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jmg5
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Registered: 11/23/05
Posts: 635
Loc: miles above you
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cause of cobweb mold on straw?
#7218391 - 07/24/07 02:29 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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I have about a dozen straw trays nearing 100% colonization and have noticed cobweb mold on half of them. I've had this show up in a casing layer once before but never on a colonizing tray. This particular bale of straw was much dirtier than my last few but i've still gotten clean trays with it. could this have been a result of improper pasteurization?
I'm about to lay out some more trays so i'm hoping to find what I can do to prevent this from happening again. I pasteurize straw by heating some water to ~170 and letting the straw soak for about an hour. for these trays the bags of straw were accidently left to sit in the water for another hour and a half so the water had cooled significantly, usually the straw drains hot so maybe this was my problem, any advice would be awesome
peace
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DiabloSmurf
Shake it.. Shakeit.. sugaree!



Registered: 06/25/04
Posts: 1,177
Loc: Ohio
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Re: cause of cobweb mold on straw? [Re: jmg5]
#7218412 - 07/24/07 02:35 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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That could very well be you're problem.. You don't want the straw to sit in the water when it cools down. Just take it out and drain it.. Other then that.. Be as clean as possible.
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figgusfiddus
Arrogant Worm


Registered: 02/02/07
Posts: 2,126
Loc: Figgus, Fiddia
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Re: cause of cobweb mold on straw? [Re: jmg5]
#7218418 - 07/24/07 02:36 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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Well, as with any contaminant issue, you've got two possibilities:
A) Spores were pre-existing in the straw and were not pasteurized out.
1. Was the straw really heated to 170 for any length of time? You said you heated water up and put the straw in. Seems to me the addition of the straw would cool the water down significantly, as would poor insulation of your pasteurizing container. You need to keep monitoring the temperature (with your therm inside the straw, not just the water) to make sure it stays above 160 or so for the whole duration. Sometimes you have to add more hot water to keep the temperature stabilized at pasteurizing levels.
B) Spores were introduced after pasteurization.
1. Was the environment you prepared the trays in reasonably clean? 2. Did you over-pasteurize, making the straw susceptible to mold infection? (Doesn't sound like it.)
I think A is more likely, from your description.
You suggest the straw might have somehow been contaminated by leaving it to cool in water. There's no reason this would introduce new spores to the mix, so long as it stayed in its more-or-less sealed pasteurizing container. Spores can get on straw as easily dry as they can wet, anyway; this just doesn't seem like a realistic cause of your problem.
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Edited by figgusfiddus (07/24/07 02:38 PM)
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jmg5
deadicated



Registered: 11/23/05
Posts: 635
Loc: miles above you
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Re: cause of cobweb mold on straw? [Re: figgusfiddus]
#7218728 - 07/24/07 03:55 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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thanks for the input , usually I just dump the water over the straw (in a mesh bag) in a 5 gallon bucket once without fail but I think you're right maybe that time around it wasn't actually pasteurized
i'll add more hot water halfway through the hour and wil probably rinse what's left of this bale clean before using it again
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figgusfiddus
Arrogant Worm


Registered: 02/02/07
Posts: 2,126
Loc: Figgus, Fiddia
Last seen: 15 years, 4 months
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Re: cause of cobweb mold on straw? [Re: jmg5]
#7220122 - 07/24/07 09:37 PM (16 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah. Just keep taking temp measurements, make sure it's up in the proper range.
-------------------- FGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDS FGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDS FGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDSFGSFDS
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