Auto-SummaryThe post describes the author's experience with agar plate preparation, including microwaving, cooling, and sealing agar in a pressure cooker. They faced challenges with uneven melting, condensation on lids, and boil overs. The author then discusses their inoculation process using B+ liquid culture, planning to inoculate PFTEK cakes and grain jars for future cultivation. They also share their thoughts on B+ strain characteristics, growth patterns, and potential for multiple flushes, as well as their experience with other strains like GT and APE. The author expresses excitement about preserving viable genetics and experimenting with different spawn types for future cultivation.
Agar round one
microwaved a bottle in 30-60 sec increments until melty. Shook and shook but couldn't get all the hard stuff on the sides to melt in. Got most of it.
Put it in a 120 degree water bath, it cooled pretty unevenly despite a good bit of shaking. Pouring was fun but messy. First few plates maybe overfull, last few under full, didn't tilt fast enough so they're uneven. Couldn't get it to melt down enough to do a second stack of 10 plates, but I think they're servicable.
Annoyingly, although the agar hardened up rapidly and was thick and chunky, it was also hot enough to cause condensation on every single lid.
So today I set up my Anova sous vide stick and have the mostly used jar from last night and the full jar I haven't yet used sitting at 185. Will periodically shake em up and replace them, keep going until they're completely melted.
Then I'll dial the Anova down to 120 and let them be for awhile to cool. Because the water will never be below 120, the outside should stay liquid, and the inside should slowly come down to temp.
Based on some sticky residue along the sides, I probably had some boil over in the PC, so they are probably more concentrated and thicker than expected. Next time I brew a batch I'll use less agar in the mix, maybe precook it so I know everything is dissolved evenly.
Does anyone pour boiling teakettle water into the jars with the powder?
Maybe I'll make a slurry of room temp water to get it all dissolved, then add hot water to mix, then PC.
Have to figure out if I can put them in the PC completely sealed or if the lid needs to be loose to prevent explosion.
Quote:
BOD's Comprehensive Agar Tek says:
after the dry ingredients are added I fill with room temperature tap water until I reach a hair over 400mL in volume
That's enough for 20 plates, a sleeve of 100x15mm dishes
- I think if my agar had been thinner I could have done two whole sleeves, but it came out like chunky molasses
put the cap on and shake, then into the microwave with the cap very loose
bring to a boil. careful don't let it boil over and make a fucking huge mess.
- When I microwaved after PC to liquify, it boiled over and made a fucking huge mess
after you hit a boil put the cap on tight and give it a shake again.
slightly loosen the cap and cover with foil.
then place into your pressure cooker, I like to make the water in the PC come up to the level of the agar in the bottle. this will make it take longer to hit pressure and cool down but will cut down on boil over.
- I shook up the powder with cool liquid, so it never dissolved, but I did loosen slightly and cover with foil
- When I PC'd, it was above the water line. Next round I'll try having the water at the level of the agar in the bottle.
Sterilize at 15PSI for 20m.
agar is sterilized in 20m at 15psi. I always usually go to 20m I would not go longer than 30-45m you risk caremelization of sugars in your media.
IF you have sediment in your media you may need to use the 30-45m time frame.
- as above, I went for 60 minutes since I had PFCakes and PFPucks as well. don't seem to have sediment, just chunks
So I suppose loosened cap is best.
Last night I also inoculated the 5 of the 6 PFTEK pucks I made. Kept one as control, maybe see if my sterile technique is decent.
I actually got 5 syringes of genetics, perhaps one was a gift or maybe I bought more than I remember.
Azurescens, Tampanensis, B+, Avery's Albino, and Albino MVP
So I squirted a few drops, maybe 0.25cc onto each of 5 pucks. Plan to inoculate one or two Agar plates with each as well.
The 7 PFTEK Cakes got about 0.5-0.75cc of B+ LC. It's always marketed as a good microscopy project for beginners.
If all 7 colonize, I'll try a few different things. Inoculating a grain spawn jar for bulk spawning, direct fruiting from the cake, maybe an outdoor grow underneath some brassicas my wife is germinating.
Quote:
In The Great B+ Debate, Rose Says:
B+ is a good strain... but there are mixed reviews for a reason. First, B+ grows large... sometimes too large for pf style cakes. PF cakes don't have enough nutrients. B+ grows full sized on grain or straw/poo. B+ is prone to aborts (but they are super potent) and weird looking shrooms in its first flushes. The largesst shrooms usually come in the later flushes. The B+ can flush many times.
B+ is a fast colonizer... but it is prone to stalling, just when you think something is gonna' happen. It is almost madening. This is why I love it as a noob strain. Here's what I think, B+ teaches a newbie the lesson of patience. Patience is very important lesson in mycology. Perhaps the most important lesson of them all. B+ can almost read your mind as it grows. Any time you become impatient, it WILL stall. It is uncanny. By the time a newbie gets their B+ to fruit, they have earned the right to eat them. I don't recomend you cultivate in the USA, but if you live somewhere where cultivation is legal... B+ is quite rewarding.
People argue over the B+ potency but, I think it gives one of the warmest, visual, spiritual trips you can find. Especially for a first, homegrown trip.
Now... why do people hate B+? Well, it is a fucking newbie strain so EVERYBODY grows it. People who have read these boards a long time know that newbies tend to grow Ecuador or B+. Of the two, Ecuador is a faster colonizer, and has a similar success rate for newbies. Ecuador will probably give you more shrooms from a PF style cake. But an Ecuador trip is a little more advanced than a B+ trip. If you plan to have your first fresh shroom trip ever, I recomend B+ over Ecuador. A fresh trip is a little different than a dry trip. The B+ is usually much more visual.
Now, do you really need to try a NooB strain? No. There is no reason. No cube is THAT hard to grow. Look at all the strains. Look at the pictures, do some research, and pick your favorite.
Your favorite cube is the best cube you can grow. Cubes are usually named after a region of the world where they were found. Pick your favorite continent, then pick your favorite country. Besides Europe, chances are you can find spores. South Africa, Mexico, America, India, Vietmam... hell, all of Asia practically... most of South America... Australia and Tasmania. You could even grow Penis Envy!
So maybe my B+ cakes will take ages to colonize. I'll have to make some more cakes and see what happens. Also planning to PC some grain jars, and after practicing agar to agar transfers with these purchased LC syringes both for the experience and to reduce risk of contam, I'll inoculate grain spawn. Leaning towards rye berries, although some folks who grow tampanensis for the sclerotia use brown rice. I've seen comments from folks who dislike brown rice as a bulk spawn - too sticky, too wet, too clumpy. Still, doesn't hurt to try, especially if I get comfortable enough with agar to have multiple plates going as culture reserves.
My Uncle Ben and Bacteria Bag experience has taught me not to have all my eggs in one basket. The more forms of living healthy mycelium I have going, the less likely I'll ever need to buy more genetics to start from scratch.
Also, my bins are looking more promising. The trich patch is mostly at bay, though the myc is clearly stressed and barely knotting. Just waiting to see if anything viable comes out or if it greens out completely. Still interested in preserving the genetics of a possibly trich resistant myc, but I would wait until there is a pin before taking it outside to transfer to agar/pf puck.
The other two bins seem contaminant free, and the white spots are, I'm increasingly convinced, knots of mycelium. A few are pointing up at the sky by a mm or two and have a vaguely phallic shape, but nothing with a colorful cap yet that could be called a pin. There seems to be a fair amount of moisture judging by the condensation on the box lid and around the sides of the substrate. If I wasn't so worried about contamination I might give them a spritz, but I think I'll just wait and see what happens. I'd post pics but without opening the lid it's hard to get anything visible on camera, and I'm not opening the lids.
The bags remain
GT : slime, waiting for its day in the compost pile
B+ : promising brick of mycelium but no obvious knots
APE : slightly less firm brick of mycelium no obvious knots
Not opening them to get a look inside either. Suspect there's lots of bacteria in there, and maybe something like cobweb mold that's mimicking cube mycelium.
The completionist in me wants a viable strain of GT, and my slime bag is all that's left. Someday.
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