I hope that some one can find this helpful. A lot of it is obvious but still things I failed to adhere to at some point.
Build a freaking glove box. Its not hard and its not expensive. This will save much headache.
Buy only from sponsors. Other places have no real way of being held accountable. You cant exactly contact them and say "hey these cubies you sold me aren't viable" whereas with the sponsors they are more than happy to help you with problems you might have had with your order.
Oust/Nutra Air is your friend. Use it religiously around your abode, especially if you live in a old musty apartment like me.
H2O2 can be awesome. It kills a lot of contams but doesn't kill myc. It will kill spores though. Also it will retard the growth of myc, giving contaminants a chance to grow. Its not a panacea but it is useful. Some people have suggested also Iodine or 5-%10% bleach solution for mushie bodies.
Buying Petris it totally worth it over the little 1/4 pint jars. You can get like 500 Petris for about $70 which is waaaaay cheaper than the jars and much easier to work with. Besides after you have had to clean out that many 1/4th pint jars from even just a couple sets of isolating thats a ridiculous pain in the ass.
If you are doing PF jars, don't get impatient, after they are fully colonized give them the extra week in the jars as many people suggest, they will be muuuuuuch better off.
Liquid cultures are NOT the answer to your n00b-sauce prayers. As RR has been preaching injecting spores into nutritious liquid solution is a horrible idea. If you want an LC go with one of the tried and true methods of making an LC from a healthy existing colony of myc, like from a grain or PF jar or even from a piece of agar.
You hear a lot about people saying to use 70% alcohol rather than the 90% alcohol. I never understood why until I read one of RR's posts talking about the way alcohol works as a sanitizer by tricking cells to absorb it based on its mixture with the water and then evaporate it out, killing it. Just go with 70%.
When people tell you NOT to remove the weight from your PC until its totally cool, listen to them. You will fuck up your moisture content in your jars if you pull it off and quickly depressurize the vessel while the jars still very hot and stay that way due to their thermal mass.
Label your shit, you wont regret taking the time to do so. You will regret being lazy.
Some tek's you will read assume a the user has a base level of knowledge sufficient to put the tek to use. If you are wanting to move up in the world to bigger and better things, do your homework. If there is something you don't understand in a tek, cross reference it with others till it makes sense. In fact, do a shit load of research until you have a firm grasp on what the next level is and what all it takes. This will save you time, money and much frustration.
Finally, ask questions this is a great community full of friendly people who are eager to help. There are rather few stupid questions and its kinda obvious as to what they are (IE: don't ask talk about selling/buying shrooms, don't ask things designed to piss people off)
Have fun.
-------------------- Looking to trade for: Wedges of: Golden Oyster, Pink Oyster, Shaggy Mane, Stropharia R. Prints of: Z strain, Treasure Coast, Exotics, Morels Have to trade: Wedges: Pearl Oyster, Wellington Oyster, Grey Oyster, Lion's Mane Prints: B+ Other stuff: Micro centrifuge tubes, Home made artisan bouillon in chicken and shellfish (lobster and shrimp), Homemade pecan smoked salt
Edited by Asric (06/06/08 09:34 AM)
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and use that nifty little search button.
before you ask a question, use the search function read 20 threads, then if you don't have your answer, read 20 more. if you still don't have the answer...then ask it.
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Totally agree. The search function will save you much time and heckling. There are also a lot of teks that arent in the cultivation part of the website but rather just posted here in the forums.
-------------------- Looking to trade for: Wedges of: Golden Oyster, Pink Oyster, Shaggy Mane, Stropharia R. Prints of: Z strain, Treasure Coast, Exotics, Morels Have to trade: Wedges: Pearl Oyster, Wellington Oyster, Grey Oyster, Lion's Mane Prints: B+ Other stuff: Micro centrifuge tubes, Home made artisan bouillon in chicken and shellfish (lobster and shrimp), Homemade pecan smoked salt
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