got a lot more condensation than before, now  it's all over the jars. If they manage to colonize 100% I'll probably put them in 2-3 shoeboxes just to see if I can get anything out of them, but I'm not putting any hopes on that.


Edited by LyleChipperson (12/15/23 11:09 AM)


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