Bigworm said:

Ok I think I got good myc. It's hard for me to get clean pics because I use holy grail plates that are hazy to begin with.

---

This my first go at gymns so I'm still guessing my way through. These are the plates I used for my current AIO jar project. Nothing has gone fugly yet. 😆

gymnopilus luteus
Bottom backlit view.






Open top view.

SupaThaRipper said:

A casing is like a really hot slutty chick that you're trying to fight off because for some weird reason you decided to become celibate. Deep down inside, you know you need it.

Also, Walmart has jiffy mix in stores right now. Just picked up about 50 quarts for 20 bucks or so

---

Smellyhobbit said:

I would love some of those pomegranate colored fruits that you see. That would be special

---

Lignicolous said:

SupaThaRipper said:

A casing is like a really hot slutty chick that you're trying to fight off because for some weird reason you decided to become celibate. Deep down inside, you know you need it.

Also, Walmart has jiffy mix in stores right now. Just picked up about 50 quarts for 20 bucks or so

---

OK, so in the year 2025, what function do we believe casings perform in general, and why should one consider casing Gymnopilus species specifically? I understand that empirical results show that casings can help in certain situations, but they still don't entirely make sense to me.

At the moment, my best guess is that the utility of casing layers is based almost entirely on water potential. A lot of folks seem to use pasteurized buffered peat for casings. Although coir and peat can both be hydrated to similar levels (they have similar field capacities), peat seems to be slightly better at retaining moisture, i.e. the matric potential drops more rapidly as it dries out. This would serve to slow evaporative loss from a coir based substrate and alter the water potential gradient between the substrate and surrounding air. Vermiculite holds on to water more tightly than either coir or peat, so the addition of vermiculite to a casing layer, which appears to be a common practice, should serve to increase this effect.

The only other factors I can think of are pH and osmotic potential. Peat is acidic and requires buffering, therefore people usually pay attention to pH when using peat, whereas coir is generally regarded as being within an acceptable pH range. pH mostly affects nutrient uptake though, and I find it hard to believe that it is actually a limiting factor or that it could be materially altered by a thin casing layer. It might be possible for coir to have salt levels high enough to affect osmosis, so this could be a factor, but it also strikes me as pretty unlikely.

Sorry if this topic is out of scope for this thread, I guess I'm just having trouble seeing the really hot slutty chick in this instance.

---