tree frog said:

I grew them like pans   Because I grew them on accident

And I used calcium hydroxide for a long time, it works fine as a buffer.  I prefer calcium carbonate, because it's much more forgiving in regard to overshooting the pH so I don't have to bother with a meter.  It also adds a lot of sandiness to the peat since I use so much of it, which means I skip the verm.

Sourcing powdered limestone that's not high in magnesium can be a little tricky, and the food grade calcium carbonate is super expensive.  So there is that to consider.

In regards to your question about pans, I use worm castings.  Fahtster is using worm castings plus liquid nutrients.  And Mojave uses just liquid nutrients.

So there are other options, and I personally prefer not to use manure because worm castings are more forgiving as far as contamination.

So yeah, if you decide to give it a shot, feel free to hit us up in the pan thread!  Faht is also working on a ziplock tek that should be very helpful for new folks.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/29490589#29490589

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Sulfurshelfsean said:

koma23 said:

Archespore said:

koma23 said:

It's not my first time growing PE though, I've just been doing it p9 style till now, but have recently read a lot about using a peat based casing, involving at least two casing layers and doing patching. All those teks involve a lot of FAE and misting (basically once daily) in order to achieve a dense pinset. You think this is outdated? They do produce really nice canopies and I haven't been able to get anything of sorts with p9's style grows (maybe just bad genetics though ...)

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What TEK are you following that tells you to mist once daily? The questions your asking make it seem like you're misunderstanding some of the fundamentals, which is why it was assumed you're on your first grow.

Treefrog(the trusted cultivator you replied to) just told you that you don't need the extra FAE for pin formation, only for fat caps. Did you read the advice she took the time to write out for you?

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I'm only asking; what level of water evaporation from the substrate surface is optimal for promoting a dense pinset. There's a lot of conflicting info here and if you look around you'll find posts (not that old) saying that if you don't need to mist relatively often, that you basically don't have enough FAE. Now don't get me wrong, I'm completely aware that you can get good pinsets without such strong fae that you need to mist ed or eod and in fact, I never mist, I always have perfect surface conditions in my tubs without misting but I've also never done a true casing ...

I'm not following a specific tek atm though (so that daily misting was me paraphrasing, summing up what I've gathered thus far) was researching multiple topics, but amongst them, this one stood out: https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/26528392#26528392

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How dense your pinset is going to be is probably moreso determined by genetics, and how much you've isolated your genetics. If you don't have isolated genetics you can have a whole sub covered in primordia, and you can have perfect fae to rh balance and you won't get a pinset that matures at the same time. I think you're worrying too much about a cunt hair that doesn't need to be split. If I'm understanding your question correctly.

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Mr Piggy said:

Are we dying, is everyone dying?

Are we finally doing the death cult thing?

Hang on, let me get my cool-aid.

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Archespore said:

Is it possible to put agar into the plates before sterilizing them so I don't have to pour or is that a dumb idea?

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tree frog said:

Also large plates means more room for transfers.



Usually I do three on 90mm.  Sometimes I do six.  If I had 4" plates, I could always do six 🤔

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+1.

My T1 is always three transfers from the germinating plate.

Usually out of THOSE three one will pull ahead and i can narrow it down to one or two per plate.



Edit uploaded photo from current yeti log

Archespore said:

I'm an idiot sometimes (and don't read Japanese well), so I ended up with some giant petri dishes...

Any use for these things besides stupidly large agar plates? They are like 4.5 inches in diameter -_-

They are borosilicate... And I'm going to fire up the pressure cooker tonight to make some water vials and a couple bottles of agar anyways.



Is it possible to put agar into the plates before sterilizing them so I don't have to pour or is that a dumb idea?

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I do this, it's not a dumb ideas. You just will deal with some moisture in your jars/dishes you need to wick/vent away and all is fine. You may mess slightly with pour consistencies re-heating things but never hurt me. Just don't put things that'll  melt in the pressure cooker!

Just let the excess moisture evap/dissipate all is good if the agar look good.

Ovoidhunter said:

I've been using wild bird seed for awhile and have made a couple hundred jars and constantly struggle with moisture content. I know its something on my end but I've never quite fixed the problem. Grains are either too dry or too wet. It seems like i have to cook the hell out of them to get them to have enough moisture. Anyone else have this issue?

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koma23 said:

towndaze said:

Casing layer if you're worried does it better with less fucky wucky than misting constantly. There's a general trend away from misting & burping in general I've been seeing TBH.

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But is the increased water evaporation which you get from more fae and misting beneficial enough (for pinset formation) that it's worth the hassle, that was my general question : )

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Ovoidhunter said:

I've been using wild bird seed for awhile and have made a couple hundred jars and constantly struggle with moisture content. I know its something on my end but I've never quite fixed the problem. Grains are either too dry or too wet. It seems like i have to cook the hell out of them to get them to have enough moisture. Anyone else have this issue?

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