Experienced cultivators- let me pick your brain for fruiting techniques...!

[null24]

I finally have the space resources to play around with cultivating. I inoculated 10, one-pint mason jars with some golden teacher spores (from a friend's grow that he started from another friend's, and i plan to continuespreading them. We have a little spore ring going, lol) on 9/29. Today, 10/20, all 10 jars are 50-70% visibly colonized.

I noticed a small spot of greenish-ness on one last night, isolated it and cleaned them all with alcohol,except the lids, which I'm careful to not touch at all. I feel my clean technique is good, i did laundry, showered, and inoculated in a closet I've never used that i cleaned with surface cleaner and alcohol. Jars were all PCed. I did not use gloves as it was to difficult to manipulate the tape to cover the inoculation holes.

Okay...so that's some background exposition. I'm thinking these jars will be ready to fruit by mid November, a few weeks from now. I'm a total newb and honestly learning as i go.


My friend fruited his cakes by simply sliding them into the fruiting chamber vertically setting them on small foil squares, whatever that technique is called. It seems to me that the large area of the 1-pint cakes (as opposed to 1/2 pints) goes to waste.

I would like some experienced cultivator's tips that a beginner canuse to increase yield, avoid and deal with contam, how to mist, regulate temperature and light etc... if you have PRACTICABLE and PRACTICED tips, I'm all ears.

I have a clear tub that has been drilled as recommended, but am out to get the rest of my materials this weekend.

I understand about the proper temp ranges for cube fruiting and those that promote contam and want to find a good cheap way to maintain a good environment. My place is a little cold. My idea is to get a warm light bulb to place in the enclosed tub, and"wrap" it (in a safe manner) with Rubylith, a dark red acetate that is used in darkroom and screen printing applications to prevent exposure among other things, the idea being that the UV from the light would be mitigated through that and i could keep the temp up. I don't mind constant vigilance to keep it right-I'm a constant manager!- and will invest in a timer too.

What has worked for you to produce great yields?

 

[infinitynlove]

hi there

I wouldn't call myself an experienced cultivator any any stretch, but this is what I think would be best in your situation...

easy simple system if your using BRF cakes, brow rice flower cakes, if so after they are 100% leave them for another week to consolidate.

Then when you want to fruit them you dunk them under water, in a tub with a plate with a heavy weight on top to keep em submerged and put them in the fridge over night, then get your tub with holes in and layer at least 3" of wet perlite, ideally 5-6" deep, then what I find works is the classic, dunk and roll....

Dunk them over night, roll them in DRY vermiculite, and for cakes one make little trays out of foil and put some wet verm on them then place the cakes on the wet perlite in the foil tray, make sure there is a good layer of verm all over em and then spray them and the tub and walls, lid etc.

You need to fan them 3-5 times daily for a good min each time, waft em with the lid works, for the first 4-7 days until it starts to pin, keep spraying em when they dry out and make sure the humidity is close to 100%, do not expose them to direct sunlight, they become less potent.

have a small fan in the room but not pointed at the tub, ideally keep the temp at about 72f make sure you spray them daily and the walls and the lid etc, keep them moist but let the cakes dry before you wet them again, once you see pins you can cut back on the fanning, good air flow mainly induces pinning once pinning is over good airflow helps produce thicker stems.

Thats it, let consolidate, dunk over night, roll, put wet perlite in tub, make trays for cakes with wet verm liner, put cakes on trays and in tub, keep the tub 100% humid spraying several times daily, temp about 72f, indirect fan in room / space, time, done !

enjoy your fruits

peace inf

 

[benzyme]

what he said is good advice, tried and true.

however if the are green spots when the jars are not fully colonized, it may be trich, and it's generally best to just toss them. otherwise when you birth them, even if they are fully colonized, you'll find the trich spread throughout the inner-part of the cake.

it is common to see greenish-appearing bruising on the white mycelium itself, and that disappears after awhile.

 

[null24]

Right on thanks, these are the methods I'm a little familiar with through reading.

I've heard of folks shocking wood lovers o into pinset through applying ice to the ground since they fruit in cold weather. I've never heard of throwing cube cakes in the fridge- is this the same theory and will it work with warm weather cubes?

Also, i inoculated pint jars instead of half pints. They are halfway colonized after 30 days. Is this normal? They seem to be stalled.

I did some googling and found that they may benefit from being turned upside down to facilitate CO2 exchange. Hope this works, they are at 30 days today and still have 20-50% left to go. Not doing pints again.

I sacrificed a stalled jar that seemed to have a smell through the air hole and tape and it dores have a fruity smell.

I'm worried...

 

[Felnik]

I think its possible to do a simple bulk grow indoors.
A double tub or well filtered and moist single tub with clearance can work.
or even just all-in-one bags which don't have to be opened until harvest.

Simple is always best when contemplating any grow setup.

Inoculate pre-sterilized rye bags, its almost foolproof to avoid contamination. then colonize to bulk substrate in a tub.

a warm closet with a hepa filter can work.

bring the boxes outside for fanning try never to open a box indoors during
colonization. A well colonized box is pretty contamination resistant but try not to take chances.

a well ventilated box can do very well without being opened.
if misting is necessary bring it outside to open it.

its tricky but a doable proposition, yields can be very good.

 

[null24]

@Felnik=
I'd like to research these methods. A search on the terms in your post should provide some good working info?

I started completely ignorant, I'm learning as i go.

Unfortunately one thing I've learned is to not try to keep jars warm, or at least not too much. I've gotten some purple bacterial contam that from what I've read is extremely dangerous and that passed from jar to jar through the filter tape. Ugh. I had marked the jars with purple sharpie and thought that is what it was. Duh.

Tossed out all but two and they may have to go too. Didn't even keep the jars. Next time, half pints instead of full pint. They'd be in the fruiting chamber now had i done that.

Grrrr...

 

[sauSage]

or even just all-in-one bags which don't have to be opened until harvest.

I actually use bags, I have for years. I did it because at the time it seemed easier than learning a bulk method that involved a monotub. I love them for many reasons. If you get a contam you're not likely to lose the whole tub, you just lose one bag. They're completely self contained, I never open them to do anything. I might open and squeeze out the air on a whim, but it's certainly not necessary.

Plus growing in bags allows you to experiment with smaller grows.

The only down side is that it can be more work when harvesting. I often need to harvest from 30-40 bags at a time and it can get time consuming.

 

[sauSage]

Here's a shot of my current grow. Top shelf is in it's 4th and final flush, bottom was just put into fruiting on sunday.

Each bag will produce about 1.5-2 dry ounces. I use 1 lb of grain to 2lb of compost and it creates a brick about 3" thick. If I maintain a temp of 70ish the bags are fully colonized and ready to go in about 2.5 weeks.

Interesting note - the bag with the "X" on it I spawned from a bag of grain that had trich in it. When i busted the grain up to spawn I noticed it. Decided to spawn it anyway just to see what would happen. I did get a small patch of green for a few days, but the mycelium took it over and the block has been healthy since.

 

[benzyme]

If you get a contam you're not likely to lose the whole tub

IME, contam was never an issue in tubs, until after the final flushes (usually five or six cycles), when opportunistic molds
take over.