hunter465 said:

One other question

If I have 4.5lb bags of spawn how much substrate should I need preferably in grams or lbs if possible, can't quite wrap my head around qt's just yet.

If I am following the 1:2 ratio that would be roughly 10lbs of substrate but how much is that in dry ingredients like coir?

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In this wonderful hobby of ours we usually use volume as the metric. In fact, the ratio, 1:2 as weight, would leave you with hardly any substrate since most of the substrate is water and water is heavy. The recommended ratios are for volume and all you have to do is use whatever container you colonized in and fill it twice.

The only time you should be calculating with dry coir weight is when you are cypherin' how much water to add to hydrate it. Make a big container of coir so you have it on hand. It'll last quite awhile if covered. And remember...

tryptkaloids said:

I think it's just thin myc. If you think it's mold try to pour a layer of hot agar over top

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DV8DUG said:

The solution to your problem is an easy fix. Be patient and let it cool down a bit.

Solved.

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It's an easy fix if you are a patient person, which I'm not

Mychol said:

I totally hear you on this - and I'm definitely not married to using a punch. A mutual buddy here on shroomery (who's a way better mush guy) suggested I do it because it helps to see uniform growth.

He's also a lot more skilled in this area than I am - in truth I had given up on the punches for the reasons I listed. The first time I did it I ended up dunking the punch in alcohol (I know, I know!).

In fact I'm pretty damn sure I killed my transfers onto 4 plates yesterday, and I'm really annoyed with myself over it. Although the tool was not red hot when I used it, surely it was still too hot for the myc. I don't see any growth 2 days later, and usually with a transfer you start to see SOME fuzz...

In any case, I value your thoughts @kloakk, and I thank you for always being so generous with your knowledge and ideas. It's always a pleasure to learn from you.

I'll probably go back to using a scalpel after this, or even using a needle as @Cicadoidea suggested.

I'm going to work on doing very very small transfers as well, on the idea that the smaller the transfer the less the likelihood of transferring contam along with it.

Also I've experimented with CS. I have absolutely butured some plates, even the agar roofs not staying in place, but still the myc has grown,. I think my problem is trying to do 4 of them on one plate like the video in another post showed.

I do have some small glass coverslips, so I'll probably PC them when I do another round of agar. I'll individually wrap the coverslips so they should stay sterile.

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I used a punch for a short time to see if I liked it, and maybe if I could get a punch that wasn't as thick as the one I have I might have kept using it as the cool down time would be less.

I do agree with DV8 though, this is a me problem, I have this small jar of 95% iso sitting in front of the FFU, after I sterilize my scalpel I rest it on the jar rim, working with more then one tool it easily gets crowded. I've been trying to find a small rack or something to hold several tools, but no luck yet.

My point being that using a punch has very different movement and work flow and in the end I just didn't feel it was worth it, the punch is also a one trick pony while my scalpel can do several. I am trying to do more aerial transfers these days and so far the scalpel is the best tools for that.

Growth is pretty uniform doing triangel wedge as well.






I do like what marxcelium is pointing out though, it's a good way to easily get consistent sized wedges for storage and sharing.

Using a tool even though it's not red hot anymore does not mean it's cool and that is another problem, like I said, one second in the induction heater does not make my tools red, but they are certainly sterile and hot enough to kill whatever comes near it, but for how long?

I believe I have killed a couple of aerial transfers because my blade was still hot so tools take some time to cool down.

Yeah, even though it is possible to do multiple cabins on one plate I don't do it, I'm a small scale grower and don't need to maximize everything. I have been doing glass slides for a long time, mostly because it's faster and easier to do, cover slips are usually very thin so I avoid those.

I might go back to doing agar roofs though as it seems the absolut best when it comes to taking aerial transfers, but I often fumble , just have to get good I suppose

Kloakk said:

DV8DUG said:

The solution to your problem is an easy fix. Be patient and let it cool down a bit.

Solved.

---

It's an easy fix if you are a patient person, which I'm not

Mychol said:

I totally hear you on this - and I'm definitely not married to using a punch. A mutual buddy here on shroomery (who's a way better mush guy) suggested I do it because it helps to see uniform growth.

He's also a lot more skilled in this area than I am - in truth I had given up on the punches for the reasons I listed. The first time I did it I ended up dunking the punch in alcohol (I know, I know!).

In fact I'm pretty damn sure I killed my transfers onto 4 plates yesterday, and I'm really annoyed with myself over it. Although the tool was not red hot when I used it, surely it was still too hot for the myc. I don't see any growth 2 days later, and usually with a transfer you start to see SOME fuzz...

In any case, I value your thoughts @kloakk, and I thank you for always being so generous with your knowledge and ideas. It's always a pleasure to learn from you.

I'll probably go back to using a scalpel after this, or even using a needle as @Cicadoidea suggested.

I'm going to work on doing very very small transfers as well, on the idea that the smaller the transfer the less the likelihood of transferring contam along with it.

Also I've experimented with CS. I have absolutely butured some plates, even the agar roofs not staying in place, but still the myc has grown,. I think my problem is trying to do 4 of them on one plate like the video in another post showed.

I do have some small glass coverslips, so I'll probably PC them when I do another round of agar. I'll individually wrap the coverslips so they should stay sterile.

---

I used a punch for a short time to see if I liked it, and maybe if I could get a punch that wasn't as thick as the one I have I might have kept using it as the cool down time would be less.

I do agree with DV8 though, this is a me problem, I have this small jar of 95% iso sitting in front of the FFU, after I sterilize my scalpel I rest it on the jar rim, working with more then one tool it easily gets crowded. I've been trying to find a small rack or something to hold several tools, but no luck yet.

My point being that using a punch has very different movement and work flow and in the end I just didn't feel it was worth it, the punch is also a one trick pony while my scalpel can do several. I am trying to do more aerial transfers these days and so far the scalpel is the best tools for that.

Growth is pretty uniform doing triangel wedge as well.






I do like what marxcelium is pointing out though, it's a good way to easily get consistent sized wedges for storage and sharing.

Using a tool even though it's not red hot anymore does not mean it's cool and that is another problem, like I said, one second in the induction heater does not make my tools red, but they are certainly sterile and hot enough to kill whatever comes near it, but for how long?

I believe I have killed a couple of aerial transfers because my blade was still hot so tools take some time to cool down.

Yeah, even though it is possible to do multiple cabins on one plate I don't do it, I'm a small scale grower and don't need to maximize everything. I have been doing glass slides for a long time, mostly because it's faster and easier to do, cover slips are usually very thin so I avoid those.

I might go back to doing agar roofs though as it seems the absolut best when it comes to taking aerial transfers, but I often fumble , just have to get good I suppose

---

Mychol said:

Many thanks for your thoughts! I'll forgo the punch unless I can think of a place to cool it without it getting contam, which I can't think of any place at the moment.

And dunking in 99% iso is definitely a no-no to cool it, right?

Thanks again man!

Mike

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I can't imagine anything living in 99% iso, so if you flame sterilize it first, maybe, but then you would have to wait while the iso evaporates and you might as well wait for it to cool.

If you really want to use a punch then cool it in the receiving plate and then do the transfer or use a plate just to cool the punch

Toe_Jam said:

Any tips for germinating old spores? Like 3-4 years.

How long should I wait before throwing in the towel?

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Soft plate--> Brf puck-->forced hydration-->Tween 20.

After a couple of months I would give up, but