oven bags work pretty well too..  you can probably ignore the measurements and such.. just take the procedure and whatnot.   could probably bring down the cooking time with a less dense amount being steamed.  hope you don't mind me quoting it in here..  if ya do, just let me know.

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Mixing the Substrate

I use two tubs. One larger than the other. I mix in the small one and the larger one is to catch any spillage and to keep things clean, but you can use whatever. I find it easier to hydrate the substrate  in a smaller tub too.



Now I use a bowl that is 3.5 L to measure out the HPoo  and Straw...



Two of those go into the tub (so about 7 L of Hpoo)...



Then about 3/4 of that of straw  (only once)..



Then I just eye out about three cups or so of verm . I used course here but you can use whatever grade... it's mainly for water retention. Here it is all together before mixing..



mixed before water added...



Now I add about a half gallon of water to that amount of dry substrate . I'm pasteurizing this in oven bags (in this case) so I want to have the mix slightly more saturated than field capacity  due to some evaporation during the Pasteurization  time..



Now I pour the water into the mixture and use my fist to press down on the mix. This forces the water into the dry substrate...



Now I break the pressed down substrate  up and repeat the pressing down with the fist until the water is evenly distributed. Here's what it looks like after multiple presses..



I usually use 6 mil polybags but not everyone has them so I'm doing this with my favorite things in the world, oven bags... turkey size...



Now this is important... I count how many handfuls it takes to put this amount into the oven bag.. In this case, it takes about 10 of these handfuls for the amount of substrate  we just made.. I'll tell you why we count in a bit..



Here we are half done...



Now repeat the same process with the same amount of substrate  and put it in the same oven bag with the first substrate  you made...




Now remember that it took about 20 handfuls to substrate  to make that amount... this is one bins worth of substrate  in a 54 qt (around that size) bin at a depth of about 4.5 inches.

Like I said, I'm using oven bags, but since they are going to be in 160 F. water for about 4.5 hours, they get weak so we're going to double bag them.



I like the steam method of pasteurizing because it's waaaay less messy and you don't leach any nutes out of the substrate.

I put this in cold water (so it all heats up evenly) with a large bowl of water on top of the bags of substrate  to keep it submerged. Now make sure you don't tie the bags off.. if you do this, steam will build up and make your bags really hard to keep under the water as they will expand.. just let the bag openings hang over the side of the pot... make sure they aren't going to melt or start on fire though..



heres two tubs worth going as the same time.. Like I said, I keep them at about 160 F. for 4.5 hours.. they are about as big as a turkey so they need to cook as long as a turkey...



after 4.5 hours I remove the inner bag holding the substrate  from the PC  and outer bag...



Then I take a clean knife and poke small holes all over the bag about every two inches to let the substrate  breathe while it cools... if you don't do this, you'll probably end up with bacteria infestation.. I've had it happen.



Then I just lay them on a cookie sheet to cool with the bag openings loosely folded over like so for about four to six hours.. I mix the bag up every-once-in-awhile so that the center doesn't stay too warm..

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xeallos said:
I use Akira's bulk steamer with poly bags. I was previously following RR's jar boiling which works really well but is too much work prepping and cleaning all those jars once you scale up to 20+ qts of sub per bin.

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RogerRabbit said:
You can also fruit in those synthetic laundry bags.  If the mesh is fine enough, the fruits form on the mesh, where they pick off completely clean, and the substrate stays on the other side of the bag.
RR

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evertime i see my laundry bag i think about trying that with oysters kinda like the luandry basket, nice you said somethin about it

akira's tek looks awsome i dident know if anyone else tryed it though

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RogerRabbit said:
You can also fruit in those synthetic laundry bags. If the mesh is fine enough, the fruits form on the mesh, where they pick off completely clean, and the substrate stays on the other side of the bag.
RR

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joshua m said:
When I used to grow for my substrate I would mix 75%coir pre moistened and 25% straw. Take a 5 gallon Paint Straining bag. I know sounds strange but they carry them in any home depot, Lowe's, fleet farm, etc. It is essentially a mesh bag that has tiny holes and is very sturdy. Take a 5gallon bucket put the paint straining bag and put it around the lip of the bucket it will fit nice and snug because the opening is elastic. Now add your substrate mix in to the bucket which is lined with the straining bag. fill to the top take a tie strap close the top. Now just pull the mesh bag out the 5 gallon bucket. Now i put it right in to my PC and use a candy thermometer and cook it at 175 on the dot for 3 hours. When your done remove the bag from the PC and set in the sink and it will drain right to field capacity for you. YEeea yeeea. Let cool for 4 hours cut the tie strap and it will fill a 25x17 inch bin 4inch's deep.


Now for casing simply mix it up to field capacity put in jars and use quart jars and can YES CAN THEM LIKE YOU WOULD WITH FOOD so obviously no holes in jars. PC at 15 for 60 min and let cool and it will self seal like the canner/pressure cooker is meant to do. I had casing that was one year old and I used it and it worked as good as the day I canned it. HMMmmmm go figure

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RogerRabbit said:
You can also fruit in those synthetic laundry bags. If the mesh is fine enough, the fruits form on the mesh, where they pick off completely clean, and the substrate stays on the other side of the bag.
RR

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