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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Bigworm] * 4
    #29135133 -

My $0.02: I've never put coir in wood substrate. Straight fuel pellets (or pellets and bran or even flour) work just fine, it breaks up easily through the bag when you're ready to mix it. Even for bottle culture, the mycelium has no trouble colonizing it. For bags, I drop the bag from a couple inches off the table a few times after mixing in spawn, so it doesn't end up very compressed. For bottle culture I just tap the jar on the counter before boring out a hole for spawn and sterilizing.

If you're having trouble without the coir, I suspect you are over-hydrating. 60-65% water by weight is ideal, and it's a hell of a lot less than what you get with field capacity coconut coir. You can measure the water content in your pellets (likely around 6%) or just go for 3:2 water:"dry" weight and you'll probably be in range unless your pellets have been previously soaked. Properly hydrated sawdust feels quite dry if you're used to using 5 liters of water per kg of dry coir.

(Edit: looks like my recipes target 60% total hydration including an assumed 6% in the "dry" material. So my substrate is on the dry side, and maybe 3:2 would be a bit wet given that the dry ingredients aren't fully dry. Curious what percentage other folks are targeting.)


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LAGM 2026 grow log | My library/trade list

Edited by Phaethon (02/23/25 02:10 AM)

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Phaethon] * 2
    #29135145 -

Pellets are great on their own. And I have done exactly as you say with hwfp. Saw dust(from cutting wood with saws) can be much finer and in that case it can compacted a hell of a lot more then pellet dust. Especially in the vacuum the PC creates when it cools. Think of rice. Rice is ok to use(I don't use rice) but rice flour would compact more and be hard for mycelium to get through. If you mix verm or coir into rice flour, it would be less compacted and allow mycelium to colonize better. Pf Tek uses verm for water and to keep it less dense.

In my experience field capacity wood pellets should barely drip a drop of water if it's hydrated right. Coir should barely drip too, which is why I compared the 2. I'm not saying the pellets should hold as much water as coir, that would be insane to think it was even possible, just it should drip the same. If you got water pouring out of any substrate when squeezing it, it's a bad thing.


--------------------
Pastywhyte’s Ez dialed monotubs
My Miraculix Potency Test Results
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Shroomery
My Museum
REV'S Tested: Dehydration temperature vs potency





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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Bigworm]
    #29135147 -

Gotcha. I haven't yet tried actual sawdust, but I had assumed just adding some larger chips would be enough to give it some structure.

Thanks!


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LAGM 2026 grow log | My library/trade list

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Bigworm]
    #29135223 -

I've always been Way under normal "field capacity" as if it ls squeezed as hard as possible, it doesn't drip, at most maybe a moist hand.

But bran if not mixed well Definitely can cause some clumping.

Lately I've been digging the texture of cold treated straw, from the bag, so it's already a bit more "processed". I leave it for a day or so with a few rinses/soaks. But the longer processing seems to help. it beats having to chop it up at least.

For any out door beds I think the chain saw sized shavings are a better than anything finer.

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Phaethon] * 1
    #29135234 -

I use 60% water to 40% dry material by weight.  I assume the moisture in my dry material makes up the remaining 5%.

This makes four bags.

5.4kg water
3.06 kg hwfp
0.54 kg rice bran


--------------------
And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
I'd be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: tree frog] * 2
    #29135247 -

I mean hard wood fuel pellets ARE sawdust from cutting wood with saws. It’s a way to monetize a waste stream from the saw mill. Regardless, it breaks up easily enough when you squeeze the bag, and no matter how clumpy it gets it’s still not as dense as solid wood. Wood eating fungus were around long before we were cutting up logs. They had no trouble colonizing trees. I would save the coir for cubes.


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Method for Small Scale Casing Pasteurization

How much really fits in a 00 capsule?

Micro and Macro Mushroom Photography

Can you freeze mycelium?


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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: RoscoeReturns]
    #29135296 -

I hope that y'all will not think less of but I can't hold back any longer. What's the difference between casing and pseudo-casing?


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Give away list

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: mush_monkey] * 1
    #29135323 -

Pseudo casing is still a casing , how I think of it at least.  Top dress, top layer, case at fruiting, I think all these terms apply if we want to keep the term casing as when we add a layer once we have 100% colonization.

What I hate is when I've read some guides and the term casing was used in place of substrate. Very confusing to me being brand new at the time.  But even that is still within means as substrate.

Edited by stagger (02/23/25 08:19 AM)

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: mush_monkey] * 5
    #29135328 -

Pseudo casing is just a top layer of coir you apply at the time you spawn the tub. Is better to be called a Top Layer



Casing is applied after 100% and is usually not (just) coir. Peat , jiffy mix, cactus soil, etc.... has been adjusted pH (raised) and is not meant to be colonized by the myc .
It provides optimal conditions to trigger pinning and support thru maturity, maybe also provides a little extra defense against contamination as well (as a bonus)

Edited by LewDoja (02/23/25 08:21 AM)

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: mush_monkey] * 1
    #29135331 -

mush_monkey said:
I hope that y'all will not think less of but I can't hold back any longer. What's the difference between casing and pseudo-casing?


Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that a pseudo-casing is when you put a layer of substrate on top of the mix of spawn and substrate so you don't have any exposed grains.

A casing is for something like PE or some of the exotics where after full colonization has been reached you add a layer of something on top to promote pinning.

-edit-
:whathesaid:


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The Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomery
:sporedrop:L.A.G.M. 2025:sporedrop:
Tico


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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Axman] * 3
    #29135402 -

Mostly agree with what all of you folks are saying.

The two things though, pH should be adjusted to discourage competitor molds. But not to the point that the mycelium doesn't colonize the casing at all.  It should colonize the casing some, it will pull moisture out of the casing as well as micronutrients.  They've ran studies on gourmets and found that most of the water for the first and second flush comes from the casing layer.  If we don't allow it to colonize it can't do that.

Of course, if the strain or species has a tendency to overlay, colonizing the casing might be a crapshoot.

I also sometimes case at spawn, depends on how suspicious the grain jars are and again the species and strain, it's propensity to overlay, etc.  And I know some TCs that grow pans who also sometimes case at spawn.

The definition of casing, includes the word top dressing in most mycological texts I've read trying to answer this question for myself.  So I don't think that's really a mycological term, but one that we use on org to delineate putting substrate over your grains, or putting a less nutritive layer over your substrate.

Anyway, I never finished this but here are a lot of my notes and links to research papers on casings.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/28985610

I think the most important thing is folks often compress top dressings.  Casings you want to put on nice and light, avoid compression as much as possible, so that we have lots of little pockets of microclimate for the colony to pin from.

This is for peat casing.  But the application pictures at the end of this I think are something I see a lot of folks struggle with.  That assumption that it should be compressed because that's what we do with top dressings and substrates seems to catch a lot of folks.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/29123958#29123958


--------------------
And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
I'd be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems

Edited by tree frog (02/23/25 09:26 AM)

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: RoscoeReturns] * 2
    #29135504 -

RoscoeReturns said:
I mean hard wood fuel pellets ARE sawdust from cutting wood with saws. It’s a way to monetize a waste stream from the saw mill. Regardless, it breaks up easily enough when you squeeze the bag, and no matter how clumpy it gets it’s still not as dense as solid wood. Wood eating fungus were around long before we were cutting up logs. They had no trouble colonizing trees. I would save the coir for cubes.



I get that but some saw blades have a lower tpi(tooth per inch) which gives bigger chips where most home owners cutting wood use a high tpi for a cleaner cut resulting in a finer dust. Most pellet making companies use multiple types of by-products including logs and wood scraps that need to be crushed and reduced to the same size. Watch how it's made, they have an episode on pellets. how it's made pellets video

Yes they were around long before we cut wood but there are natural wood cutters like termites. They produce holes to allow the mycelium into the solid log.


--------------------
Pastywhyte’s Ez dialed monotubs
My Miraculix Potency Test Results
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Shroomery
My Museum
REV'S Tested: Dehydration temperature vs potency





Edited by Bigworm (02/23/25 10:51 AM)

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Bigworm]
    #29135540 -

I'm sure it's been asked and answered before, but I've been unsuccessful searching for it, so I'll ask again! What should I do with T0, T1, T2, etc. plates once I've transferred from them? I hate to throw them out when there are no obvious contams present.

Additional details:
I have started with agar and everything seems to be running smoothly, more or less. The T1s look pretty scalloped, so I've recently made T2 plates from leading edges of T1. The T0 plate seems clean and has a bunch of various colonies of what seem to be consistent tomentose mycelium and is now fully colonized. The T1 plates, with the exception of one that has a satellite colony (known cause due to tapping the scalpel on the edge to dislodge the agar wedge), are showing consistent expansion, but are fuzzier in certain places than other.

What do you all do with old transfer plates? Throw them away, leave them to sit, or send them into some grain and see if the grain ends up looking good?

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: atomik] * 2
    #29135553 -

- Leave them around to pin, if you want an easy clone opportunity
- If they seem clean and you have grain ready, send them
- Keep one as a backup, in the fridge or just at room temp (often transfers from dried out plates recover fine)
- Otherwise, it's just a little disc of media and mycelium, compost that and dispose of the dish (or reuse it if it's reusable)


--------------------
LAGM 2026 grow log | My library/trade list

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Bigworm] * 1
    #29135565 -

I'm spoiled to have a bunch of different equipment and definitely agree with which piece of equipment the sawdust comes from, I find the material collected in a dust collector can be way to fine if I'm only running the table saw, but the planar makes decent course material.  Collector currently has mix:


The jointer makes a really nice courseness:


And the 3pt chipper on the tractor has biggest pieces:

My next grown I'm going to try the soak/ferment method to prep these.

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: MetalPro]
    #29135581 -

Cool. I was thinking of using my planer to make wood shavings, but my wood source is logs and no sawmill.

Do you have a cheap or free source for hardwood that can be run through a planer?

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: aShogunNamedMarcus] * 1
    #29135585 -

You could go to a sawmill and ask them for sawdust.
That would be free and I doubt people would care that you were cleaning up the shop.


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The Shroomery Manual
Wanna Play?
Dream Interpretation
GC’s Ayahuasca Recipe
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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Nichrome]
    #29135700 -

So what's the story with Cabin Sequestration?

Is it that contam doesn't grow across, only down? or something else?

When I first heard of it it sounded like voodoo bullshit, like astrology or something, then saw the source material, was from high-end clean-room labs, so I didn't think it was a tek for here, at least for new users.

Now I see people making it work and I'm curious about it. I rarely get contam anymore but once in a while, and I have microscope slide cover slips already since I have a microscope, so..want to know.

Anyone who has done it successfully, what's your favorite tutorial here?


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--How to grow POPPIES.
--GROWING SHROOMS, FROM SPORES TO TRIPS
--x7x+ variety history.

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: Phaethon]
    #29135788 -

Do you guys wipe the lids of your QT jars inside of a sab before doing an A2G tranfer.

I'm going to be doing my first ever grain inoculations with agar today.
And I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly.

I watched Stipes YouTube video on it. it's very short simple and to the point. Basically just shows the technique of making the transfer. But He doesn't really talk about prep or sanitation. I'm just trying make sure I do everything right the first time.


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:hippie::mushroom2:Take it easy. if it's easy. take it twice:mushroom2::mushroom2:
:sporedrop:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Shroomery:sporedrop:

**A LINK TO EVERTHING**


Edited by callmehippie (02/23/25 04:12 PM)

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Re: Ask Quick Questions, Get Quick Answers [Re: callmehippie]
    #29135822 -

You can wipe down the jar exterior with iso before opening it. But under the jar lid, don’t mess. Pretty much everything above the lowest thread on the jar should still be clean/aseptic. Don’t try to wipe the rim because you just add another intro vector for contaminates.


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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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