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jonogt
Jon

Registered: 12/27/07
Posts: 104
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling?
#8265534 - 04/10/08 06:01 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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http://tinyurl.com/46ul7s I'm aware that the photo quality is shit, but it's the best my old camera can do with the weird contours of the glass. all three look too similar to one another to distinguish right now, especially in these photos, so the photos aren't of specific ones... just the three as a whole.
Started em on the 3/29, so about 12 days ago, using Magash's guide for ORB. #3 was pretty soggy and #1 and #2 seemed on the drier side... I filled one jar at a time, instead of filling them each equally as I went, so I'm guessing the berries at the bottom of the collander ended up in #3. I fucked up for the first few days and put them in incubation at 84-86F (thinking this was the correct temp) and I did not keep the Al foil over the tops. Soggy #3 started showing growth after 2-3 days but #1 and #2 weren't at all, and i was concerned that i'd gotten them too dry. On 4/1 I fixed the temp (now a steady 75-77), gave dry #1 and 2 a few more CCs of liquid culture, and put the aluminum foil back over all 3.
By the next day (4/2) #1 and #2 had visible growth from several points (probably from the original inoculation and I was just impatient), and all 3 were colonizing pretty steadily ... the soggy one that showed growth first had a head start, but the 2 drier ones were slightly gaining on it (since drier jars colonize quicker?), and I gave em their 30% shake on 4/5. The shake really helped #3 distribute the excess moisture, and that "liquid adhesion" appearance between the glass and berries near the bottom went almost completely away. They looked to recover well from the shake within 2 days, and then just got thicker pretty steadily.
I took the photos just before posting this (on 4/10). Some portion of almost every visible berry has growth on it in all 3 jars, and many of them are completely covered in robust white-as-snow fluffy mycelium. The main areas that arne't really colonized well are the surfaces of the berries that are up tight against the glass... is this expected? The myc is thick enough that I can't determine very well if new growth is happening on a daily basis. I'm pretty sure I misjudged the 30% mark and shook them a few days too early, don't you guys think? Live-n-learn I guess?
Could these jars be stalling? The pics might make them seem a little discolored, but thats just from my incandescent desk lamp. None of them have any signs of contams at all... nothing visible and no odor either. Just pure white and the color of the berries. Can jars stall for reasons other than contams? It seems like pics of them ive seen show a distinct portion of the substrate well colonized, while another distinct portion is barely or not colonized at all. My colonization is almost perfectly uniform throughout each jar.. just not complete. I'd say they are 75% right now. Can a jar even stall when this far along? I just got the impression that as they near completion, colonization gets faster and faster, and that isn't really happening for me.
Does the contents need to be completely white to be ready for casing? If a little grain color is still exposed, is it OK to go ahead and case if you are extra careful with sterility?
I can post additional photos and try to get em a little better if someone would like to take a closer look at something specific. It'd probably be more productive to tell me if there's something specific that I should look for though, since the camera just doesn't do well with the glass.
thanks -Jon
Edited by jonogt (04/10/08 06:03 PM)
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Nibin
Getting there



Registered: 11/29/05
Posts: 4,480
Last seen: 10 years, 9 months
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: jonogt]
#8265562 - 04/10/08 06:04 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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You can upload pics to your user account and post em here.
I can't answer as I don't click links to external sites from people I don't know (as do a few other people including RR)
-------------------- Newcomers guide-----> For all things shroomy
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jonogt
Jon

Registered: 12/27/07
Posts: 104
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: Nibin]
#8265965 - 04/10/08 07:26 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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thanx for the heads-up nibin. Here they are.....





again sorry for the truly pathetic quality. Hopefully with there being 5 different images, somebody can sorta triangulate in their mind what they look like in real life. Tomorrow I'm going to try to borrow a different camera to take better ones if these are just to bad to say anything about.
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Nibin
Getting there



Registered: 11/29/05
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: jonogt]
#8265980 - 04/10/08 07:30 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Time for the 90% shake.
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jonogt
Jon

Registered: 12/27/07
Posts: 104
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: Nibin]
#8266872 - 04/10/08 10:19 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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ya I was wondering if this makes it acceptable for a second shake. I don't think I've seen it mentioned in the TEKs. Is it just a circumstantial next step? How long should I expect for recovery from it?
thanks for the advice -Jon
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Nibin
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: jonogt]
#8268151 - 04/11/08 04:11 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Well the two shakes are at around 25% and 75% but you didn't give it a second shake at that stage so you might as well do it now.
-------------------- Newcomers guide-----> For all things shroomy
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jonogt
Jon

Registered: 12/27/07
Posts: 104
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: Nibin]
#8268192 - 04/11/08 04:39 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Well I'd say they were at about 75% when I shook em last night, so I guess I'm on target with that. I just can't understand why all the teks and stuff say only shake once only shake once only shake once. It just seems to be the absolute rule to proceed by. Are you just supposed to do a 2nd shake if they are slowing down like what I'm seeing, or do you always do it?
These would probably still be finishing in 2 weeks if I hadn't given em that 2nd shake... I had to bump em pretty good against my computer chair seat to break some of the clumps, but I think they're in good form now. I'm pretty sure to much moisture is again a part of this. The 4 I started this past saturday have somewhat less water, and they look like they're doing better.
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Nibin
Getting there



Registered: 11/29/05
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Last seen: 10 years, 9 months
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: jonogt]
#8268223 - 04/11/08 04:54 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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All the teks don't say that. All the ones I ever used said two shakes.
Where did you get your teks from?
Try the Rye Bitches Rye tek.
-------------------- Newcomers guide-----> For all things shroomy
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jonogt
Jon

Registered: 12/27/07
Posts: 104
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: How do my jars look? Are they possibly stalling? [Re: Nibin]
#8268307 - 04/11/08 06:10 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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I followed a tek by magash for preparing my jars, but it was not the BITCHES one. I don't remember off hand what it was called, but it was like pre-rinse until water is clear, soak 24-36 hrs, post-rinse thorouhly, simmer as long as you can while minimizing burst berries, shake dry to the touch, load jars, foil over the tops, PC for 60-90 minutes, and finally shake like mad while jars are still hot. I have another guys on hand too that's very similar but includes adding gypsum. Kinda nice to have 2 different ones at once so if there's a hole in your understanding of something then you have 2 reference pts.
Other than those (I have em printed off) I can't really name specific ones that I'm working off of. A lot of times I'm just browsing through search results for "rye grain tek" or "grain jar prep" etc. and I feel like I see only one shake on nearly all of them. Given how these are growing though, 2 shakes seems much more suitable anyway, so its nice to have a vet in this field (atleast more of one than me lol) give their approval.
I don't have a TiT incubator... I have this black "tough box" (i think its called) from home depot with a 2 part hinged lid, and it just has a little 4" desk fan from walmart in there that i leave running all the time, and I monitor the temp via a wired probe oven thermometer I have mounted on the wall next to it. The fan readily circulates the little bit of heat it puts out, keeping the inside of the box at 75-77 almost all the time. 78.5 is the highest i've seen it go when the ambient temp is high, and I just prop the lid open a bit and it fixes it.
Neither of those 2 teks i have discuss past the steps i mentioned, so I'm just kinda reading on here as I go and managing things as they come up. Man, if having sex for the first time had been as nerve-crunching as amatuer mycology, I probably woulda had a heart attack :-D
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