Gastly said:

Hi everyone,

I'm a novice grower who's finally decided to try my luck with pans coming from some moderate success with cubes & ochras. Over the past few weeks I've spent a lot of time reading through this sub and many of the more advanced mycology discussions, trying to understand the reasoning behind different approaches rather than just copying a tek. I have a liquid culture of TTBVI arriving in a few days, and I'm currently putting together my first Martha tent setup.

I know that placing a humidifier inside the tent generally isn't recommended, but one of my biggest constraints is space. I'm trying to keep this hobby from gradually taking over the entire house, so a compact setup inside a closet is the goal. Ideally, everything—humidification, sensors, fans, and controls—will either mount to the inside or outside of the Martha so the entire operation stays self-contained.

A lot of my design ideas are based on concepts and builds I've seen from Tree Frog, Jake, and Mojave, since their setups seem well thought out and proven. For substrate, I'm sticking with coir for now simply because I already have plenty of it on hand. Since this is my first grow, I'd rather not introduce a bunch of new variables all at once if I can avoid it.

The Pan Plan
Agar
• 0.5% LME Agar plates
• Clean up agar and transfer clean wedges to sterilized grain
• Optional LC creation later
      o Would not make LC until I have healthy clone agar plates

Grain (Easy Millet Prep)
• in qt jar: Combine 1 cup millet with ½ cup water,
• PC for 90 min, and shake thoroughly once you can safely touch jar to homogenize moisture.

Substrate (Running 2 methods Side by Side)
• Method 1: Hybrid Gordo
      o 2:2:1  Coir:Manure:Verm
             650g Coir (hydrated with 3250mL water) which yields 8qts
             8qts Manure (May need to add 2qt water)
             4 qts vermiculite (2 cups water)
             Optional handful of gypsum & crushed oyster shell
• Method 2: Mojave’s CV+
      o 650g Coir (3250mL water)
      o 2 qt Vermiculite (1cup water)
      o 10mL True Organic Liquid Fertilizer
      o 20mL Jackpot Micronutrient Fertilizer
             Optional handful of gypsum & crushed oyster shell
• Bulk Substrate
      o Depth: 2in in shallow baking pans, 1:3 ratio
• Casing Layer
      o 1:1 PeatMoss/Vermiculite
      o Depth: thin, 0.25in max
      o Added after the mycelium has colonized bulk sub

Martha Layout (JOC Evaporative Cycle)
• Upper shelf: Ultrasonic humidifier
• Top wall: HEPA intake
• Middle shelf: RH and temperature probes at mushroom height
• Lower shelf: Small heater controlled by the temperature Inkbird
• Bottom wall: Exhaust fan controlled by the humidity Inkbird

Equipment Specs
• Humidifier Output: 300 mL/hr (why my humidity cycle is so long)
• Exhaust Fan Capacity: 195 CFM (why my evaporation cycle is short) Probably run on lowest setting

Starting Environmental Cycle
• Humidifier ON: 15 minutes
• Exhaust Fan ON: 90 seconds
• Fan Speed: 1 (lowest setting)
• Repeat: Continuous
• Temperature: 79–80°F

Temperature Inkbird (ITC-308)
• Work1 Connected to Heating element, No Work2 for cooling as fan will cool with Room temps (70F)
• Differential Settings
      o TS (Target Setpoint): 80.0°F
      o HD (Heating Differential): 1.0°F
      o CA (Temperature Calibration): 0.0°F
      o AH (High Temperature Alarm): 90.0°F
      o AL (Low Temperature Alarm): 70.0°F
      o CF (Temperature Units): °F


Does this sound like a reasonable plan for getting started? I assume dialing in a Martha involves observing substrate conditions during a cycle, with tge goal to observe light dew forming on the surface, and them evaporating off with the fan? Are there any obvious pitfalls or things you would change before I get too far into building the system? I'd appreciate any feedback from people with more experience, especially if you've run a compact Martha setup in a small space.

---

R4cMan said:

Quote:

I'm super paranoid about the spawn, it's been 1 year and half without results, I've not been able to get something to fruit for that long.

---

There was a russian grower years ago that grew pans without grains with great results. He just sterilized jars with hay and hmanure,inoculated with agar, then spawned this jars in tray, cased and fruited. i think with this method there is low chance for contams

---

Gastly said:

Hey, Mushluv, thanks for responding! When you say controller did you mean an rh controller? I think my write up/plan was probably confusing because I was initially planning on using an inkbird humdiity controller, but I switched to timers after realizing that it is less ideal for my setup, because I am trying to hold 100% saturation for a few min to remoisturize the sub before the fan evaporates and dries the dew back off of the sub. I don't mind being very hands on at first with timers until I get my timing dialed in. I think the issue is going to be limiting myself to adjusting 1 variable at a time and not overly micromanaging everything. I think my bottlenecks are kind of what you said, my fan is powerful AF, and my humidifier is not. My humidifer is gonna need a lot of time to replace the moisture that leaves with the fan, and I don't want the fan to drop the rh TOO much, or else I risk evaporating almost the entire time the humidifier is refogging the chamber. Might throw in some rh sensors just as a baseline starting out but i was sure rh sensing in this enviroment would be unreliable at best.

---

Anomalocaris said:

Wow them millet TTBVI jars spreading like canadian wildfires!




Started on july 13 only! Looks like ttbvi will soon be on the menu boys

---

CoolBreeze06

Quote:

CoolBreeze06 said:

Anomalocaris said:

Wow them millet TTBVI jars spreading like canadian wildfires!




Started on july 13 only! Looks like ttbvi will soon be on the menu boys

---

Is it just me, or does that look bacterial?

---

Dont look bacterial in real life,just thick myc I guess. inoculated with clean ass plates.



Used these

MushLuvR77 said:

Tough to say if they are bacterial, the one pic looks like a maybe, but jars do look a bit wet.  Shake them and find out.

---