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jungal jeull
you know itsgonna getstranger.....
Registered: 03/28/08
Posts: 6
Loc: between a rock and a nucl...
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
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more questions
#8286609 - 04/15/08 11:57 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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is about 81% humidity okay for an FC? if not, what are some things i could do to raise the level? this is my first experience, and two cakes have made their way, with few pins and a knot, dunked and rolled, into their new chamber. last night was their first in a new home, sans jar. temperature has been reading a hair over 70F. should this be fine or should i raise it? if so, any tips?
the lid of the box is three pieces of plexiglass, kinda situated as best as possible, not fitted extra well. obviously i realize a tighter seal around the top could be beneficial. may a sealed lid help raise humidity and temperature, possibly?
my cakes are on 3-4 inches of perlite. when i mist my chamber, should i be misting into the air, or should i shoot water onto the perlite? both? shoot water at the walls?
i have an 875 lumen 24" light bulb 6 inches from the top of the chamber. i have figured 12 hours of light from it per day should be okay. the chamber is near a window, and so if the light bulb is off, light can com in through the window and reach the cakes. should this be remedied?
obviously, contamination is a nasty happening i would love to avoid, yet with this being a new art for me, i am no master. i have heard fully colonized cakes are rather contam resistant..... is there anything i should be keeping an eye on while in the fruiting cycles? is opening the chamber for misting and fanning something which could lead to contams? it seems so, and i am wondering what i might do to lower(eliminate?) my chances of falling victim to nasty contams.
i have an aquarium bubbler pushing air into the chamber. should i be opening the lid to fan, or should the non sealed lid and bubbler be providing sufficient FAE? 3 times a day of fanning is what i plan to do.
i have a couple more questions, however they can wait... if any of you would write some helping words for me in this thread, i would deeply appreciate it.
be the champion you deserve to be
-------------------- ~reminding spatial irie flection, fractal fringes flared, withstanding passionate situation, love abound~
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amanitavirosa
absurdlyoptimistic
Registered: 04/07/08
Posts: 430
Loc: Cold places
Last seen: 14 years, 9 months
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81% RH is a tad low - you can up that by misting a bit more. That said though, a sudden drop in RH can be a great pinning trigger (in my experience). Just don't keep it low for too long!
Don't worry about sealing up your fruiting chamber too much - there needs to be air exchange somehow.
When you mist, you can mist into the air above the cakes without worry. Heck, you can even mist directly over the cakes without too much harm - just don't go over-kill.
What kind of light is it? Fluorescent? Regardless, you don't need the light on for 12h a day - you aren't growing phototrophic organisms.
Don't worry about contamination from misting - your healthy mycelia should be able to fight off most haphazard contaminants. I'm not saying be a slob about it though.
When you say aquarium bubbler, do you mean an air pump that is just blowing air inside the FC? If so, consider adding an air-stone and a small water tub to help boost your RH and fresh-air exchange at the same time.
.. ask away
-------------------- -AV-
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jungal jeull
you know itsgonna getstranger.....
Registered: 03/28/08
Posts: 6
Loc: between a rock and a nucl...
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
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the bulb is fluorescent, a 'sunshine', 'full spectrum' dealie. 5000K color temp.
other questions are about dunk and roll, and perlite vs. lava rock.
i knocked the 'dry' verm layer out of the top of the colonized jars, and attempted to add water. not much entered the jars, and only reached about half way to the bottom. i would like to know a more efficient way, a way to fully emerge the cakes into water. maybe birth the cake and then place it in a larger container, filled with water? is a 24 hour period in my refrigerator okay?
as for the roll.... should i use dry verm or wet? should i have a thick layer of the vermi? my cakes now are kinda spotty. i placed them on verm on foil on perlite, and sat some verm on top of the cake... in addition to the fairly covered side.
now, perlite vs. lava rock. does lava rock, the round red rocks, produce humidity like perlite? i realized last night, soaking and straining perlite, is MESSY. obviously lava rock would be less of a... mess. pros and cons to perlite vs lava rock, anyone?
AV, air-stone and water tub? keen me
-------------------- ~reminding spatial irie flection, fractal fringes flared, withstanding passionate situation, love abound~
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poof
Stranger
Registered: 08/07/07
Posts: 209
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
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what do you mean "not much entered the jars"? just fill the jar up with water and seal it.
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Nibin
Getting there
Registered: 11/29/05
Posts: 4,480
Last seen: 10 years, 10 months
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Dunking SHOULD be done after birthing the cakes unless you want to fruit in the jar.
Birth them, submerge in water for 24h in the fridge (to avoid bacterial bloom), roll in dry verm, place in FC and mist well.
Perlite vs Lava rock: Perlite works a lot better as it has more surface area for a given volume but yes, it is messier.
I can't comment on the airstone.
-------------------- Newcomers guide-----> For all things shroomy
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jungal jeull
you know itsgonna getstranger.....
Registered: 03/28/08
Posts: 6
Loc: between a rock and a nucl...
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
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Re: more questions [Re: Nibin]
#8289288 - 04/15/08 10:13 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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by 'not much entered jars' i mean visible water reached the halfway point of the jar. i assumed water could trickle all around down to the bottom, however, this wasnt the case. the cakes were kinda fat, i had to slam jars pretty hard to have cakes birth. obviously water only goes where it can. that is why i am thinking to birth the cake, place into a larger container, where the cakes can be fully surrounded by water. i see nothing wrong with this idea but again i am not a master at this however am trying to be.
also... another question:
what is the difference between a pin and a mushroom? are pins edible? should they be picked when i see they have stopped growing?
in my FC, since i have been gone today and came back, one small pin is now a body whose head is slightly larger than its torso, versus a smaller thing and a dot for a head. obviously it has grown in less than 24 hours in an FC, as its size had not changed in a few days in its jar. there are not many pins at all on my two cakes, very few. so, any advice as to tell if ill have aborts or shrooms? it seems to me if i have plenty of bodies, you can tell which ones stop growing from comparison... but like i say, as of now, i have the one looking large. (maybe a few others hiding i didnt really scope the cakes earlier just was stoked on the one lil phatty) so.... if i see it hasnt changed size in a few days, how should i know its an abort, versus realizing i need to alter some FC dynamics so as to not halt growth of otherwise healthy wouldbe mushrooms? and, if an abort happens, how long should it sit on the cake before it needs to be plucked? is there any bad which can come from an abort left clung too long?
-------------------- ~reminding spatial irie flection, fractal fringes flared, withstanding passionate situation, love abound~
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amanitavirosa
absurdlyoptimistic
Registered: 04/07/08
Posts: 430
Loc: Cold places
Last seen: 14 years, 9 months
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Ok, so here is the skinny on the air-stone: its a small block of sand (or other material) that has an inlet tube glued in it. You pump air through it to produce small air bubbles (as opposed to large ones by simply burping air into a container directly from a tube).
I'll quickly describe the setup starting at the aquarium air pump, ending at the fruiting chamber. Follow the path of the air in my description.
Start with your $5 aquarium air pump which is mounted a few feet above the ground to limit airborne contaminant aspiration.
The pump is now pushing air through small tubing that is passed through a small hole in the fruiting chamber wall. The tubing enters the fruiting chamber and is attached to an air-stone.
The air-stone is sitting in a small tub of water (recommend using a 2L pop-bottle cut half-way). The air diffuses through the air-stone and bubbles to the surface of the water tub, partially laden with moisture due to its (brief) exposure to the water.
The moist, fresh air is then released into your fruiting chamber, helping to increase the humidity and providing fresh air exchange.
-------------------- -AV-
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