first grow problems

[mr.smiley]

This is my first grow. So far its gone both good and bad. Pictures to follow.
I think it mite have been my inoculant. Considering the condition of the jars has been the same across the board. I usedtwo different syringes. Roughly one half has grown unhindered. A second half has been rough though. Took a long time for it to start colonizing. And then abruptly stoped at eather half the jar or 1/3of the jar. There has been no contaminations. The first 3 days they were colder than recomended temp. Not colder than a fridge. This all makes me think that mabeyone of the shots was old or had bad spores mabey? Any answers and any/all advice on how to fix this would be greatly apreceated.

 

[SynKyd]

Assuming you have a proper lid And filter (verm layer), you can lose the foil after inoculation. It can hinder gas exchange necessary for colonization.

 

[concombres]

Micropore tape over the holes on the lid & don't give up if you don't see results the first go.

It took me a few grows to produce decent quality cubensis but once you get the hang of it & get a good method you'll be glad you did.

 

[ॐ]

I'm also thinking it's mostly due to too little air exchange because of the foil.
Other things to consider:
- What temperature are you incubating the jars in? You want Temps in the range of 70-78f. Are you using any kind of heater? If so, make sure there is no direct heat that can dry out the cake.
- How many cc's of spore solution did you use? Too much could have an adverse effect.

4 cc:s is way too much spore solution for a single jar, whatever the size. Too many spores in one jar is counterproductive: the more spores you introduce to a single substrate, the more dikaryons will develop, and the more dikaryons the higher chance that some of them are incompatible and thus cannot join to become a single organism. Then you will have several dominant strains living in the same substrate, with none of them getting the full benefit of the nutrition contained in the substrate.

1-1.5cc of clear spore solution (if you can see spores in your spore solution, you need to dilute it) is enough for any jar. Adding more spores will not speed up colonization.

- Did you wait for the pressure cooked jars and flame sterilized needle to cool down prior to incubating?

Still, I also suppose it's most likely an air exchange and/or temperature issue.

 

[pitubo]

It is difficult to say much about the jars based on the photos. They appear a little too unfocused. However, the initial grow looks okay, suggesting that the spore syringe was good. I'd guess that the mycellium is oxygen starved. Do your jars have holes with some kind of filtering medium installed?

 

[mr.smiley]

I will need to go out and by that special tape. The temputureis roughly 24 to 28 degrees celcius. When it was towards 28 degrees celcius i saw much faster growth in the jars that did grow. It is hotter at the bottem of the container as im using a heating pad. I cant utilize a space heater atm, so that option is out. I used roughly 1.25cc's of solution per jar.

 

[pitubo]

28 degrees celcius is too much. The inside of the jars will go hotter as the mycellium produces heat itself.

Direct contact with a heating device is also bad, because these will go much hotter than the thermostat set temperature. The thermostat set temperature is the switch on temperature for the heating device. The device itself will generally heat up much hotter.

As a filtering material for holes in the jar lids you can use synthetic fibers, also called polyfill. If the top of the jar is fully colonized, you may be able to get away with unsealing the lid, creating a miniscule air gap between jar and lid.

 

[mr.smiley]

The temp is read by an independent thermostat inside the container where the jars are held not connected to the actual heating device. Ill look up pollyfill as after I looked into porus tape I found most people were against it. And the avg temp is lower now since we moved apartments, the surrounding air is colder here. More in the 24 25 range now.
Thanks for the input.

 

[mr.smiley]

Is this mold? It is dark yellow. Like brown and yellow mixed. I was thinking it could just be cause of water but once removed from the jar it was still a pretty prominent mark.