fahtster said:

Each tray has:
40g coir
1/2 cup verm
1/2 cup worm castings
1.25ml of each true organic liquid ferts 2-2-2, and jackpot micro nutrients
1.25 cup water (this can be a little shy depending on how hydrated your coir already is off the block.  I’ve had to add up to a 1/4 cup more at times.  I’ll squeeze test it when I’m making the trays and if they’re a little light, I’ll mist more water into the mix and do more tests until I’m satisfied it’s at FC)

I boil the water with both ferts in it.  Once it starts boiling, I pour it into the coir and stir.  Should have np instantly hydrating all the coir as theres excess water (to hydrate the verm and worm castings).  Then add the verm and stir and let sit to cool down below 140F.  I just let it sit for like 20 mins.  I like to compact the CV down to try and equalize the water content throughout

Then I add the castings and mix.  I use an xl ziplock (I use the XL because I make enough for 3 trays at once—if you’re doing only a single tray, you’d only need a gallon ziplock if you’re going that route) and close it up with air in it and shake the shit out it.. then compact it down in the bag (again to equalize the water and force it into the castings).. do that a few times and pasteurize.  I prefer to vac seal pasteurize.. removing the air helps conduct the heat to the center more evenly and faster.  It also equalizes the water content throughout the sub.  If you do vac seal pasteurization, make sure you open the bags right way and let air in after it’s done.  A sealed bag will go sour if you don’t.

If you test FC right after you make the sub, it’ll appear over hydrated.  Don’t test for FC until it’s either done pasteurizing or it’s sat for a while before pasteurizing; giving the material enough time to absorb all the water

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Nice

skrimplet said:

ghiajake said:

skrimplet said:

But, u mean jiffy like the cornbread mix? atp why not just mix all the dry ingredients for cornbread at home?

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You know that comment deserves a "bless you're heart!", right?

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i told you its complicated to me! 😖

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droner66 said:

Thanks a lot fahtster I can't wait to give this a shot.
Looks like getting the FC down is the tricky part.

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It is tricky if you want nice cap and stipe morphology and for them to spore readily with little blotching.  If you don’t necessarily care about that, you can be more lax with fae

The most important and tricky part is getting clean cultures to grow out.  Clean cultures make everything easier.  Dirty subs tend to take longer to do every part of development.  The longer it takes to get a flush, the more the sub is sitting there drying out. 

These are all 2nd flushes






Most are 1:4.  I like the 1:2 more.. less work.

ghiajake said:

Well, I'm pretty sure the blocks I spawned a couple days were over-pasteurized, because they now have that sour smell we all know...

Good thing I have one agar jar of the Estero left, and some prints on the way from arlo...

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fahtster said:

Bacterial subs usually mean your grains were baccy to start and had a failure to recover quickly enough.  I pasteurize for 3 hours at 150-155F.  I know ppl that pasteurize overnight.  So, unless you were riding 170F, I’d look at your grain jars before your pasteurizing times.

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They cooked at 160F for 13 hours because I accidently used the manual setting, which didn't have a cooldown phase. It just held the temp until I came in to work the next morning and opened the door. And the bags only had 2 quarts of finished substrate in each, so they definitely didn't need to run that long. Not sure if you saw the equipment I used for pasteurizing... I have since programmed a preset program on the unit that includes the cooldown phase, so next batch should be better. Maybe next batch I'll run at 150F instead of 160F...

Normally I would agree with you on the spawn being the usual bacterial vector, but not the case this time. I had an extra un-spawned bag I saved back as a control specimen, and it has the same sour smell of anaerobic bacteria. I should mention that there is no sign of mold in any of the blocks yet, so I do think the equipment is working fine for pasteurization. I should also mention that the pint grain spawn jars fully colonized from agar in 7 days, so there was no stalling of the culture until they were spawned. There's bound to be failures when learning how to use a new piece of equipment...

PuffM4gicDr4gon said:

Did you store it for a while before you noticed the smell by any chance? Even over night?

Could the smell have been sulfur?

I get that if I don't leave some air exchange for my pasteurized sub. I think the lack of oxygen causes some bad stuff to grow.

It has even happened if I leave a lot in the bucket. The bottom layer ends up going rank.

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I did store the bags in trays (see pic) in the fridge for about 26 hours before pasteurizing them, but I spawned the bags later the same day after pasteurizing.