fahtster said:

AspectOfTheCreator said:

80% failure rate.








I dont have pics of the agar but it was just generic, clean round symetrical LMEA plates that dont contam even when saved for months after use. As a test, Ive kept blank agar plates open while doing a2g and contam never shows up even months later. It will show up if i cough on it. All my jars colonize the same, look the same. They always get trich right when fruiting should start. Ive used sfd stickers, sfd discs with atv glue. My success rate with agar is 100%. My jars always colonize within 2-3 weeks. Always look clean. No grains against glass. Before the shake prior to spawning I check the headspace above the grains for any stray uncolonized grains against the glass or inner lid. I also remove the agar wedge with a spoon. I spawn to coco bliss coir prepped via bucket tek with 4.6x its mass in water. 1:2.5:0.5 (1 qt spawn mixed with 2.5 qt coir pseudo cased with 0.5 qt coir).

I delt with this issue when first coming back to cult except had 100% failure. Went to about 100% success (all spawn yielding 1 oz dry or more) despite not really changing much. Now, inexplicably back to huge failure rate. I use pennington wbs prepped fooman style PCed at 18 psi for 2 hours. One piece metal lids with sfd sticker or atv glued sfd. Spawn to just plain coir. Everything always seems perfect. Everything colonizes well, surface conditions are good. Then bam, right around the time I expect fruits I get trich.

People are going to tell me my spawn is off but it looks no different from when I had high success rates spawning PE to a 1:6 ratio.

On the bright side, over the past 2 years I have grown more mush then I know what to do with in 10 life times. I could get out the game for awhile but I genuinely enjoy the hobby and would like to figure out why I cant grow consistently even at this point. After my past success throwing up canopies of harder to cult mush like pans, nats, enigma, and penis envy.

If anyone has any out the box ideas im open to listen. Someone recommended I spawn infront of a flow hood. I like the idea but am not open to purchasing one.

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Is it summer where you are?  Are you going straight to fruiting conditions?  What kind of tub set up?

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ambock said:

 

Pretty sure I'm getting proper field capacity in my shoeboxes, but when they fully colonize I'm just getting these tiny drops of water on the mycelium, not larger ones like in the Proper Surface Conditions thread. I also often get pretty spotty first flushes instead of a full tub. Should I be misting more to maintain the larger droplets (but not drowning the poor thing), or is this sufficient and just LITFA?

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Phaethon said:

AspectOfTheCreator said:

80% failure rate.








I dont have pics of the agar but it was just generic, clean round symetrical LMEA plates that dont contam even when saved for months after use. As a test, Ive kept blank agar plates open while doing a2g and contam never shows up even months later. It will show up if i cough on it. All my jars colonize the same, look the same. They always get trich right when fruiting should start. Ive used sfd stickers, sfd discs with atv glue. My success rate with agar is 100%. My jars always colonize within 2-3 weeks. Always look clean. No grains against glass. Before the shake prior to spawning I check the headspace above the grains for any stray uncolonized grains against the glass or inner lid. I also remove the agar wedge with a spoon. I spawn to coco bliss coir prepped via bucket tek with 4.6x its mass in water. 1:2.5:0.5 (1 qt spawn mixed with 2.5 qt coir pseudo cased with 0.5 qt coir).

I delt with this issue when first coming back to cult except had 100% failure. Went to about 100% success (all spawn yielding 1 oz dry or more) despite not really changing much. Now, inexplicably back to huge failure rate. I use pennington wbs prepped fooman style PCed at 18 psi for 2 hours. One piece metal lids with sfd sticker or atv glued sfd. Spawn to just plain coir. Everything always seems perfect. Everything colonizes well, surface conditions are good. Then bam, right around the time I expect fruits I get trich.

People are going to tell me my spawn is off but it looks no different from when I had high success rates spawning PE to a 1:6 ratio.

On the bright side, over the past 2 years I have grown more mush then I know what to do with in 10 life times. I could get out the game for awhile but I genuinely enjoy the hobby and would like to figure out why I cant grow consistently even at this point. After my past success throwing up canopies of harder to cult mush like pans, nats, enigma, and penis envy.

If anyone has any out the box ideas im open to listen. Someone recommended I spawn infront of a flow hood. I like the idea but am not open to purchasing one.

---

Other than the possible accidental nutrification of your coir that others have mentioned, how confident are you in your lid filters and seals? Might be worth making new lids or at least replacing the filters in the existing ones to see if that helps. Kind of a long shot if the spawn looks good, but not hard to implement, and may explain why things were good for a while and then got bad again.

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LadysKnight said:

Plates seem the most likely source.

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I keep most of my old, used plates. I've seen what happens to a contaminated culture after it sits for months. 99% of my plates look clean even after months of sitting. Very rarely it'll turn colors after weeks of sitting.

I suspect if there was something wrong with the agar I'd be seeing problems way before pins. I'd also be having 100% failure rather than ~80%.


Some very old plates

LadysKnight said:

Those plates look nice, but so do the other aspects of your process.
If I were trying to pin down a mystery contam, I would change one variable per grow, starting with the cultures. If possible, I'd try different spore prints.
Fully colonized, clean grain will not grow mold before first flush.

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lifescientist said:

According to Hitchhiker Guide I don't need to have a light on the bulk 24/7? Is that true?

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Kloakk said:

I am one of those noobs ho hasn't even completed a grow, but I've been reading and watching a lot of videos on mushroom cultivation and I know the frustration of a unknown source of infection/contamination that never goes away..

So I am writing this to help even tho it might not do so. In my reading I have come across 2 separate experienced(in my eyes) growers who was having trichoderma in every tub and or shoebox and spending months trying to find the source. In both cases after months of frustration, they both concluding(admitting they can't be 100% certain) it was the bag of grains(oats) they used. As mentioned they where not 100% certain, but after changing or getting a new bag trich was gone..

If you already haven't tried a grow with other grains I suggest you do so, even if it trichs out you would know that's not it.

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Proper grain prep would completely eliminate trich or any other contamination in the jars.  I honestly think it is something in the grain prep going on here, like the grains not being properly hydrated all the way through. 

lifescientist said:

According to Hitchhiker Guide I don't need to have a light on the bulk 24/7? Is that true?

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Mr Piggy said:

Proper grain prep would completely eliminate trich or any other contamination in the jars. I honestly think it is something in the grain prep going on here, like the grains not being properly hydrated all the way through. 

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