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4taylor2made0
Stranger
Registered: 04/30/06
Posts: 12
Last seen: 17 years, 7 months
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size, growth, and casing inquiries
#5816693 - 07/03/06 04:47 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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ok so i do ALOT of reading on this site, pretty much daily, and for the most part, my questions get answered, but ive encountered several issues which i believe are postless (probly not, but i cant find em).
#1 i have just successfully fruited my first cakes, and the mushrooms i have are so small!! they average a dry weight of .1 to .2 grams, and look like twigs. im not sure whats causing it, and any input would help. the grow space is a little limited, but im not so confident that is solely the cause. (i do air them out 2-3 times a day and humidity is maintained at condensation on the walls with no dripping, optimal from what ive heard)
#2 some of my mushrooms are coming in contact with the perlite im utilizing for humidification purposes. the caps on these mushrooms get a sickly greenish tint, and id simply like to know if this is ok.
#3 i made alot of cakes, and decided to sacrafice 4 to experimenting with making a casing. i lined the bottom with perlite, put a layer of my casing material (jiffy mix with vermiculite) then the crumbled cakes and then more casing. i was waiting for the mycellium to penetrate the surface, but its not. for a while i was misting the casing daily, ive since ceased in case im overwatering. i tried incubating and cold shocking, both with no results. my casing smells a bit like alcohol, leading me to believe it was contamed, but i pulled up a corner of the casing, and the mycellium is nice and white, but growing fuzzily downwards! ive got no clue whats wrong, ive heard that having perlite in the casing mix (jiffy mix) is bad, but ive found nothing further on that. any input would be appreciated.
well, thank you for reading this. any answers or theories you might have would be great. this is my first time doing all of this, so maybe im just ignant. thanks alot guys, this site is great, i hope its around for ever. politics be damned. (GT prints comin soon!)
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creamcorn
mad scientist
Registered: 03/13/06
Posts: 2,962
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Re: size, growth, and casing inquiries [Re: 4taylor2made0]
#5816726 - 07/03/06 04:55 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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1) size depends on strain to an extent. some strains are bigger some are smaller. yields usually come close in the long run, you get lots of small ones or few large ones. size also depends hugely on moisture availability. make sure you're dunking your cakes before each flush, including the first, so that there's as much moisture already in the cake available. lastly size depends on overall substrate size. a half pint of substrate in a cake is easy and convenient, but doesn't really give your mushrooms much to draw water and nutrition from. if you make the step to casings (even if its just crumbling your cakes in a container) and have a larger overall mass that the mushrooms can grow from, you'll see some bigger ones.
2. its totally ok.
3. oh, you are making the step towards cases. but if your casing smells of anything other than mushrooms, it is unfortunately contaminated. could be bacterial, yeast, something fermenting in there even if it smells like alcohol... did you take any steps to sterilize your casing mix? it doesn't need to be "completely" sterilized, nuking it in the microwave is even sufficient to get enough of a reduction in contam load to allow your mycelium to easily take over. how thick was your casing layer? with 4 cakes you would probably want to opt for a rather thin casing layer, like 1/4" to 3/8" tops. overwatering may have also been your problem. mycelium can not colonize casing (or substrate for that matter) that is too wet. it can also become matted down from misting directly at it. next time you'll want to bring the moisture up to "field capacity" (where it barely drips if you squeeze it in your hands) and leave it be while you are incubating it during the casing colonization stage... begin misting only once you've moved on to fruiting. and a little bit of perlite in a casing mix is no problem either.
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djInfctdMushroom
Stranger
Registered: 06/26/06
Posts: 128
Loc: seattle WA
Last seen: 10 months, 30 days
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Re: size, growth, and casing inquiries [Re: creamcorn]
#5817136 - 07/03/06 06:53 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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cool
-------------------- po box'x and bowling alleys are a growers best freind No statements made in any post or message by any persons and/or parties should be constructed to concieve means or measures that I am now, or have ever been, involved in or considering participation or involvement in any activities in violation of any local, state, or federal laws. All posts are works of fiction and thats a fact. dunking tek video knock substrate tek video rye grain knock tek video i asian.. self explanitory right
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liamtheloser
Advanced Idiot
Registered: 06/07/06
Posts: 1,453
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actually, it sounds like you put perlite in your casing... as a bottom layer... bad idea in my opinion, the perlite will actually draw moisture from your substrate and pool down there, not to mention it's completely unneccessary. also, the alcohol smell is wierd, i'm not sure if it's a contam, but sounds like there's some sort of ketosis going on.
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4taylor2made0
Stranger
Registered: 04/30/06
Posts: 12
Last seen: 17 years, 7 months
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Re: size, growth, and casing inquiries [Re: liamtheloser]
#5820187 - 07/04/06 02:23 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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thanks guys. fyi i did sterilize my casing in the microwave. my failure was probly the combination of thick casing and over watering. maybe ill go a little simpler in my next casing attempt, just some crumbled cakes and vermiculite. pics to come soon (when i can find the cord that connects to my pc).
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kranked
it'smushtastic!!
Registered: 08/31/04
Posts: 106
Last seen: 16 years, 6 months
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Re: size, growth, and casing inquiries [Re: 4taylor2made0]
#5820195 - 07/04/06 02:26 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Concerning the size of your mushies, the amount of moisture left in the cake greatly affects size. How long did you dunk them for after birthing them?
-------------------- "When it went off in New Mexico, that first atomic bomb, we thought of Alfred Nobel and his hope, his vain hope, that dynamite would put an end to all war" -Robert Oppenheimer 1945
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4taylor2made0
Stranger
Registered: 04/30/06
Posts: 12
Last seen: 17 years, 7 months
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Re: size, growth, and casing inquiries [Re: kranked]
#5831970 - 07/07/06 02:32 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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i dunked and cold shocked them for 24 hours after birthing. i have recently been seeing some larger fruits, fewer in number of course, but they definitely took longer to mature. oddly each cake yielded either reaaaally small or huge, not alot in between. im beginning to dunk and shock the cakes that
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4taylor2made0
Stranger
Registered: 04/30/06
Posts: 12
Last seen: 17 years, 7 months
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Re: size, growth, and casing inquiries [Re: 4taylor2made0]
#5832011 - 07/07/06 02:43 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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flushed early. im also pondering trying to salvage and isolate my casing seeing as how well the mycellium is doing. thanks for all ur help guys. i have tons of spores now too. time for some FSRC donations. still no pics
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