ghiajake said:

RockinRobot said:

Only issue I have had with Black Cow is it contains a lot of sticks. This is easily remedied by sifting it through a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth.

50/50 Black Cow / coir worked great in my grows.

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Yeah, I pre-sifted a whole bag and keep it in a 5 gallon bucket. What is your pasteurizing process, and do you get that sweet and sour smell after pasteurizing?

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ghiajake said:

I do need to sterilize the probe because I'm using a $25k piece of equipment at the high-end steakhouse I work at. I will not take the chance of cross contamination.

Also, the bags only have 2 quart of sub as is. This run I loosened up the sub and laid the bag out flat so no point of the sub was thicker than 1.5 inches.

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Lo-Z said:

Last time I got a sweet/ sour smell it was fermentation due to anaerobic conditions too hot and humid.

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Lo-Z said:

Sorry if you've stated already,, but after you pasteurize, do you keep the bag closed ? or do you let it breath? I see it has a filter patch on it but if it doesnt allow enough FAE you could be creating a mini wet hot air pocket.. I'm wondering if the center of the sub doesn't get hot enough during the pasteurization process, inside the water evaporates out of the sub pulling moisture out and creating a micro climate that causes fermentation to happen after? without an internal thermometer its had to tell. If you started the clock for 2 hours once your hit 140f and the sub came out sour after, i'd run it for 3 or maybe even 4 hours since you aren't using the internal thermometer. Compensate with time for the lack of internal data.

Just spit-balling here

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The bag was sealed before pasteurizing this time, but not the previous two times. I did not let them breath, and did not fluff up the compressed subs in the bags until I spawned. The loosened and thinned test bag I ran yesterday smells perfect today. It's smells so good that I'm going to go ahead and spawn it tonight.

I really think the compression of the sub was the issue. Like 95% confident at this point. We'll see how things go after I compress the block after spawning. Also, my boss at my second job is bringing me a 5 gallon bucket of field-aged pony poo tomorrow. Actual pony.

JoeTherapist said:

Plates are slowly going. It’s hard to see the detail in these I know, it’s the best I could get. These were started 10/11

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Baba Yaga said:

JoeTherapist said:

Plates are slowly going. It’s hard to see the detail in these I know, it’s the best I could get. These were started 10/11

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That does look suspect as well. What is your agar recipe? Is it very soft?

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ghiajake said:

Yeah, I pre-sifted a whole bag and keep it in a 5 gallon bucket. What is your pasteurizing process, and do you get that sweet and sour smell after pasteurizing?

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Is the bucket closed? I sifted 1 gallon and had it in a filter patch bag to make it easier to make substrate on the fly. Even with the filter it got too anaerobic over a couple of months. While sifting is necessary it does make it a lot more compact and in a closed bucket it might have been perfect growth conditions for anaerobic bacteria and was already spoiled, but the smell gets more noticeable when it's been pasteurized

JoeTherapist said:

Baba Yaga said:

JoeTherapist said:

Plates are slowly going. It’s hard to see the detail in these I know, it’s the best I could get. These were started 10/11

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That does look suspect as well. What is your agar recipe? Is it very soft?

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Its 10 g agar 3.5 LME 500 ml h20 for these low nutrient plates. I use telephone agar. I do notice mine is on the softer side, but not like mushy. Just not as firm as some of the wedges I have been sent.

It could very well be mold. You can see the myc around the very edge is organized, but you can’t see it with my camera. Idk at this point it’s all just for fun till I get the spores going. The WA plates have like next to zero growth.

I think a few of my old plates got mold in them. A lot of these are from before I did ANYTHING remotely right.

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ghiajake said:

RockinRobot said:

Only issue I have had with Black Cow is it contains a lot of sticks. This is easily remedied by sifting it through a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth.

50/50 Black Cow / coir worked great in my grows.

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Yeah, I pre-sifted a whole bag and keep it in a 5 gallon bucket. What is your pasteurizing process, and do you get that sweet and sour smell after pasteurizing?

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Kloakk said:

ghiajake said:

Yeah, I pre-sifted a whole bag and keep it in a 5 gallon bucket. What is your pasteurizing process, and do you get that sweet and sour smell after pasteurizing?

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Is the bucket closed? I sifted 1 gallon and had it in a filter patch bag to make it easier to make substrate on the fly. Even with the filter it got too anaerobic over a couple of months. While sifting is necessary it does make it a lot more compact and in a closed bucket it might have been perfect growth conditions for anaerobic bacteria and was already spoiled, but the smell gets more noticeable when it's been pasteurized

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Closed, but vented. No fermenting smell when I open the lid. I'm 95% sure the issue was me pre-compacting the sub before pasteurizing. This last test bag smelled perfect last night when I spawned it.

ghiajake said:

Closed, but vented. No fermenting smell when I open the lid. I'm 95% sure the issue was me pre-compacting the sub before pasteurizing. This last test bag smelled perfect last night when I spawned it.

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Good shit