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YahoKa said:
I'm a newb, so as always, bare with me =)

Out of 9 cakes, 3 are already colonized with mycelium. They are still in the dark, and have not pinned. The cakes have shrunk quite a lot after being colonized with mycelium, so I think they have perhaps lost water. I want some opinions on whether I should dunk the cake and then birth it (exposing to light, no cold shocking), or if I should expose them to light in the jars to initiate pinning?

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Meanoldman said:

Let them get some light and pin out before birthing. The original PF TEK says to do that, and I agree. I always let PF cakes get pins prior to birthing, and I get great results. Since you are new at this, fewer things can be muffed up if you let em pin before removing. Try dunk & roll after you get the regular TEK down a few times, not this time.

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Should the temp be dropped some to help initiate the invitro pinning or can they stay around incubating temp? (82f)

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I don't use an incubator. Room temps work fine, at least the room temps at my place. Let them cool down at night, mid to low 60's (at night only) is perfect in my experience for pin sets.

Shrinkage is 100% normal, it always happens to some degree. Nothing to be worried about.

You don't need to add any water (dunk) as the cakes still have all the water they started with. They don't lose water until they come out of the jars and start fruiting. After the first flush, they'll want to be rehydrated. Seriously, let them cool down at night, get some pins, then birth them. Don't try to add water to the cakes directly until after the first flush. If you do that, you will get good results this time. Next time play with the variables and see what happens.