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OfflineParesthesia
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Registered: 07/02/08
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Breaking up maitake sawdust spawn
    #9365189 - 12/04/08 11:38 AM (15 years, 2 months ago)

About two weeks back I started a hen of the woods culture in two different spawn jars.  One was hard red winter wheat berries, and the other was a combination of wheat berries and sawdust.

The all grain jar started up some growth but it just sort of stalled out after a week or so.  I think my grains were too dry.

The sawdust jar colonized in a week.  I was stunned.  I tried shaking it as often as possible but it quickly formed a solid brick of mycelium.  No amount of banging could break things up!  Thankfully I used a wide mouthed jar, and I was able to get the chunk small enough to get it out of the jar without touching the spawn.

Once I got the spawn bag tied closed, I tried to break the chunk up by squeezing it through the bag.  No luck.  When they call maitake a "soft polypore," it's still a polypore.  It was like trying to mash a raw potato.  So I inverted the bag and distributed what I could through the sawdust, and I more or less buried the solid piece down inside the brick  before I pressed it into shape.  So far it seems quite happy, and its colonizing almost as quickly as the blue oyster blocks I made up.

So I'm thinking sawdust is definitely the way to go with maitake.  So how do I compensate for this species' agressive colonization and extremely tough mycelium?  I've considered adding more solid bits like gravel or tree bark, but I don't think that will help.  If there's no easy solution for this I may end up inoculating supplemented blocks directly with liquid culture.

Any suggestions, guys?


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"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

- T. S. Eliot

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Offlinedenger
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Registered: 09/19/08
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Re: Breaking up maitake sawdust spawn [Re: Paresthesia]
    #9365264 - 12/04/08 11:45 AM (15 years, 2 months ago)

LC would be a great way to go. If you use WBS, you should not have such issues either. I used WBS with maitake, and was able to shake it just fine. The key there is to not let it overgrow and let it bind up the substrate.
You can also wrap a table knife in foil(the all-metal, dull rounded kind), PC it and use the knife to break up the spawn. You have to be careful with your extra-clean, iso-washed hands, because when holding the knife you can shake off contaminants from your hand into the jar.

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Offlinesolumvita
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Re: Breaking up maitake sawdust spawn [Re: denger]
    #9365627 - 12/04/08 12:49 PM (15 years, 2 months ago)

I like the LC idea as well, especially if you were to form the supplemented blocks with a "well" in the center so that you could add the LC to it and then "plug" it with some more sterilized substrate.


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One of these days all the answers will be revealed until then we learn from each other!

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OfflineParesthesia
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Re: Breaking up maitake sawdust spawn [Re: solumvita]
    #9365724 - 12/04/08 01:06 PM (15 years, 2 months ago)

I have a big 60cc syringe but the needle is huge.  It's way too big to go through a silicone injection port.  I've tried.  It just tears them up.  Mom was right when she said 'If it don't fit, don't force it.'  If I used a standard 12cc or 20cc syringe, colonization would take a long time I think!

This may end up being a use for those twist lock polypropylene jars I have, since they're wider at the top.  Everything can just slide out.  I'd just plant the whole thing in a sawdust block.  Maitake sclerotia!

I really hope my block takes off.  Maitake is quickly becoming my favorite edible.  Even if I can't get it to fruit indoors, I'm sure it would be happy if I buried it outdoors somewhere.

So any ideas as to why my grain jar stalled out?  Should I inject some water into the jar?


--------------------
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

- T. S. Eliot

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Offlinesolumvita
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Registered: 02/12/08
Posts: 2,061
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Re: Breaking up maitake sawdust spawn [Re: Paresthesia]
    #9365830 - 12/04/08 01:32 PM (15 years, 2 months ago)

I have a similar problem and I was wondering if I could just inject some water or should i remove the grain and re-soak etc. The biggest fear with injecting water into a Pc'ed container is that if there happens to be one or two bacteria sitting in a dry spot and you add water, then you have automatic wet spot in that area?


--------------------
One of these days all the answers will be revealed until then we learn from each other!

www.mushrush.co.za

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