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spasm666
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Re: The leap to sterilizing [Re: taku]
#28625443 - 01/18/24 12:05 AM (10 days, 16 hours ago) |
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Quote:
taku said: i've never timed myself making blocks, no. but 10 minutes per bag...i don't think it would be far off. maybe ask someone who works at a larger scale than i. since i'm so small, i still take time to smell the roses 
one calculation i would also suggest reaffirming is the 100lbs from 40blocks. i usually get 1lb from a 5lb block, so that would be 2lbs from a 10lb block. so if that transfers to scale, that would be 50 bags. again, i grow with 5lb blocks, so i hope someone else can weigh in on that.
You're probably right that 2lb from a 10lb block is more realistic, especially when I can't use masters mix but straw pellets / softwood pellets with wheat bran.
I watched a bunch of Southwest Mushrooms vids yesterday and it was really nice to actually to see the whole process and how they shake the bags etc. One thing they mentioned was that some people do "dry bagging" so they don't mix the sub ingredients before sterilizing. They said it works well but it's just a bit tougher to break down and shake in the inoculation. It might save some time, or not. Does anyone here do that?
Anyone else want to chime in on the time consumption of making blocks? Deadmandave, Stromrider, SHROOMSISAY01?
At this point the factors that I have doubts of are: - time making the blocks - inoculation success without a lab (- yield without soy hulls, hwfp or sawdust available) This is in brackets because I'm sure I'd still double my current yields
EDIT: One more quickie - What's the usual spawn ratio with supplemented and sterilized subs? Search results showed from 1 to 5%, is there a "standard" value for this?
Edited by spasm666 (01/18/24 12:28 AM)
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deadmandave
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Re: The leap to sterilizing [Re: spasm666]
#28625633 - 01/18/24 08:04 AM (10 days, 8 hours ago) |
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40 blocks for 100lbs could be right. It's very strain dependent.
I do 17 blocks in my steamer at a time this is roughly how long it takes:
20 minutes to fill them with pellets 30 minutes to fill with water, fold, load into steamer 30 minutes to inoculate 20 minutes to shake
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spasm666
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Quote:
deadmandave said: 40 blocks for 100lbs could be right. It's very strain dependent.
I do 17 blocks in my steamer at a time this is roughly how long it takes:
20 minutes to fill them with pellets 30 minutes to fill with water, fold, load into steamer 30 minutes to inoculate 20 minutes to shake
Perfect, thank you for the rundown. These are 10lb blocks? What is your steamer volume? If I can achieve the same speed, time wouldn't be an issue at all. It'll be 5 hours for 50 blocks = 100lbs (safer to calculate 50 than 40 blocks) which is quite close to what I do now for 100lbs. This is good news.
It seems that you do the dry bagging method. Have you tried mixing before bagging and why did you choose this route? One thing I'm curious about this method: If you pour pellets, then water and fold right away, the bags won't have any room for the expansion of the pellets. How does this even work? When I hydrate pellets they double in size.
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deadmandave
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Re: The leap to sterilizing [Re: spasm666]
#28625902 - 01/18/24 01:01 PM (10 days, 3 hours ago) |
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10lb bags. Steamer is a 55gal drum
Dry bagging is so easy. I don't see the advantage to premixing unless you have some very big machinery which can automate most of the process.
By the time you finish adding water to the last bag the first is ready to fold.
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spasm666
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Right on. Spreadsheets here I come again. Do you use hot or cold water? Don't know about others but straw pellets don't hydrate fully in less than hour in cold water.
Dry bagging would have the benefit of less space usage as there would be no need for any big totes to mix the sub in. This way I could maybe fit a tiny minilab in the room, just maybe.
Edited by spasm666 (01/18/24 01:23 PM)
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spasm666
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Re: The leap to sterilizing [Re: spasm666]
#28627106 - 01/19/24 11:43 AM (9 days, 5 hours ago) |
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I've ran some numbers and the leap to sterilizing is still compelling. I think the best way would be to get a quite big sterilizer so only one or two runs would be enough. There's a few old milk tanks for sale for a few hundred euros a piece. They are all stainless steel and volumes range from 250 to 900 liters. I think those would make great atmospheric sterilizers. Autoclaves above 200 liters are too expensive. If I'd do dry bagging, I could fit a sterilizer like this in the room (they're unfortunately not very tall so the diameter is bigger).
I wouldn't really have room for a cleanroom though, that's the biggest worry I have about this. If I make the leap only to find out I can only make green bags - that would suck. Maybe I could set up a foldable little cleanroom, like make a frame for it, roll some plastic on it and only attach part of the roof with the hepa thing on it and when not in use just push it to the side. It would be so small it'd be a pita to work in it though. I'm not sure if a cleanroom would work like this, as it would be open to any airborne thing when it's folded away. But if I just open it, spray with iso, turn on the hepa before use. It's not supposed to be sealed anyway so it might be easy enough to set up every time. Or just put the flowhood on my workbench and pull some plastic sheet to make a little shelter from the air currents.
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