GROW LOG
Long time lurker and mad scientist, 1st time poster- hope it?s right the 1st time. {Posted for a friend).
Components of grow:
a) Desktop Hydrapod model, available from Mycotek
b) 1 pint wide mouth Kerr jars
c) filter disks
d) Alien Substrate Tek - Formula, updated version (It was the newer version listed on the alientek.iwarp.com site before it was taken down.)
e) 2 spore syringes- 1 PF?s Indian, 1 Gulf Coast from 3Mshroom (no longer available for purchase)
f) Pressure cooker
Background/experience of cultivator:
Logical is a long time reader and cultivator, who has had most experience with inert casing (vermiculite) and whole grains than any other method. He has been largely unsuccessful with cake cultures, and turned to casing early on. (He could never get a cake to fruit more than once, and had less than great results in general.) He prefers using Alien Tek Substrate when starting cakes- as it is nice to work with and also has had the best results with. He has used PF style substrates in the past, but does not like the flour component as compared to using whole grain (rice for Alien Tek). He prefers birdseed/millet to rye/wheat grain when using quart jars (wet spot is a constant issue). Logical has never used anything more than a plastic bin as a terrarium (and has used both plain perlite, perlite with a bubbler, and cool mist humidifier variations of the plastic bin terrarium). He has tried and failed at using bulk grains as spawn to castings/straw (lost every attempt to mold or lack of colonization). He makes his own syringes, does agar work when necessary/desirable, and has bought premade syringes from vendors a few times. He has no experience with anything but cubensis. He was intrigued enough to purchase a hydra-pod, as Logical has much less time lately for cultivation hobbies, and bought it primarily because of the "maintainance-free" aspect.
Notes on Substrate/Colonization:
Logical did not take photos of the jar colonization, but jars were made using UPDATED Alien Tek Formula (not the one listed on the Shroomery). Logical used the wide mouth Kerr type jars, so he was not able to fit as many cakes as had been prepared (only 8 would fit with enough room for fruiting). He assumes that thinner pint jars would mean more cakes possible in the pod, but had these so used them. Jars were covered with a dry verm layer, fitted with a filter disk, and pressure cooked for 30 minutes. Jars were then inoculated "open air" style, 4 pint jars per 10cc syringe.
Note on syringes:
Logical had older syringes from vendors that had not been used- the syringe from PF was about 6 to 9 months old, while the syringe from 3Mshroom was quite a bit older. (The 3Mshroom syringe was bought when he was still in business). He wanted to try "vendor products" only for this grow- no home syringe making.
Notes on Incubation:
Jars were incubated IN the hydrapod while it was running. This wasn?t done for any particular reason, except that Logical has found that filter disks without lids tend to dry the substrate. He hypothesized that the humid environment of the hydrapod would be suitable for filter disk incubation. He also wanted to run the pod empty to monitor rh and temperatures, as well as the general method and work of the pod. Jars were fully and overly colonized in 3-4 weeks, with the 3Mshroom cakes taking a little longer. Logical figured it was because of the age of the spores. Only one jar was lost to contamination (cobweb/black spore), likely because of the "open air" inoculation and not due to the spore solution. Every inoculation point was colonized.
Some of the bottom of the jars would not colonize. They were birthed when it was determined no more growth would occur (and one jar had a bit of green on the uncolonized part.) These parts were cut off. It was determined upon birth that the spots had become too moist for the mycelia to colonize the whole grains of rice and quinoa.
Logical was worried that the cakes may contaminate, since it "looked" like much of the bottom part of the cakes were too wet to be fully colonized in the jar. The lower eighth of the cakes were wispy compared to the vigorous growth on the rest of the cake. However, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that a day after the jars were birthed into the pod, the wispy/little colonized parts began to grow vigorously and eventually covered the parts he was concerned about. No further contamination has been spotted on any cake, even the cake that had a hint of green mold on one uncolonized spot.
Notes on Hydrapod:
The Hydrapod is run in the hands-off method it was bought for. It?s water content is checked every week, and runs almost silently. No add-ons were used (no water heater, no extra bubbler). No fanning, no misting, nothing is done to the pod that did not come in the box it was shipped in. This is intentional: it is possible that adding a larger or second bubbler may be necessary due to air exchange concerns noted below or that a higher temperature may have sped up colonization of jars. But Logical wanted to have a "control" run to see the results first, and tweak them afterwards. This is his 1st attempt with using the Hydra-pod. The temps ranged from 70 to 85, as the ambient temperature of the room controlled the pod?s temperature. It generally remained at 72 degrees so far.
Photos:
Here are the photos of the pinning cakes, birthed into the hydrapod approximately 1.5-2 weeks ago. Logical kept the rh in the pod very high the 1st several days in order to allow for the cakes to fully colonize, and reduced after they were done. They have been in "fruiting mode" for about 3-6 days now.
Some cakes look uneven on their tops- the result of cutting away uncolonized substrate that has grown over.
Top view of pod with top off. The 3 cakes with toothpicks inserted are the Gulf Coasts (lower right), the 4 without toothpicks are PF?s Indian. The Indians look larger than the Gulf Coasts, but the Gulf Coasts are more prolific and are fruiting very vigorously from all sides of the cakes.
Side view of pod: PF?s Indian on left, 3 Gulf Coasts on right. Mycelia has grown onto the toothpicks approximatly 1/2".
Another side view of pod, better angle. Easy to see the difference in strains: Indian fruits less but larger, Gulf Coasts fruit more but smaller. Time will tell the difference as they are just pins. It also may tell which "type" of strain is best suited for the pod- if the larger fruits do well in a somewhat close environment, and if the many fruits of the smaller strains will eventually mature into full specimens (and not abhort/be stunted because of their numbers.)
Macro shot of cake, up close. Gulf Coast strain. Many pins, a lot of potential. Too soon to tell what result, but Logical?s feeling is that few will abhort (and if they do, it is because of too many pins). But none so far on any cake.
Another macro shot of (another) cake. Indian strain. Logical noticed that the Indian cakes seem to pin more at the bottom half of the cake, where the Gulf Coast cakes tend to pin from all sides. And that the Indians are larger.
Top view of Indian cake, 2 broken veils. These 2 were harvested after the shot to avoid sporulation in the pod. Total wet weight was 32 grams, 15 & 17 respectively. Logical will try to keep a running tally on the harvest weight, for grow log purposes.
Final shot, Indian on left, 2 Gulf Coasts on right. (PLEASE NOTE EDITED CHANGE! Position was listed incorrectly - fixed 8/12/02.)
Comments on Grow So Far:
a) Logical would not use pint jars as they take too long to colonize as compared to 1/2 pints, and take up too much room in the pod in general (wide mouths). He believes this extra time was the reason why water was allowed to over saturate the bottom grains, slowing and halting full colonization. It could also have been the humid environment of the Hydra-pod. Instead, he would double-stack 1/2 pints using toothpicks, and take advantage of the height of the pod?s dome lid.
b) Unfortunately, the rh of the pod is too high. Notice in photos above, the mycelia growing on the stems of the mushrooms up from the cakes. The pod?s rh control has been opened fully, and still remains too high. On one of the 2 harvested, a crack on the top of the cap as well as a small crack in the side of the cap also tell Logical that it is likely that the rh is too high. (Logical also noticed today that a rosecomb has started on one cap, another hint that the humidity is too high). But- all in all the humidity is not a negative factor as the cakes are doing very well, and certainly better than any cakes Logical has every tried before.
c) Unfortunately as well, Logical believes that there is not enough air exchange within the pod. This is shown by the somewhat small caps of the mushrooms in relation to the size of the stems. This has only been the case in the Indian strain, as the Gulf Coasts have not come close to breaking any veils yet. But, from Logical?s experience, judging from the looks of the cakes now, many will have small caps in relation to the overall size. This also may be unique to the spore strain as well. Only when the Gulf Coasts have grown larger will it be fair to say that the air exchange is the small-cap culprit in the setup.
d) The number of pins concerns Logical: He has not had so many pins on a cake, EVER- so he is worried that they will result in possibly more abhorts. But, from his experience, he knows that this Gulf Coast strain has a propensity to produce many smaller pins on casing, so he will have to wait and see.
e) In using toothpicks to differentiate the strains, Logical figured he really liked inserting the toothpicks into the cakes right after birthing. They allow for easy handling of the cakes- no need to touch or bruise mycelia, just pick up and inspect cakes by their toothpicks! He hadn?t heard of this before, so wants to pass it on to other cakers.
f) The hydrapod is performing much as it was expected and hoped. It has been absolutely ignored (except for Logical?s curiousity!) and has really flourished. Once the log/grow has been completed, he may have more insight into what may be necessary in tweaks to his own setup, but doesn?t want to recommend anything until the grow is over.
g) Any questions about this log - please ask them in this post. Logical will try and update and answer questions about this log every few days, but has been quite busy lately (the reason he was interested in the pod in the 1st place), and will only check this post for questions.
Thanks all. Logical hopes this log will help some like he has been helped in the past by reading posts here.
Edited by concretefeet (02/07/05 06:44 AM)
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...great pics logical
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