I would be interested in getting people's unique success stories, (or failures for that matter) based on various methods of inoculation. Has anyone been worried...or believed they would probably get contaminations in their jars...but instead ended up lucky and surprised to not end up having any?
I am very worried because when I stuck my needle into the tapped over holes on my jars tonight....air sucked into the jars from having a vacuum....which I didnt expect.
I just inoculated my jars tonight using a rather haphazard method which was the best I could come up with based on my present living situation. This was my first attempt at making my own spore syringes...using brand new 20 gage needles from the local pharmacy......each one coming in their own steril wrapper. I used distilled water of course. The spore print was from a reputable source. But the glass slides that the print was in between cracked......long story. I used a plastic vitamin bottle which I had sprayed out with Lysol. But I didnt use any heat for anything since I didnt have much time to do all this in the kitchen, you see.....plus I felt everything was steril enough as it was. I simply stuck the freshly opened needle of the syringe right through through the plastic gallon (un-opened) carton of distilled water from Albertson's, and drew up the water that way. I then squirted it into the small bottle which had the spores in it...and did this a few times, before I put the cap on and shook it up real good. I used another freshly opened new needle to then draw out the darkened spore water....and immediatly injected it into the jars of whole rye berries....which I had previously pressure cooked and all...of course.
I have to go right now.....to see Laser Floyd with friends. I hope to recieve some feedback from knowledgable people. Thanks
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Surwin~
Quite the post/question. Well I think I can answer for a majority of the members; Yes I think everyone has been worried. Whether your a beginner or an experienced cultivator I think worry has struck you down in the midst of your progression. My first time I did the Brown Rice Flour 1/2 pint jars and used low quality verm. It became wet from the negative pressure in the PC and contaminations got in. Now, I use tyvek with micro pore tape. So far so good and have had a success rate in the 90. Right now it's 100% actually (don't mean to brag). I also have noted that wiping the needle in between inoculations helps a lot. Once I though I did an incredible job cleaning the area in which I inoculated. Bleached it, alchol-ed everything, Lysol'ed it, wore gloves, face mast, the whole bang. I was so sure everything was perfect, Wrong, contaminations got in.
However, the weirdest cultivation that I have done is when I forgot to really shake the syringes (just slipped my mind) and the jars ended up doing absolutely nothing. No contaminations, no mycelium.
Worry is natural, as you progress you will find methods and techniques that will reduce you worry. Whether that means making more for backup or using certain precautions. Your methods will evolve.
Best of luck,
Peace,
I.T.
-------------------- A man that comes to the door is never quite the same man who went out.
Freedom is something that dies unless it's used
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