ladynightshade said:

Turns out that prior loaf I was concerned about is bruising. Nothing to worry about just scarred it moderately when it got transferred to the smaller bin.

Also took the advice of the guys on the forum and did a graft of one of my agar plates while inoculating the grain.






Todays goals met!
Purple Mystics from a swab print.

I've been learning how to work with swab prints and spore prints. Mostly so I can get a bit better at cultivation. Next time just only one agar chunk. No need for three. xD

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towndaze said:

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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Sorry about the confusion — No it's not. What I said was talking about a strategy that actually works.

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Tartanmyco said:

Quick question;

I’ve modified my shoeboxes so they can be permanently stacked, however there isn’t the best head space for the shrooms to grow upwards, is it ok to leave the lid snapped shut and let them hit the lid?

Does this limit their growth or will they still grow below the cap maintaining length (or does the limited height produce more stipe girth when they can’t grow any further in height?)

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this?

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Tartanmyco said:

Tartanmyco said:

Quick question;

I’ve modified my shoeboxes so they can be permanently stacked, however there isn’t the best head space for the shrooms to grow upwards, is it ok to leave the lid snapped shut and let them hit the lid?

Does this limit their growth or will they still grow below the cap maintaining length (or does the limited height produce more stipe girth when they can’t grow any further in height?)

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this?

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Bump

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I have noticed that sometimes the mushrooms know their space and sometimes they just blow the lid off... When I see em getting close I unsnap any lids.

A lot of times they travel horizontally for a bit first, picking up coir and making harvest cleaning apita

towndaze said:

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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Everyone has this issue just potentially not quite as badly. Everything in the mix has A) different cooking times and B) different sizes B) Different starch contents. It's always going to fight you on some level. There's a reason why the best most resilient soils are defined by having a vast range of different particle shapes and sizes rather than uniform ones — it lets it absorb stressors better rather than being passively heated/cooled/swept or blown away.

The core reason for using it barely applies anymore TBH. Back when it had its big day brown rice was largely an obscure health food and getting big sacks of fodder grains online just didn't really happen unless you were super rural.

Kinda hyperbolic but you get my point.

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Again



Not everybody is having this problem.  I prepare birdseed without messes or hydration issues.

Tartanmyco said:

Tartanmyco said:

Quick question;

I’ve modified my shoeboxes so they can be permanently stacked, however there isn’t the best head space for the shrooms to grow upwards, is it ok to leave the lid snapped shut and let them hit the lid?

Does this limit their growth or will they still grow below the cap maintaining length (or does the limited height produce more stipe girth when they can’t grow any further in height?)

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this?

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Bump

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Tartanmyco said:

Tartanmyco said:

Quick question;

I’ve modified my shoeboxes so they can be permanently stacked, however there isn’t the best head space for the shrooms to grow upwards, is it ok to leave the lid snapped shut and let them hit the lid?

Does this limit their growth or will they still grow below the cap maintaining length (or does the limited height produce more stipe girth when they can’t grow any further in height?)

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this?

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Bump

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Mine bump the lid and then start making wiggly stems or going another direction. All’s good.

tree frog said:

You're going to get a lot of push back asking about casing cubes in 2026, even PE.  But here's a recent post on managing casing and my strategy is very similar.  I mist once a day or every other day.  And my fruiting chamber cycles the exhaust for three minutes every hour.  This kicks the fogger on for three minutes, replacing the lost moisture.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/29486828#29486828

Since cubes have a much larger substrate than the little jars I'm using, you could probably put a box fan five feet away from your tubs on a timer and hit them with the fan a few minutes every couple hours.  If the substrate to tub ratio is good, the humidity should climb back without a fogger.  Faht is doing pans that way in Ziplocks.  But I see no reason it wouldn't work with PE in a mono.

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Not that I'm an advocate of casing or anything, but I’m not convinced that the replies so far represent a representative cohort of cultivators. A handful of responses doesn’t really capture the broader range of experience out there Heck, most of them couldn't even figure out what I was asking, so the limited answers them selfs also didn't create a satisfactory debate ... If you look at Ted's tek, there's a lot of experienced forum members in it. I guess this more of a question for it's own topic.