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monstermitch
Growing in Bags Doesn't Work


Registered: 02/10/06
Posts: 3,911
Loc: Arizona Bay
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: fastfred]
#5905005 - 07/27/06 11:16 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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by the way...
Ronco's are crap! so your system probably would have worked much better.
but whatever, I see your point and you see mine. so does everyone else.
all is good.
it is a good thing to have too many to fit into a nesco... so I own three. with a few dozen extra racks.
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Roadkill
Retired Shroomery Mod


Registered: 12/11/01
Posts: 22,674
Loc: Montana
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: fastfred]
#5905034 - 07/27/06 11:25 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
fastfred said:
> why don't you go to a thrift store and buy one.
For one, I only grow oysters now and I don't dry them. For another you seem to be missing the point. If I had 20 pounds of fresh mushrooms to dry I wouldn't even be able to get a quarter of them in an $80+ food dehydrator.
> use it and then come back and talk your trash about it.
I'm not trying to talk trash about food dehydrators, I'm just telling you a better way to do things. If you don't mind a small capacity, small height racks that make you pull the caps off the big ones, and a 5-10% potency loss from the heat drying then by all means use a food dehydrator. More power to you. It's certainly an easy solution. Some people probably are just too busy to spend time building a superior system.
The main point that I hope you get... Is that airflow dries BETTER than heat. That's why I'm not going to run out and get another dehydrator.
-FF
Some very good points...
not everyone does things the same way in this hobby...
lots of different things work!~
I prefer the American Harvest dehydrators... I pick them up at 2nd hand stores all the time.
I can even get extra racks from broken ones... for a fraction of the cost of new ones. Last month I got 4 racks and a spare lid for $2.00
I probably have 32 racks now... and several spare base units...in case one ever burns out.
I have given several dehydrators away to Shroomery friends over the years.
I will only buy them from 2nd hand stores... most of the time they look like they were never used!~
$2.00 to $7.99 seems to be the range they are in at the Thrift stores... sure beats paying full retail on them.
So go search those 2nd hand stores!~

tc
-------------------- Laterz, Road Who the hell you callin crazy? You wouldn't know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eating froot loops on your front porch! Brainiac said: PM the names with on there names, that means they have mushrooms for sale.
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76degrees
Apprentice

Registered: 06/08/06
Posts: 350
Loc: Middle Earth
Last seen: 17 years, 4 months
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If a food dehydrator uses heat to dry, then that's bad. It even says so in the PF Tek everyone should know. Cool drying is supposed to be optimal.
I use a box fan on top of a milk crate. And I use a mesh screen cut to the size of the fan to keep the mushrooms from falling into the it. The fan makes em nice and dry in about 12-24hrs. Then I put my babies inside a makeshift air tight desiccant chamber. The whole prcess takes about 48hrs to get em cracker dry depending on humidity. Of course, humidity is only a factor during the fan drying process. But most of you with A/C won't have that problem so 36-48hrs max should get you to cracker dry. 
It's a a cheap way to do it for those on a budget and plus it's easier to find another box fan in the most unlikely event one should break down on you.
And obviously Roadkill knows what he's talking about. I wonder if that food dehydrator he has uses heat to dry?
-------------------- The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.
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Tippinthru
contented

Registered: 04/07/05
Posts: 1,131
Loc: "The Garden"...
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: 76degrees]
#5905354 - 07/27/06 01:28 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Using a fan only.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to dry a mushroom below more than a few percent of the ambient Rh of the air blowing through a fan.
So, if your ambient Rh is 24%, you will have about 20% moisture remaining in the mushroom.
That is NOT cracker dry.
Most peep's who use a dehydrator, have one with adjustable temp settings. Most, set that between 95 & 100F.
Simply because, if you don't apply a few degrees of heat. (over the ambient air temp)
They will NOT get cracker dry.
Simple as that.
-------------------- Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time... [
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76degrees
Apprentice

Registered: 06/08/06
Posts: 350
Loc: Middle Earth
Last seen: 17 years, 4 months
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: Tippinthru]
#5905377 - 07/27/06 01:34 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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That's why you use a fan first to get most of the moisture out and then an air tight desiccant chamber. That way you don't have to worry about the heat from the dehydrator. This method is described in most begginner teks. I don't hink anyone is arguing a fan by itself could possibly get a shroom carcker dry unless the air was very dry to begin with - Lol!
-------------------- The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.
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monstermitch
Growing in Bags Doesn't Work


Registered: 02/10/06
Posts: 3,911
Loc: Arizona Bay
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Quote:
monstermitch said:
desiccants are messy, costly, and take time. food dehydrators dry cracker dry every time and with no mess.
plus they stack vertically and take up very little space.
yeah okay,
so you have this rather large box fan and rack setup. and on top of that...
you have to have tub after tub of desiccant chambers for your 20 pounds or whatever.
lots of space, lots of work, I have done it before.
each nesco with a top an bottom unit set at 97 each can hold 22 trays.
in those 22 trays, you can fit 10 fresh pounds, one dry.
I'd like to hear a valid argument on how using 97 degree air makes me lose potency.
you can't beat their effeciency in my opinion. have fun with your fans and dessicants folks.
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EquilibriuM
dream stalker

Registered: 07/17/05
Posts: 2,323
Last seen: 16 years, 7 months
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I paid $5 for my nesco
-------------------- HELP!!!!!!!!!
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Tippinthru
contented

Registered: 04/07/05
Posts: 1,131
Loc: "The Garden"...
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Again, I agree with MM.
Nesco, or similar are simple SET IT & FORGET IT operations.
Easy, cost effective & perfectly efficient.
You simply cannot beat that.
-------------------- Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time... [
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monstermitch
Growing in Bags Doesn't Work


Registered: 02/10/06
Posts: 3,911
Loc: Arizona Bay
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: Tippinthru]
#5905484 - 07/27/06 02:09 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: Tippinthru]
#5905538 - 07/27/06 02:26 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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> They will NOT get cracker dry.
Fan drying will get them cracker dry unless you live in a high humidity area.
It is quite possible to dry things to a moisture percentage below the RH.
The rate of drying is determined by the moisture content, the temperature, the relative humidity, air pressure (elevation), and the velocity of the air over the fruits.
In general the drying rate decreases with decreasing moisture content, increases with air temperature, decreases with increase in air humidity, increases with a decrease in air pressure, and increases with higher air velocity.
You can't dry to a lower moisture content than the EMC (Equilibrium Moisture Content) of your substance related to the temperature and humidity of the drying air. But that is not to say that you can't dry to a moisture content below the RH. That is wrong. The equations are too complex to get into here, but each material has its own entirely specific equilibrium moisture content.
For example milled rice has an EMC of 23.6% @ 100% RH @ 25C and an EMC of 11.5% @ 50% RH @ 25C. That means that even at 100% RH you can dry milled rice to a 23.6% moisture content. At 50% RH you can dry it to 11.5% moisture content.
The drying rate, not the final moisture content, is what is mainly affected by the RH.
Anyway you CAN get them cracker dry with fan drying unless you live in a high humidity area. Even if you do you can get the vast majority of moisture out of them and finish up with a desiccant.
-FF
Edited by fastfred (07/27/06 02:35 PM)
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: fastfred]
#5905558 - 07/27/06 02:32 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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> I'd like to hear a valid argument on how using 97 degree air makes me lose potency.
Based on the Arrhenius equation, for every 10C increase in temp you are doubling the rate of reaction. 97 degrees is more than 10C over room temp so you are doubling the decomposition rate of your actives. Your dehydrator isn't producing nearly the airflow of a boxfan, so you'll be lucky if you dry them in the same amount of time.
So if fan drying would lose 2.5% activity, you will be losing 5%. If fan drying would lose 5% then you're losing 10%.
-FF
Edited by fastfred (07/27/06 02:39 PM)
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toole
white-thumb (Onewhackmycophiliac)



Registered: 05/01/06
Posts: 500
Loc: spore #1203 - bas 2.34 - ...
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Quote:
monstermitch said: love these monkeys...
http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/?mid=12061102
Hahahah o man.
-------------------- -the adventures of suse and prescott.9- ..and the neverending triscut of doom !
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salami
Stranger
Registered: 06/02/09
Posts: 24
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: toole]
#10453024 - 06/04/09 10:49 AM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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My shrooms have gone black when they have dried...is this normal?
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Drewwyann
Slayer of ticks



Registered: 10/30/06
Posts: 4,077
Loc: Atlantis
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: salami]
#10453101 - 06/04/09 11:12 AM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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No, if your mushrooms turn black when they dry, they have gone to hell.
--------------------
 Anyone need a glass pipe? : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002435158931 Love powerfully  
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salami
Stranger
Registered: 06/02/09
Posts: 24
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: Drewwyann]
#10453152 - 06/04/09 11:26 AM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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bugger...this is how they are looking...


not black, just dark.
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OttoGenerated
Stranger

Registered: 02/23/09
Posts: 309
Last seen: 12 years, 3 months
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: salami]
#10453211 - 06/04/09 11:37 AM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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Please don't bump old threads.
It's hard to tell from your picture, but that doesn't look very much like bruising.
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salami
Stranger
Registered: 06/02/09
Posts: 24
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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It's not bruising, they have been dried. Checking if they are ok.
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OttoGenerated
Stranger

Registered: 02/23/09
Posts: 309
Last seen: 12 years, 3 months
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: salami]
#10453596 - 06/04/09 12:47 PM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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If it's not bruising, it's probably not a good thing that they're that color. You might want take a better photo, so that we can tell what's going on with them.
Also, if they smell or have any other signs of disease, you might want to make a post on the contamination forum.
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salami
Stranger
Registered: 06/02/09
Posts: 24
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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They don't smell or anything, they are just dry.

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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: drying my mushrooms... [Re: salami]
#10468957 - 06/08/09 12:39 AM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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Shitty drying job. Those are half rotten. Throw them out unless you're really hard up.
They should be OK, but they are definitely low quality. You're taking your chances with rotten shrooms. 99.98% chance they aren't rotted with anything harmful, but it's still a bummer.
-FF
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