ThurmanMurman said:

Winston Smith said:

WBS

rinse well

Soak

Eliminate floaters/corn (kinda optional but I prefer it)

Rinse well again

Spread out on towel (kinda optional)

Load up

PC a MINIMUM of 105 minutes, a full 2 hours wouldn't hurt (these times are for jars not bags)

Make sure you're venting the PC for at least 10-15 minutes before bringing up psi


Personally I think your plates look great. It's probably a grain sterilization issue.

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The only thing I havent done there is rinse again after the soak, dry after soak, or remove corn, which I have a minnow net that I think would be perfect for such a thing, if I can't source another grain next go around.

Rinsed and removed floaters

Soaked 24hr

*didnt dry* and loaded jars

Vent 10min with the timer starting when the locking pin engaged.

Sterilize a full 2hrs without exception.

Half the time Ive left them until room temp and half the time Ive pulled them when the lock disengaged.

Ive only run it like that twice, but the grains did come out less swollen, lighter in color, and overall not as wet looking.

Last go around I rinsed and removed floaters, put on the stove, brought to 200 degrees, reduced heat to medium and stirred for 5min. Strained in brewer bag and then left them spread out until room temp before PC cycle. I only loaded the jars half full bc I have gotten quite a bit of expansion with past runs, but they didnt expand any on this one and there wasn't much for signs of excess moisture or burst grains, so idk...maybe that was the best Ive done. Ill nocc one up tonight and see how she goes. Appreciate the feedback brotha.

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Good luck brotha.

Sounds like you're doing everything right.

Your plates look premo and your grain prep/sterilization process seems on point. Perhaps it is just the a2g process

FWIW I use entire plates when I noc up jars. Slice it into 4-6 parts, usually 4. Lift them off plate and into jar using scalpel blade. And I do it inside a SAB that most of the time I don't even wipe down and I never spray soapy water lol

And you mighta mentioned it already but you do shake your jars after noc up yeah? Thought I'd ask outta thoroughness lol

JW123 said:

I rotate my mushrooms in the dehydrator. I try to keep the drier ones closer to the fan and heating element, but I doubt it makes a difference. I almost always run MS so I tend to have shit coming in at different times.

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Mr Piggy said:

Winston Smith said:

Real quick question, y'all!

I got 8 trays for my dehydrator. I filled up 4 @ around midnight on 11/4.

Then around 5pm or so on 11/4 I filled the other 4 trays and put them underneath the first 4 in the dehydrator.

My question is should the top 4 trays be dry in spite of fresh ones being added below them? It's now about noon on 11/5 so the top 4 had 36 hours to dry.

On a related note...would I be able to take the bottom 4 trays, make them the new top 4, refill the bottom 4, and empty the NEW top 4 (previously the bottom 4) once they hit 24 hours?

Basically can a dehydrator be rotated in such a way that fresh mush can be added before a "cycle" is complete without prolonging the amount of time needed for ones that were partially dried when fresh were added???

Sorry if this is phrased all wonky, just tryna be specific about my situation.

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Don’t do this.  Do one batch at a time or they could just be taking in moisture being put off from the fresh ones.

One batch at a time, highest temp setting, 24 hours min.

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Oh fook me



Lol

See, I was thinking I'd do what JW123 does but I was worried about what piggy said lol

Any other firsthand experience rotating it like JW123?

I totally think what pig said is possible but is it probable???

The fans blow down, yeah? I understand evaporate would go up but the fan should negate that right? Especially being on max (160f)? Or does the moisture content of the entire load sort of homogenize?

ThurmanMurman said:

I think I've previously underestimated how sneaky bacteria can be on agar, but since getting much pickier about my plates, I'm pretty sure I'm fuckin up when I inoculate. There's not really anything left. If anything, my grain is over hydrated, and my PC cycles are on point, my lids are solid...my technique is all thats left and the only variable that requires any real skill too. 🤣🤣 We'll get there man...I hope.

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haniblecter said:

ThurmanMurman said:

I think I've previously underestimated how sneaky bacteria can be on agar, but since getting much pickier about my plates, I'm pretty sure I'm fuckin up when I inoculate. There's not really anything left. If anything, my grain is over hydrated, and my PC cycles are on point, my lids are solid...my technique is all thats left and the only variable that requires any real skill too. 🤣🤣 We'll get there man...I hope.

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Have you had some 'control' jars that weren't inoculated?

Tell me about your hood. Test any agar plates in front of it for several minutes open?

Have you considered RGS? WBS always seems like a gamble with what you get.

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ThurmanMurman said:

The more I'm thinking about this, the more Im realizing the potential error - Im slicing too small and generating too much dwell time over an open jar with the outside of a plate potentially being too close to the opening for too long. Cant be sure, but its starting to look like a hole in my game right here. Im going to start with 1 decent sized wedge and if that works out, then maybe work my way up to what you're doing.

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Radamanto said:

ThurmanMurman said:

The more I'm thinking about this, the more Im realizing the potential error - Im slicing too small and generating too much dwell time over an open jar with the outside of a plate potentially being too close to the opening for too long. Cant be sure, but its starting to look like a hole in my game right here. Im going to start with 1 decent sized wedge and if that works out, then maybe work my way up to what you're doing.

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I think this has been my issue as well. I remember watching a video of a TC dicing the plate in 1/2 inch squares to increase inoc points but he did it in a flowhood so maybe inside my SAB it’s a bad idea. I will try cutting a bid wedge from a “clean plate” avoiding getting too near to the dish edges (I think I read somewhere that condensation dripping down the edges could deposit bacteria there) and will report how it goes.

I’m also trying Josex poke PF pucks to make sure I leave behind any bacteria and have 100% clean plates. That way I can rule out the agar and see if the culprit is my sterile tek or the grain prep. Also worth to check this comment in a Josex thread where he was trying to find if bacteria can survive different grain preps and PC cycles. In the original post, Josex ruled out any possible contamination and still had some jars that wouldn’t colonize properly. The comment I linked  explains that not all grain are made equal and why sometimes poor colonization is not because of contamination but variables of the grain out of our control.

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Radamanto said:

What you described is what was happening to Josex on the thread I linked. His spawn was 100% clean it just looked off because of the grain quality or how it was stored beforehand or some other variable. But it was performing decently when spawned to tubs

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