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Self-healing injector ports

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Philosopher

Philosopher

Rising Star
Self healing injector ports seem like a good way to keep out contaminations, but do they deprive the mycelium of fresh air exchange? Are the self healing injection ports air tight? They seem that way. Some sites say the port helps colonization speed up by 30%. I'm just wondering what you think because I'm about to start a grow with many jars and I don't want to waste my time. Also any tips or tricks on things to add to the substrate of Golden Teachers, psilocybin cubensis, so far it's just BRF, verm, and spent coffee grounds.
 
You don’t use self healing injection ports alone, but rather along with another source of ventilation using something like medical tape or Tyvek to filter the air.

Fresh ports will be as airtight as you need them to be, after several uses they will become less airtight and need to be discarded.
 
you can achieve the same thing with tyvek paper and a drop of silicon sealant
over the whole after injection of spore solution.
 
Felnik said:
you can achieve the same thing with tyvek paper and a drop of silicon sealant
over the whole after injection of spore solution.
Click to expand...
The way I do it is by drilling two holes in the lid, one for ventilation, then another with a good dollop of high temp silicone sealant (for engines and the like) on the underside to make an injection port. I use a couple of layers of medical tape to filter the ventilation hole.

I think you may be able to use normal bathroom/kitchen sealant but I opted for the car stuff as it advertises itself as being able to withstand high temperatures.
 
It really sucks to use self healing injector ports (blops of rtv silicone) without any filter. Tried that once with liquid culture jars. While the LQ grew no problem, there was a nasty pressure buildup in the jar, making it hard to suck out lq...
 
For LC you can use two ports and use a second sterile syringe with polyfil as an equalizer. This is good for injecting the spores as well as taking out the LC. Using a different kind of filter in my experience doesn't work well because you end up getting the filter wet which can give way to contaminants entering. After all, the LC you want to shake up now and then to break the myc up and speed up growth.

There's no pressure build-up in the jar as far as I know - just that when you are sucking out liquid you are reducing the volume of the liquid and the air pressure is thus reduced inside the jar. The pressure you then feel you have to fight against is the difference between atmospheric pressure and the now lower pressure in the jar. Plus, chances are that if you closed the lid of the glass while it was warm - just after sterilization - you will already have low pressure in there, so if you insert a spore syringe without an equalizer it will suck the whole syringe dry... If there was pressure build-UP in the jar it would be easy to suck stuff out, no?

Silicone works well but I wouldn't reuse it more than twice. The PC overheats it a bit and it gets gooey after a while, at least that's my experience. Putting on a new drop after a round of nice growth isn't much of an effort to make sure... Also make sure the silicone is dry before you PC it, otherwise it will not work.

I really really liked the rubber ports you can buy though, they look and feel alot cleaner and more professional. But they are definitely not necessary.
 
I have used medical tape on several batches of LC with no contaimination issues so far. I thought of using other techniques initially but it seems to have worked fine.
 
I've used SHIPs for years now without issues. From ships on tyvek for wbs jars to ships on my lc lids. Completely possible and fully functional.
 
Just get some syringe filters and aspirate with an empty sterile syringe.

I see mentions of tyvek here. Tyvek isn't a good idea to let LC breathe, as it will wet through and could invite contamination.

Enoon said:
Silicone works well but I wouldn't reuse it more than twice. The PC overheats it a bit and it gets gooey after a while, at least that's my experience.
Click to expand...

Using high temp red RTV silicone should mitigate this. It's also known as gasket maker.

Personally though, I've never even aspirated my LC whatsoever. I leave a third of the jar empty and give it a shake every day. Never had a problem with growth.
 
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