SkanskKorv said:

Kloakk said:

Actually I have to correct myself! It's cactus soil so not straight peat but straight cactus soil I can get straight peat at Granngården or Bauhaus etc though, Weibulls makes straight peat as well but it's known as "torv" in Swedish

https://www.bauhaus.se/torv-weibulls-naturell-40l?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21722997825&gbraid=0AAAAADxd_kwbXXyzOID04MCAeNGOV-Ik-&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnJfEBhCzARIsAIMtfKL1kJ9rda7lTq-ehVXI4L4JdR2g6Zzt24bqD12smpP6SIklAwo8kKkaAnjwEALw_wcB

And yes I added lime to the cactus soil then pasteurized it at 65°c for 2 hours

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Nice, doesn't look like I can get that peat, even though we have a lot of Weibulls products here Thanks for the link though.

Im sure the peat cactus soil will be fine, I have settled on 50/40/10 coir/cactus soil/vermiculite, haven't used the peat cactus soil from weibulls yet, but will use it as soon as MiB RS is done colonizing, should be in a week or so.

Kloakk said:

SkanskKorv said:

Kloakk said:

Actually I have to correct myself! It's cactus soil so not straight peat but straight cactus soil I can get straight peat at Granngården or Bauhaus etc though, Weibulls makes straight peat as well but it's known as "torv" in Swedish

https://www.bauhaus.se/torv-weibulls-naturell-40l?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21722997825&gbraid=0AAAAADxd_kwbXXyzOID04MCAeNGOV-Ik-&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnJfEBhCzARIsAIMtfKL1kJ9rda7lTq-ehVXI4L4JdR2g6Zzt24bqD12smpP6SIklAwo8kKkaAnjwEALw_wcB

And yes I added lime to the cactus soil then pasteurized it at 65°c for 2 hours

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Nice, doesn't look like I can get that peat, even though we have a lot of Weibulls products here Thanks for the link though.

Im sure the peat cactus soil will be fine, I have settled on 50/40/10 coir/cactus soil/vermiculite, haven't used the peat cactus soil from weibulls yet, but will use it as soon as MiB RS is done colonizing, should be in a week or so.

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Ah damn... You should be able to find something though, what's it called in Norwegian?

How does this mix compare to only cactus soil?

SkanskKorv said:

Ah damn... You should be able to find something though, what's it called in Norwegian?

How does this mix compare to only cactus soil?

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It is torv here as well, and I found one place that sells it, but it's 200 liters I don't need that much and don't have a place to store it either, but I really like this peat based cactus soil and I hope it works out as good as I think it will.

When I used only cactus soil, I felt it would get soggy(in a dreamer), and the evaporation took way too long. I did 50/50 cactus soil/verm and it worked good enough, but verm is pretty expensive and not really a product I want to use a lot of.

When I was reading Myco Zapotec's guide on growing Zapo's, I noticed he is using 60/40 coir/cactus soil so I tried that, worked good as well and better then 50/50 cactus soil/verm. While I was growing TTBVI I didn't like how they would partially overlay my casing, that is when I change the casing recipe and that seemed to solve most of it and with the 10% verm I know there's always air pockets.

Regardless of casing recipe it seems that the lighter and more even I can get it, the better uniform pinset I can get

Kloakk said:

SkanskKorv said:

Ah damn... You should be able to find something though, what's it called in Norwegian?

How does this mix compare to only cactus soil?

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It is torv here as well, and I found one place that sells it, but it's 200 liters I don't need that much and don't have a place to store it either, but I really like this peat based cactus soil and I hope it works out as good as I think it will.

When I used only cactus soil, I felt it would get soggy(in a dreamer), and the evaporation took way too long. I did 50/50 cactus soil/verm and it worked good enough, but verm is pretty expensive and not really a product I want to use a lot of.

When I was reading Myco Zapotec's guide on growing Zapo's, I noticed he is using 60/40 coir/cactus soil so I tried that, worked good as well and better then 50/50 cactus soil/verm. While I was growing TTBVI I didn't like how they would partially overlay my casing, that is when I change the casing recipe and that seemed to solve most of it and with the 10% verm I know there's always air pockets.

Regardless of casing recipe it seems that the lighter and more even I can get it, the better uniform pinset I can get

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So you don't use just cactus soil because it becomes too muddy but does it effect the yields? Sounds like as long as you know your casing it wouldn't matter which mix you use, it's just a preference right? My next will be coir and cacti soil since I wanna try that but honestly I don't know what difference it could make, I've just been planning on it to experiment.

I did use an incredibly thin layer though, some corn wasn't even covered and had the top sticking out. The mycelium has poked through a little bit by now but in not sure how much I should let it colonise the casing. I was thinking I will let it colonise a bit more than now but not too much since I'm kinda traumatised by my TTBVI which ate the entire thing

SkanskKorv said:

So you don't use just cactus soil because it becomes too muddy but does it effect the yields? Sounds like as long as you know your casing it wouldn't matter which mix you use, it's just a preference right? My next will be coir and cacti soil since I wanna try that but honestly I don't know what difference it could make, I've just been planning on it to experiment.

I did use an incredibly thin layer though, some corn wasn't even covered and had the top sticking out. The mycelium has poked through a little bit by now but in not sure how much I should let it colonise the casing. I was thinking I will let it colonise a bit more than now but not too much since I'm kinda traumatised by my TTBVI which ate the entire thing

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No I don't think it necessarily effect the yield if you can get the tray pushing out fruits until it exhausts, but I would rather have a tray push out 3 canopy flushes then keep picking 2-20 shrooms a day.

I believe that casing recipe matters though, to me a casing has a few functions.

It should hold moisture, but also have a lot of air pockets to allow for good evaporation, for several reasons. You want the casing layer to indicate a change in the medium the mycelium is growing in to help the mycelium know it's time to fruit. The water in the casing should support most of the water in the fruit bodies. Air pockets within the casing will make for a great microclimate to trigger and fruit in and provide good evaporation that fruits use to cool down.

With just cactus soil you don't get a lot of air pockets and since cactus soil has nutrients it's more likely to be 100% colonized and/or get overlay. Coir and verm is great for holding water and doesn't have nutrients, but verm alone is really hard to keep at the right conditions just using our eyes and in my experience never het partially colonized, which you want.

So when I mix coir, cactus soil and verm I feel I get the best and easiest casing to maintain and view the right conditions in as well as a lot of air pockets and excellent evaporation for the fruits to cool.

It need to be said that I have never used peat and for all I know, peat have all the attributes my casing mix does and would be superior in every way. I'm sure there are other alternative to make good casings and what I use is just what works best with what I have tried and access to

Again, I'm really excited to try this peat based cactus soil with my regular amount of coir, verm and lime

If I understand you correctly you have the trays covered even after casing them? I never noticed any difference in how much the casing gets colonized by changing conditions from GE to FAE. It seems genetics, casing and how it is applied(compacted or loose) is what matters when it comes to how much it colonize and/or overlays.

Kloakk said:

SkanskKorv said:

So you don't use just cactus soil because it becomes too muddy but does it effect the yields? Sounds like as long as you know your casing it wouldn't matter which mix you use, it's just a preference right? My next will be coir and cacti soil since I wanna try that but honestly I don't know what difference it could make, I've just been planning on it to experiment.

I did use an incredibly thin layer though, some corn wasn't even covered and had the top sticking out. The mycelium has poked through a little bit by now but in not sure how much I should let it colonise the casing. I was thinking I will let it colonise a bit more than now but not too much since I'm kinda traumatised by my TTBVI which ate the entire thing

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No I don't think it necessarily effect the yield if you can get the tray pushing out fruits until it exhausts, but I would rather have a tray push out 3 canopy flushes then keep picking 2-20 shrooms a day.

I believe that casing recipe matters though, to me a casing has a few functions.

It should hold moisture, but also have a lot of air pockets to allow for good evaporation, for several reasons. You want the casing layer to indicate a change in the medium the mycelium is growing in to help the mycelium know it's time to fruit. The water in the casing should support most of the water in the fruit bodies. Air pockets within the casing will make for a great microclimate to trigger and fruit in and provide good evaporation that fruits use to cool down.

With just cactus soil you don't get a lot of air pockets and since cactus soil has nutrients it's more likely to be 100% colonized and/or get overlay. Coir and verm is great for holding water and doesn't have nutrients, but verm alone is really hard to keep at the right conditions just using our eyes and in my experience never het partially colonized, which you want.

So when I mix coir, cactus soil and verm I feel I get the best and easiest casing to maintain and view the right conditions in as well as a lot of air pockets and excellent evaporation for the fruits to cool.

It need to be said that I have never used peat and for all I know, peat have all the attributes my casing mix does and would be superior in every way. I'm sure there are other alternative to make good casings and what I use is just what works best with what I have tried and access to

Again, I'm really excited to try this peat based cactus soil with my regular amount of coir, verm and lime

If I understand you correctly you have the trays covered even after casing them? I never noticed any difference in how much the casing gets colonized by changing conditions from GE to FAE. It seems genetics, casing and how it is applied(compacted or loose) is what matters when it comes to how much it colonize and/or overlays.

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Yeah agreed, a full flush is better than many small ones imo too. I guess I'll have to see what this gives me but I've seen a lot of people here preaching just peat or cactus soil so I hope I didn't make another mistake by doing this.


Yeah just verm didn't work too well for me when I tired it with pans... It didn't colonise at all and I simply couldn't tell if it needed more or less water.

Isn't there peat in your cactus soil though? I thought cactus soil was supposed to be peat based so I guess I just learnt that if it's the Weibulls i showed you then it seems pretty damn nice tbh, I'm just not experienced enough to guarantee it

The trays were uncovered but I had a lid on the tub and restricted airflow but I removed the lid earlier today and have it slightly offset now since the mycelium has poked through the casing a little bit but I didn't wanna leave it to colonise more after my last disaster next time I'm skipping this completely and setting them on fruiting when I case them.

SkanskKorv said:

Yeah agreed, a full flush is better than many small ones imo too. I guess I'll have to see what this gives me but I've seen a lot of people here preaching just peat or cactus soil so I hope I didn't make another mistake by doing this.


Yeah just verm didn't work too well for me when I tired it with pans... It didn't colonise at all and I simply couldn't tell if it needed more or less water.

Isn't there peat in your cactus soil though? I thought cactus soil was supposed to be peat based so I guess I just learnt that if it's the Weibulls i showed you then it seems pretty damn nice tbh, I'm just not experienced enough to guarantee it

The trays were uncovered but I had a lid on the tub and restricted airflow but I removed the lid earlier today and have it slightly offset now since the mycelium has poked through the casing a little bit but I didn't wanna leave it to colonise more after my last disaster next time I'm skipping this completely and setting them on fruiting when I case them.

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Yeah dude I'm sure it's fine with just cactus soil, and yes I really appreciate you sending me a link and picture of the peat based cactus soil, I didn't know I could get it so I've been using a different brand which is not peat based. I bought the one you got, but haven't used it yet, excited to try it, thanks again

As I said, as long as the substrate is 100% colonized when I case, I haven't seen any difference in how much the casing gets colonized if I restrict air or not, what I have seen though is that it takes longer to take over and start pinning, and I really want the preferred mycelium to "own" the casing as fast as possible

SkanskKorv said:

Alright cheers man, I was starting to worry that I might've had another mishap hahah...

No worries at all man, it's the least I can do for you tbh. You're one of those who has helped me the most so I'm just glad u could give something back even if it ain't much


Oh then I did this for nothing... I probably delayed it more than I needed to be it was definitely all colonised since it finished quite some time ago in the jars and I left them to consolidate for quite a while just to be sure I wasn't rushing it. But just so we're straight here, I want it to colonise the casing but it will do this during fruiting and I want only partial (how much?) colonisation right?

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It meant a lot to me man, been looking for peat for a long time and a peat based cactus soil is the next best thing.

Since they haven't been covered with the tray lid, and you've kept them in a tub even though the lid was on, my guess is they've had enough air to not slow down anything, your good

How much the casing colonizes is mostly genetic, no matter the amount of FAE so the only thing you can control is what you case with and how you put on that casing(compacted or loose). So as long as you didn't compacted the casing there isn't much you can do at this point, and I bet you're golden anyway, with Bisporus they don't overlay in my experience.

TTBVI is another story, there I start the battle with overlay already in the plate, finding fast growing thin mycelium and avoid that thick shit

tree frog said:

High rH helps to colonize the casing (like 99-100%).  The lid is about that rather than oxygen to co2 ratios as far as I can tell.

I'm experimenting with thinner casings on everything. And not bothering to let it colonize.  Top dressed.  So really it's cased already with substrate.  Just adding some more minerals, fumic and humic acids, and improving the microclimate with the peat and everything in it.

I imagine top dressed + thin casing will be my goto going forward.  Rather I go back to a few days with a lid on or not I don't know.

Edit:  my lids are modified with two little sfds per tray for GE.  I use a hot nail to poke the holes.

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Really? I mean it could be humidity, but I would think my casing will always have that high humidity, even in the air pockets.

With a compact casing it seems they colonize more of it, and that has led me to believe that it is because of less O2 in it. I'm not sure how I can test this though, what did you do to come to your conclusion

Cool, so are you casing it with substrate when spawning, letting it colonize 100% with the lid on and then do a thin casing(what depth?) before going to fruiting conditions?

Thanks for the insight, I'll have to see if there is a way I can test it to figure out if it's O2/CO2 and/or low/high humidity.