DoublePortionofW said:

I'm debating whether to use a monotub or several shoebox for my first attempt at cultivation. Are there in differences between the two teks in terms of yields, contamination or colonization time?

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Pastywhyte said:

DoublePortionofW said:

I'm debating whether to use a monotub or several shoebox for my first attempt at cultivation. Are there in differences between the two teks in terms of yields, contamination or colonization time?

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I'd say the biggest difference is in the conditions. Monotubs are dialed in exactly to maintain conditions. Shoeboxes are more of a best guess and close enough. In my climate shoeboxes dry out a lot, need extra babying which at the end of the day the organism wont appreciate as much as you might hope.

If you don't want to build a huge monotub, build a small one. The principles can be scaled down. Advantages also include the ability to stack them, pretty tricky stacking shoeboxes.

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John in WI said:

I started using whole oats in 1qt jars. I followed Bods easy AF tek.

The jars appear to be colonized.  I shook around 20% and 80%. I'm not seeing anything that looks like mold or bacteria. It smells ok.

My question is, the mycellium covering the oats is very thin.  It's not the dense, solid white block I see with WBS. 

Is it normal on oats for the mycellium to look really thing? Like the grains are obscured, but you can still see the golden colOK.

I'm wondering if it's maybe an under hydration issue.

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hidingbush said:

DoublePortionofW said:

I'm debating whether to use a monotub or several shoebox for my first attempt at cultivation. Are there in differences between the two teks in terms of yields, contamination or colonization time?

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Shoeboxes are great. Monotubs are huge and needs lots of spawn, shoeboxes are can use one jar of spawn.

So if it's your first time contamination could be an issue. Get a few shoeboxes and put one jar to each box, if you get contam oh well dump it and you still have other shoeboxes chugging along.

If the monotub goes south, it's back to square one/a few months more waiting.

I thought I needed a monotub but I love my shoeboxes. You will have lots of mushrooms either way.

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hidingbush said:

Thanks that's good to know. I was looking around and i even have brf so I might try making a batch with that instead. The malt extract is hard to find at a store so I wanted to go with what I have.

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Huskies said:

hidingbush said:

Thanks that's good to know. I was looking around and i even have brf so I might try making a batch with that instead. The malt extract is hard to find at a store so I wanted to go with what I have.

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You basically just need a starchy water. I've used Gnocchi boil water (without added salt), rice vermicelli boil water and even ramen boil water with success.

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