First Grow Log(B+ LC and PE PF style)

[Godly]

Hello all I've recently been growing a large number of plants and enthogens, so I decided to take up mushroom growing more specifically cubes (B+ and Penis Envy), Ps. Azurescen, and Ps. Cyanescen. Spores were ordered from hawkeye.

Currently this project is in the baby steps but so far six PE PF style jars were inoculated roughly four days ago. A LC of B+ was made today and placed in incubator along with PE.

Setup consist of PF style 1/2 pint jars with: Natural Organic Brown Rice Flour, Vermiculite(as casing), Mineral Water, Liquid worm castings,and Bee Pollen. They are inside single tub with a dry blanket heater underneath on low to make sure temperatures stay above low 70F's. Timer is set to go on and off every 30 minutes to regulate temperatures.

Temperature stays between 74-79F with minor fluxuation at night with temperature drop.

LC consisted of 600ml of water prediluated with 1.5tsp of dextrose and light dry malt. LC was made in a 1000mL jar.

More updates soon to come for now enjoy the exciting pictures....

 

[Perceptual Reality]

Nice ! Let us know how colonization goes.

I usually keep my jars in a homemade incubator made of 2 tubs, lots of water, and an aquarium heater....

I'm on my first grow, and I'm currently fruiting my PE in a small terrarium.


What do you plan to do for fruiting?


Happy growing !

 

[Godly]

I indeed shall! Ive been reading a lot of mixed views on even having an incubator which doesn't quite make sense to me but whatever works...works!

I plan on fruiting them in the incubator which I will change over to fruiting chamber when they colonize. It is a 56-quarts size tub with couple of holes drilled into it on the top that is covered by micropore tape to allow good gas exchange. In on of the holes a tube connected to my humidifier basically a makeshift one (1000ml jar filled on the bottom half with expanded clay and then covered with cotton ball type material as a filter then filled with water) with two holes on top of the jar. One leading to the fruiting chamber while the other leading to an air pump which will be supplying a constant clean humidified air to the chamber so less upkeep. Will be running pump 24/7 to give perfect 95%+ RO.

Chamber then will be filled about 4-5 inches of perlite that is pre-cleaned. Cakes will be first dunked for about 18-24hrs prior to first birthing then wrapped in casing of vermiculite. Placed in FC on top of lids and will be monitored until further results show/fruiting occurs.

Hopefully I am able to colonize the B+ and PE and fruit them both simultaneously. Going to only inoculate one jar of B+ when the LC is done just to make sure its good then will use that as the F1 and start a grand abundance of mush!

I wish us the best of luck on both of our endeavors on growing some massive dicks :d for our first time!

 

[Perceptual Reality]

Very nice ! Sounds like you've done your research

PE seems to take longer to fruit. I'm on the 2nd week of fruiting with only a couple of pins(but they look nice! )

Can't wait to see some pics of your FC setup!

Good luck !

 

[Godly]

Yeah I've been stalking or lurking the forums for quite a bit shroomery especially!

PE seems to take longer to fruit. I'm on the 2nd week of fruiting with only a couple of pins(but they look nice! Very happy )

Did they take longer to colonize the substrate aswell? I may be impatient but just seems four days is too long to not see much results from the mycelium but I shall wait longer.

 

[Godly]

4/14/12 Update

I think two of the jars may have been showing sign of containment. Very dark spots have appeared around where the mycellium is growing will be watching closely.

 

[Godly]

Update Sunnn'z 4/19/12.....ONE MORE DAY UNTILL 4/20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Perceptual Reality]

A couple of those are definitely contaminated..

Those first 2 or so look fine though.

Toss the contaminated jars out, don't even think twice !

 

[damon]

Toss the contaminated jars out, don't even think twice !

Yes, the green just makes me go eewwwwwwww every time I see it. But it's the bacteria smells that really make me go

 

[Godly]

Update 4/23
LC may have been contaminated Im not sure but it became very cloudy in one day basically over night.
B+ jar has already begun colonizing!

 

[SHroomtroll]

I think your jars look a little to moist, i always get wetspot crap when they look like that.

Try more werm next time maybe?

 

[Godly]

They are in an incubator that gets pretty warm it maybe from too much heat and water condensing on the inside?

 

[Perceptual Reality]

Try more werm next time maybe?

Did you mean "verm" ?

My jars usually look wet like that, and they colonize fine without any problems. For future reference, maybe try using less water when you're wetting your verm?

Regardless, it looks like you're on your way

May I make a suggestion though..?

Make casings! Cakes are a pain to take care of and they won't yield as much as casings. You can also turn one cake into 3 casings, but the wait is longer.

 

[Godly]

Is that just basically crumbling the cake up and spreading it out on manure or some sort of substrate?

 

[SnozzleBerry]

More like mixing it in or covering it with substrate, but yeah, essentially.

 

[Godly]

Ah Ive seen a lot of other mushroom growers use that technique especially the Chinese and shittake mushrooms. Do I need to do this under a flow hood or in very clean area or is the risk of contamination not that great?

So potentially I could just colonize other pf jars with just one fully colonized jar?

 

[SnozzleBerry]

Ah Ive seen a lot of other mushroom growers use that technique especially the Chinese and shittake mushrooms. Do I need to do this under a flow hood or in very clean area or is the risk of contamination not that great?

I don't use anything sterile when I spawn to bulk substrate (from grain jars) aside from the knife I use to make the first cuts of the cakes. I just cut up/crumble the cakes in their jars, pour them into their tub, pour pasteurized coir/verm/lime substrate over the crumbled cakes and then use my bare (but washed past the elbow) hands to mix everything together (and crumble the cakes further if they need it).

Then I sprinkle a thin layer of substrate over the top of the mix and let colonize for ~10-14 days before checking on it. If it's not fully colonized at that point, it goes back on the shelf to finish. If it is fully colonized, it goes in the humidity chamber or begins its life as a monotub in fruiting conditions.

When you're spawning to bulk sub, the mycelial network has already had time to grow and develop into a fairly hardy organism. This, combined with a substrate like coir's natural resistance to contamination means, imo, perfect sterile technique is not necessary for spawning. I've had success spawning grain to bulk substrate in some very dirty houses (9 people living in a house and not really cleaning, in one case) while working in open air and not taking any precautions beyond showering/washing my hands and arms (and sterilizing any utensil(s) I use) before starting.

So potentially I could just colonize other pf jars with just one fully colonized jar?

I don't think so. You can do grain to grain transfers if using grain jars instead of pf-style...but I've never heard of someone transferring from a pf jar to other pf jars. I don't know that it would work. For grain transfers, you want very sterile conditions. A flowhood is ideal, a glovebox may be serviceable but runs a significantly higher risk of contaminating your uncolonized jars. That being said, with proper attention to detail, there's no reason a glovebox can't be used for g2g transfers with minimal to no contamination issues.

I have seen threads on going pf to grain...but not pf to pf. Personally, I never bothered with pf so I don't know too much about it...seemed like a lot of time/effort for minimal returns. Grain is quite straightforward and I've always had excellent results with it.

 

[Perceptual Reality]

So potentially I could just colonize other pf jars with just one fully colonized jar?

I don't think so. You can do grain to grain transfers if using grain jars instead of pf-style...but I've never heard of someone transferring from a pf jar to other pf jars. I don't know that it would work.

I've had a friend cut a piece of a PF jar cake and put it in another PF jar with success. No contamination at all, but everything was very sterile.

I'm not too experienced with grains though, usually I just use verm+brf. But, I have had success crumbling 1 cake into pieces and dividing those pieces into 3 different casing containers. You just have to wait a couple extra weeks for the mycelium to colonize the casing, but it works. I plan on doing this instead of buying more spores or attempting to capture spores from my fruits( I have PE right now, so they don't really drop many spores anyway).

Try a couple of different methods out, and let us know how things go !

Do I need to do this under a flow hood or in very clean area or is the risk of contamination not that great?

Sterility is ideal. I'd find an area with minimal drafts and use a lot of lysol to keep mold at bay. Take the time to wash your hands thoroughly, use some disinfectant wash and wear clean clothes. Common sense is really important! ;D

 

[Godly]

Thanks for all the helpful information I will start doing monotub's with casing like this next time on a bigger scale project after I succeed in this one.

 

[SnozzleBerry]

use a lot of lysol to keep mold at bay.

Lysol is fine for surfaces, but remember, as it says on the can...it only does surfaces.