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 whyIdied
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Registered: 04/26/01
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 Top and Bottom Casing layer options?   1
#316538 - 05/13/01 09:02 PM (22 years, 11 months ago) |
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From what I have read, casing serves to provide water, a bit of nutrients and...helps the mushrooms fruit upwards(?)
First of all, is that correct/is there more?
What casing techniques work best for you? Top and Bottom? Vermiculite? Top only? etc...
I am interested in trying coconut fibers w/shell and lime. I might add a bit of vermiculite or perlite to this...I was thinking perlite for the bottom so that it redistributes what pools at the bottom, and then vermiculite for the top so that it doesn't dry out as quickly.
What is the BEST casing technique???
...slow moves, sweet feet...
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...slow moves, sweet feet...
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egolesss
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 Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: whyIdied]
#316652 - 05/14/01 01:05 AM (22 years, 11 months ago) |
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There is no "Best casing tek" but as a newbie I would say..Break up the cakes in a ziplock or baggie, case with no bottom layer and a max depth of 1" top layer verm only. Mist with 100% peroxide and don't fan till they pin................You will shroom......
Going crazy will drive you mad, but once you get there the rest is easy.....
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Going crazy will drive you mad, but once you get there the rest is easy....All spores are not created equal!!!!!!!!!!! Sporeworks, Hawkseye, PF, they are completely viable with very strong genetics.
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DarK_SavioR
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Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: whyIdied]
#316659 - 05/14/01 01:31 AM (22 years, 11 months ago) |
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I agree with egoless, there is no "best" casing technique. I'm gonna case with Jiffy-Mix (premixed vermiculite with peat moss and lime already added) the next time I grow and you can buy it premixed at wal-mart for a couple bucks a bag. Casing is a little harder to keep from contams but just be clean about everything and you should do fine. I've only cultivated two times, the second time I cased with pure vermiculite but instead of crumbling the cakes I just cut them in half by going straight down the middle. As a newbie I would suggest doing this because you get about twice the yield on the first couple flushes and that means you can just innoculate half of what you plan on innoculating and still come out with about the same amount of fun guys. Also, you won't have to use up all your spores and thats definately good if you're a first time grower and you need to get you a few spore prints. Another tip I would suggest, just in case, is to leave one cake out and grow it in a coke bottle or another container just so you can get a few shrooms to get prints from. If prints aren't a problem, don't bother.
Here's the tek talking about cutting the cakes in half instead of crumbling.
The Sea of Shrooms Tek
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Vitamin C chase, kill the taste. You can tell its nasty by the look on my face.
Ralphster44 & The FSR!
All thats stated above is for humor and a lie!!
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whyIdied
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Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: DarK_SavioR]
#316673 - 05/14/01 02:14 AM (22 years, 11 months ago) |
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Weeellll...Let me take my 'binkie' out of my mouth so that I can thank you for your effort...and then ask my question a bit more consisely:
In anyone's EXPERIENCED opinion, what casing techniques work best and why?
I have already succeded in casing a cake in Hawk's 50/50+ mix and have had NO problems, so I don't understand why all the responses I'm getting are telling me to dumb it down and cower in fear of the complexities of casing!
Right now, I'm still going to go with the coir/verm/lime/shell on top and coir/perlite/lime/shell on bottom. As I tried to explain above, this is me trying to combine the best of all teks and then ask for opinions on this idea. I don't see why....(steam from ears)...well, anyways, I was just hoping someone had done some experiments and logical thinking that I could benefit from. I read the tek suggested and have already tried it (thought it up myself 3 weeks ago). I've read Hawk's 50/50+ tek...is there ANYBODY OUT THERE?????
How is it that there are like 10 - 15 posts extoling the virtues of coir as the best casing material and then... (chokes on binkie and dies [again])
...slow moves, sweet feet...
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...slow moves, sweet feet...
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Taz
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Registered: 03/18/01
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Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: egolesss]
#316709 - 05/14/01 03:54 AM (22 years, 11 months ago) |
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no bottom casing layer? 1 inch top casing layer? mist with 100% peroxide? and don't fan till they pin? your joking right? I have never heard of this before. 100% peroxide is not good... 1 inch top layer is to thick. u should never go more than 1/2 inch on top. and you really should have a 1 inch layer on the bottom...
"Out of chaos...comes order...." AND THE FSR..
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"Most of the world's problems are caused by people taking things that do not belong to them..."
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egghead
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Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: whyIdied]
#316715 - 05/14/01 04:12 AM (22 years, 11 months ago) |
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whyld.. Sounds like you're experienced. Here's a little advice about the bottom layer, though.. It's really an option. The big problem w/ having a bottom layer is that it takes up too much room in the container. If you want to have good strong flushes, make sure your layer of substrate is 3" thick. The larger baking tins (what most folks prolly use) are not much deeper than that. So by the time you put the top & bottom casing layers on you end up with a 1 1/2" substrate thickness.
On coir.. Coir & verm fill the same role, so there's no point in mixing them. Coir makes a nice casing material because it holds its shape and moisture well. Jiffy Mix, on the other hand, gets matted from misting. The lime/shells are not necessary if you're using the Grow Brick brand of coir. If you have pH measuring capability, though, go for it.
Oh yea.. misting w/ 100% H2O2 would be disasterous.Edited by egghead on 05/14/01 06:14 AM.
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Where there's skill, there's a better way..
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petepetosa
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Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: egghead]
#316822 - 05/14/01 10:09 AM (22 years, 11 months ago) |
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Hey egghead, just what pH are we looking for? I never thought it was all that important I guess. Should be running acidic with all the peat moss that gets used in these projects....
Pete
Say what you mean
Mean what you say
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Say what you mean
Mean what you say
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whyIdied
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Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: Taz]
#318392 - 05/16/01 04:42 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thank you Taz and egghead. Have you heard of those polymer pellets that expand and contract with water content, keeping it at a nice, constant level of dampness?
I have been trying to get the balls up to try them out. I'm not that experienced...yet, but I am a quick learner. No, scratch that; I am obsessed with this and cannot help myself.
To the others who responded, I didn't mean to burn you, I just wanted some reasonable and informative responses and I've already read most of the shroomery's articals. There seem to be fewer casing teks out there than there are practiced techniques...
I've heard Vermiculite and Coir serve the same purpose, but sometimes wonder because it seems they have slightly different properties...anyways, I will omit the V from the top layer in my planning. It probably is excessive.
To reitterate the question: what is/are the purposses of the casing layer? To keep the top layer of myc. from drying out, I can deduce...but do casings add nutrients and stability to the M. networks? Or is that just more hoopla?
...slow moves, sweet feet...
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...slow moves, sweet feet...
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egghead
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Re: Top and Bottom Casing layer options? [Re: whyIdied]
#318394 - 05/16/01 04:58 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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pete.. Right, peat is decomposed plant material w/ pH around 4. The casing layer should be a neutral 7-7.5.
whyld.. The casing layer..
- protects the colonized substrate from drying out.
- provides a humid microclimate for primordia formation & development.
- provides a water resevior for the maturing fruit.
- supports growth of fructification enhancing microorganisms.
(pg 128/129 The Mushroom Cultivator)
* Contributor to the Free Spore Ring
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Where there's skill, there's a better way..
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