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 ShroomNewb
enthusiast
Registered: 11/08/01
Posts: 230
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
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 Failure 
#482454 - 12/06/01 08:51 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Hrmm, like 9 of my jars were lost to contams :(
1 with greemold and that red stuff. The rest with some wierd black looking contam. Oh, and the ones with the black contam are the worst smelling thing I have ever smelled.
I made some honeywater, but you people say it is hard to tell weather it is contaminated or not. Any hints on telling?
I bought a pressure cooker, and how long should I have cooked my jars? The mixture is BRF, and vermiculite in half pint jars. I cooked em for like 30 minutes at 15 psi.
And that old timers straw tek, I was wondering if I could subsitute the straw for anything else?
Thanks in advance.
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ShroomNewb
enthusiast
Registered: 11/08/01
Posts: 230
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
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Anyone?
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Necron99
Protect youreyes from flyingsugar!
Registered: 09/07/01
Posts: 735
Loc: SATx
Last seen: 12 years, 1 month
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PC for at least 1 hour at 15 psi.
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"Puny earthlings do not yet know the meaning of the word suffering!!"
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Catzeye
member
Registered: 10/24/01
Posts: 168
Loc: The South
Last seen: 22 years, 1 month
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Sorry dude! That sucks! Pressure cook for 45 minutes at 15 psi then let them cool for at least 5 hours. They cool quicker if you tip the steam dongle and let the steam out after you're done.
I think a lot of people get contamination because of poor sterility in their work environment.
Aseptic technique is essential for growing mycelium and inoculating jars. I would suggest cleaning your kitchen from head to toe with bleach water then hose the whole thing down with lysol or Clorox disenfectant spray. I find the clorox spray lasts longe and costs less than Lysol. Also, you really need to create an updraft with heat. I've used the oven tek sucessfully many times. You might also want to invest in a bunsen burner so you can flame the hell out of everything. Flame, then cool down with alcohol swabs. Of course you should have clean hygene. Wear gloves and a particle mask at all times and clean the gloves with alcohol or disenfectant spray. If you're getting lots of mold then the most likely culprit is the bathroom. Mold grows all over bathrooms, especially in showers. Clean it with some kind of mold spray and continually spray a disenfectant spray in the bathroom at all times. To me, keeping everything clean is the hardest part. I tried that honey water tek and it sucked. Well, correction, I used malt extract for making spore juice. I thought it would spead up mycelial growth once I inoculated my jars. Wrong! It slowed them down by at least 5-6 days. Just make your spore juice with distilled water, it's safer for a newbie. A lot of people swear by Agar teks but I've never tried them and got excellent results from just plain old spore juice. Good luck!
Catzeye
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~It is Green, It Is AquaMarine~
It is Colors I have Never Seen.
I can See Past You
To the White Sands.
Stevie Nicks
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 puscle
genius of love
Registered: 01/06/01
Posts: 4,539
Loc: NY
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45 minutes should do it. Don't let the steam out! Let them cool in the pc, about 5 hours. What are you using to inoculate? That honey water? You need fresh, store bought syringes.
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ShroomNewb
enthusiast
Registered: 11/08/01
Posts: 230
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
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Re: Failure [Re: Catzeye]
#482937 - 12/07/01 10:11 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Wow, thanks for the reply.
Few more questions.
Should I pressure cook my already cooked jars for another 30 minutes? (I cooked em for a lil less than 30 mins yesterday)
And my honey water was microwaved for like 12 minutes(I have no patience) I suspose I will just use it on 3 or so jars to see if its contaminated.
I don't want to buy a bunsen burner at the moment since I have already spent several hundreds of dollars. Would a propane plumbing torch work? Haha. Or would rubbing alcohol be suficient?
Why fresh needles? I have one that I have already used.
Could I not just clean it, or pressure cook it?
Thanks dude ;)
Edited by ShroomNewb (12/07/01 10:13 AM)
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NewbieShroomer
member
Registered: 10/01/01
Posts: 199
Loc: San Diego California Baby...
Last seen: 23 years, 3 months
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Wrote a new tek just for you :)
NewbieShroomers EZ FoolProof innoculation Tek.
If you are like me, you do not wanna spend hours and hours cleaning
to just to innoculate your damn jars. I have been using this EZ tek
for a while now and every jar takes off clean. It takes no time
at all to set up. Oh, nothing in here is original, but it's the way
I DO these things.
You will need:
Oven
Lysol
A viable Syringe
Rubbing aclohol
PURE cotton pads
Disinfectant wipes ( WITHOUT BLEACH )
Latex Goves ( unpowdered )
A lighter
A ShotGlass
Something to sit on while you innoculate.
And thats it!!!
Assuming you are using a tek that involves foil, do not bother with any tape, any " Magic discs " or silmilar crap. You don't need tape or disks, unless you are EXTREMELY unsterile or live in an EXTREMELY unsterile enviroment.
First, Before pressure cooking your jars, put the foil on the prepared jar.
Make sure it's around down around an inch below the top of the lid. Form fit it to the lid and rub your finger over the nail holes. you should see visible depressions in the foil so now you know where the nail holes are WITHOUT taking off the foil. These will be your innoculation points and innoculation is done THRU the foil.
Pressure cook for about an hour at 15 psi. don't forget to put a towel or a rack down. Don't wanna dry your jars out. Let cool overnight. Do not touch the PC again after you turn the oven off. You probably wanna get to it and cool your jars quickly, but why risk your spore juice? Why risk all the work putting your jars together?? So JUST WAIT. If you have a job, or school, it's perfect, PC in the evening, you are innoculating the next evening.
Now the Fun Part! My Flavorite at least! Turn the oven on to 200 degrees, then, start gathering your materials. You need to make an alcohol lamp, so simple take a few cotton balls, set them lightly in the shot glass, fill the shot glass halfway with the alcohol.
Spray some lysol on the counter, all over the kitchen, put your crap down, open the oven ( leave it on low ) and go take a shower, be sure to use soap and brush your teeth. Gargling won't hurt either.
You are out of the shower now, waves of soft warm heat are coming from the oven,
you are ready. Take the jars out of the pc and set on oven door about 3 to four inches back, if you have a lot, make two rows.
On the left or right top corner of the oven, set the alcohol lamp, a wipe, your syringe, your lighter, thats all you need. We are going to be FANATICAL about out needle sterilization. This will stop contams from going jar to jar thru the needle. This is the part it is said when it is easiest to contam your jars.
Time to put on the gloves, spray the gloves with lysol after they are on, rub the can down with lysol soaked gloves, then spray the gloves again. Wait till
gloves dry ( less than a minute ) Light the lamp, and here we go!
Between innoculting EACH hole ( NOT each jar, but each hole ) we will be flaming the needle, NOT red hot, but you will hear a satisfying sizzle and then wiping on the disinfectant pad, hold the pad over the needle until it cools, and right before innoculation. this lessens the chance that contams will land on the needle. You will be piercing the foil with the needle, DO NOT take the foil off at any point, there is no need. After however many holes you choose to innoculate are done, simple TWIST the foil an inch to the right. The holes in the foil no longer match up with the holes in the jar.
Do this with EACH jar and you should not have any contam probs, and even if you do, you are not likely to lose a whole batch. This tek looks long, but it is oh-so-simple after you have it down... I hope this tek helps someone, it sure has helped me! :0) Questions? Email Me at PoolFiend@Hotmail.com
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If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me.
Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
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http://www.Mycotopia.net
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XAZIA
glitter goddess
Registered: 08/22/01
Posts: 678
Loc: oklahoma
Last seen: 22 years, 6 months
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hundreds of dollars on what???
if you are having that big of a contam prob maybe construction of a glovebox would be in order. at least then you could eliminate the possiblity of environmental cotams and narrow it down to syringe or sterilization tech/time. i would bet though if you only pced these jars for less than 30 minutes that you didi the same for the first batch and your prob with contam stemmed from insufficient sterilization of your substrate and jars. theorectically only a dirty syringe or non-sterile jars/substrate would ruin a WHOLE batch. enviromental contams (floaties in the air) should not have gotten in EVERY single jar.
good luck!!
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"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."
Bob Marley
Remember, EGOISM is the beginning, the source, and the root of EVIL!
http://www.fanaticus.com/pf-tek.htm
http://www.mycotopia.net/teks/hongus.html
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