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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Dry tent 1
#28792584 - 05/29/24 04:25 PM (7 months, 15 days ago) |
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Getting back into the hobby, I thought I would step it up a bit. I wanted to use a single 4x4 grow tent to serve 2 functions. One as a ambient still air environment with a actual sab to conduct specimen work, and the other as a means to dry harvested fruits, with a herb mesh rack, box fan, and dehumidifier. I know alot of folks prefer dehydrators come dry time but I'm not a fan of baking my fruits prior to ingestion, that's just me. My last harvest I made the mistake of plate drying in a damp basement with napkins in between. While that method had worked in a different & dryer environment before. I only found some traces of mold and trashed the whole batch while attempting to dry in a damp basement. To use a tent for 2 seperate purposes, it will come with some planning and time management. Then Grandma was quick to point out that if doing sab work in a tent that earlier had drying fruits with a fan blowing it would be self evident of residual floating spores and not prove a environmentally friendly for culture work. I thought I could get a pump sprayer and saturate the inside of the tent walls with diluted bleach but that's to much work I'm just going to get another tent and keep everything seperate and dedicated.

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Gorguss
Chaotic sums


Registered: 02/03/10
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Re: Dry tent [Re: Funfarm] 2
#28792818 - 05/29/24 07:06 PM (7 months, 15 days ago) |
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I mean I've never used either of these techniques, but I know what it's like coming back and its thrilling good luck!
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Looking for Trichocereus Cacti
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Re: Dry tent [Re: Gorguss]
#28792848 - 05/29/24 07:34 PM (7 months, 15 days ago) |
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Thank you, I agree it's thrilling to get back at it. I'm thinking by having a dedicated tent for a sab with the arm holes sealed with glad wrap when not using will make for less particulate floating around. I mean regardless everytime going in and out of the tent will stir up airborne funk. I want to go in the tent, zip it up, sterilize everything, and then sit there for 30 minutes to allow settling of the air particles, then put on a mask and fresh gloves to get to work. Surely this is better than raw dogging it in open air with no sab at all? I have a history of working with stuff in open air and thought it was time to clean up the process as I have not had any success with agar yet. Perhaps a step in the right direction? Grandma makes fun of me as says I need a 4x8 tent so that I can shower on the other side first.
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myceliups
Builder



Registered: 01/24/15
Posts: 2,026
Loc: SW Virginia
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Re: Dry tent [Re: Funfarm] 1
#28792858 - 05/29/24 07:44 PM (7 months, 15 days ago) |
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I kind of like that idea. Like a quick mini pop up lab.
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Totally pop up, take it up and down as needed, convenient to store, and easy to sterilze with diluted bleach pump sprayer. Mobile fungi lab work. We come to you for all of your culture work needs. The shower could be split off from the sab work area with a zipper door. A decontamination shower under high pressure. There's a movie called "the arrival", where the people showered in containment while wearing radiation suits after being on the alien ship and before reentry to the open area with other people. This would be a shower before working with a sab, but then you would being doing agar work naked in a grow tent. Well I guess you could put on a fresh pair of drawers or a clean lab coat. I know far fetched but entertaining the least.
Edited by Funfarm (05/29/24 08:11 PM)
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Because I'm getting vamped up again and don't have any harvestable fruits as yet, I thought I would test the drying tent with a wet towel. I noted a baseline reading of 54% relative humidity, then after the wet towel hang it spiked to 99% rh with the 28" fan tilted straight up at it from the floor. I just turned the dehumidifier on and I'm going to give it a couple hours to see what happens. It's a smaller dehumidifier, 95 Oz reservoir, rated for 800 Sq ft. Given its a 16 Sq ft tent that will house mesh racks of shrooms vs. A saturated dripping wet towel, I'm assuming the smaller dehumidifier unit will work out just fine. A wet dripping towel will bring a much higher percentage of airborne moisture that a full mesh rack of fruits could comparitivly ever bring. I realize I could have gotten a dehydrator for the fraction of cost in components and relative ease. I'm personally not a fan of superheating before consumption. That's just me, while I respect the majority of members here that do use the manual dehydration method. I'm leaning towards the air dry because the local culinary mushroom shop fan dries. I must remind myself that commercial mushroom supply for cooking & food prep purposes, with a force dry dehumidification probably alters the tissue to less than desired for culinary services.


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vicepope
The devils best grower



Registered: 04/15/24
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Loc: The fear that burns in the hea...
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I once turned a whole bed room into a dehydrator. Lots of bra racks, 3 space heater and faning out the window. Which did well, but took a lot time and fda wasn't having it. If the standard dehydrator isn't big enough for food processing and you have a business tax ID I can't recommend the 96 tray ones.
-------------------- The better guide to grow mushrooms.
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/8553541
Beware the power of one. The power of two. The power of many.
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Why thank you for the great suggestion and I apologize in my verbage for being so darn confusing at best. I personally don't like the manual dehydration method by means of high heat to accelerate drying. I realize it's a common practice but one I dont use, and its just personal preference. I remember when Grandma financed a food truck for a non profit, because it was food for public consumption (even free plates), she still had to have the borrower form a corporation, get the tin#, business insurance, and apply for the county public health stamp before the lending process completed. I'm sure she could purchase using the tax id number since she's a listed member of the corporation, but again I don't like heated dehydration. In the past she has voiced she would be willing to support my hobby and buy a 50 gallon steam kettle commercial pressure cooker. It was wild thou because she priced it right off the net at 23k with get this, no tax ID needed. I declined because I didn't want to get into Class 1 controlled substance manufacturing at a grand scale, and that I store buy all my gear. Im just a hobby enthusiast, running a tub at a time. Oh Grandma your the best for your enthusiastic support! I guess she really had oysters in mind and not cubes. Say, thanks again
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Re: Dry tent *DELETED* [Re: vicepope]
#28808910 - 06/11/24 08:44 AM (7 months, 2 days ago) |
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Post deleted by Funfarm
Reason for deletion: Respect for fellow member
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bakedbeings
orbiter of truth


Registered: 09/01/20
Posts: 4,563
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Re: Dry tent [Re: Funfarm] 5
#28808944 - 06/11/24 09:18 AM (7 months, 2 days ago) |
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hi funfarm
im confused as to why you would prefer such a complicated and ineffective method of drying your fruits. using a food dehydrator is neither "baking" nor "superheating", its dehydrating. thats why they call it that
im also confused as to why you would want to spend time setting up a whole tent just to do SAB work. all you have to do is close the windows or turn off the AC. no need to put on clean clothes or sanitize the surrounding area, thats not how a SAB works
-------------------- Confused? Well now you can!
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Yes, my thinking was doing the sab inside a tent would allow for a cleaner environment as the ambient air is full of pet dander and molds in a damp wet basement. My prior logic was keeping the sab in the tent would cut back on alot of the dirty ambient air particulate and thus less chance with failure with cultures. "A barrier within a barrier". After thinking about it, with input from Grandma & you I'm going to conduct SAB operations on the well lit and clean kitchen counter upstairs where the air is drier with less mold and bacteria anyways. Giving the sab a chance to work its proven theory without the need of a condom tent which I can safely say has pin holes in anyways. The drying tent was created because both Grandma and I will be using it for other drying events, herbs, flowers, peppers, and the etc. We wanted something bigger with more working space. Not that I'm going to be pumping out mass amounts of fruits as I'm just a tub at a time guy. Anyways the tent was just to keep the light off, and the pet hair out. While the 28" pedestal fan on high setting has got the air moving well on the inside. I'm glad I experimented this process with a wet towel to dial in, as the next step is to try a grocery store produce pack of white mushrooms to see how it fairs. Anyways by experience of the wet towel, I found this morning by simply unzipping the lower seam of the entry flap on the tent, it allowed the relative humidity to drop from 99% to 74% in literally just a minute all while keeping positive pressure with the fan and allowing moist air to escape the interior, and a majority of light out. That with the dehumidifier reservoir halfway full (estimated 48 ounces of water dumped in 12 hours), a dryer towel than started, all tells me the set up is working. Now is it working as efficient as a dehydrator, I can't answer that, but in theory I believe it's working the same. I always appreciate the frog avatar friend
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tripdawg420
low life with no life



Registered: 02/02/09
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Re: Dry tent [Re: Funfarm] 1
#28809069 - 06/11/24 10:49 AM (7 months, 2 days ago) |
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ya i do that when i was doing sab work 
    ya its ezer to get a still air enviorment all around a small area
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
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NICE! Good pics
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Smellyhobbit
Actual Retard



Registered: 04/01/22
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Re: Dry tent [Re: Funfarm] 2
#28809143 - 06/11/24 11:56 AM (7 months, 2 days ago) |
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I do it on the table next to blooming flowers and the sink. I have 2 cats and my fiance and stepson are barn animal levels of dirty. The SAB still does the job. You dont need a tent
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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In the words of actor Matthew McConaughey (advocate and proud supporter of cannabis), "alright, alright, alright"! Thru experimenting this process it became painfully obvious that by having the fan blowing on the side of the tent where it was unzipped it was pulling some moist air from outside the tent from underneath the floor fan cage (intake). So I switched up the layout a bit. By moving the drying rack over to the unzipped seam side, its now allowing escaping air to blow over the rack and out the tent. Also, by moving the fan away from the broken seal its tendendy is to circulate the air within the tent, without pulling air underneath the fan that was previously by the open zipper. When I moved the fan over it was screaming vacuum, evidence of the sealed tent wall sucking up to the fan cage. The last benefit of fan new placement was more turbulent airflow, evidence of the shaking of the tent walls and drying rack. I went ahead and moved the towel over too to simulate the moisture source, in this case harvested fruits. The humidity dropped from 74% to 60% pretty fast, while the towel continues to dry spots and the reservoir fill. For the purpose of xtra airflow, I unclipped the bottum 2 mesh dry screen racks and put them into the manufacturers handy beach bag carrier. Big shout out to HortiPots with their system. I attached a picture of the moist air escaping the tent over the rack. I apologize many may be thinking shut up funfarm ass cheese and just get a dehydrator, for that I do respect 🙏

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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Quote:
Smellyhobbit said: I do it on the table next to blooming flowers and the sink. I have 2 cats and my fiance and stepson are barn animal levels of dirty. The SAB still does the job. You dont need a tent
Right on! That's what I needed to hear. Thanks again Smellyhobbit, while I can also appreciate the extra barrier pics of tripdawg420
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milkboy
Child



Registered: 05/01/21
Posts: 2,525
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Quote:
tripdawg420 said: ya i do that when i was doing sab work 
    ya its ezer to get a still air enviorment all around a small area 
Totally on brand
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Totally, totes mc goats, really on point signature pics BTW milkboy, envy I have
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Funfarm
Rocket ship janitor


Registered: 01/24/22
Posts: 544
Loc: Fungal jungle
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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So.... right on! Here's the final statistics. I started at 6pm yesterday with a heavy soaked saturated dripping wet towel. It's now 5pm, finding in 23 hours the wet towel is now bone dry! Mind you I had the tent all zipped up from 6pm yesterday until 10am this morning when it still presented at 99% humidity. I quickly learned the moisture had no where to go while enclosed in the grow tent. Once I unzipped one seam of the tent at 10am this morning (seeing the towel was still 100% wet) it allowed a place for the moist air to exhaust to. Really a majority of the towel moisture (estimated 90%) was able to dry in the matter of just 7 hours and not the full 23. In short, by using a 28" pedestal fan on high in conjunction with a small dehumidifier the 100% wet beach towel is now dry dry dry! 😀 I attached a picture of the beach sized towel I used in its current dry state to give you a idea of how much moisture was removed in such a short period. In summary, I honestly think it was the large fan pushing air out that worked more than drying the air with a barbie size dehumidifier. Whatever the case, I think this set up will work well with harvested fruits. Next phase produce market purchased mushrooms to test the platform.
 Edit: Grandma says accept the success, skip the trial run with grocery store produce, because in comparison it will have a dried down moisture content in relation to what a freshly picked cube from tub cake would demonstrate, that and the density is different. I know alot of you are thinking shut up asshole, it's just a fan in a box and some screens but for me it was a challenge. Anyways thanks for viewing and the comments, I'm really eager to see and share how the fresh pecker envious blooms fair.
Edited by Funfarm (06/11/24 05:08 PM)
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tripdawg420
low life with no life



Registered: 02/02/09
Posts: 7,653
Loc: illinois
Last seen: 5 hours, 20 minutes
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Quote:
milkboy said:
Quote:
tripdawg420 said: ya i do that when i was doing sab work 
    ya its ezer to get a still air enviorment all around a small area 
Totally on brand
what
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