boogerz said:
I believe brf cakes can be steam sterilized for 90 minutes. Just make sure you keep it boiling and steaming.
I just looked that up. Apparently it does work for BRF. :thumb_up:
downwardsfromzero said:
Good call on the grain/contam thing. I guess I was pretty lucky back then with my grow - the grain jars did contamn after about the fourth flush in the end. The syringes were produced (by me) with utmost care from very good prints, however - and all procedures were carried out in a rather nice SAB.
Many grows will contaminate by the fourth flush. As I understand it's due to the mycelium being exhausted and unable to fight off the contaminants. Sometimes I think even the third flush is not worth the effort due to the lower yield. And I'm not chasing yield since I already have more dried shrooms than I know what to do with. :lol:
To be clear, grains inoculated from syringes do work. It's just the contamination rate during colonization is higher than BRF. And I've read colonization can go okay but then the contaminants take hold after shaking the jars or spawning to bulk.
Shroombee, a little while ago one forum member (Espurr? DansMaTete?) pointed out that headspace really helps with success in a bulk fruiting chamber. It was believably claimed that using a good, tall box improved fruiting. What are your thoughts or experiences with regard to this?
I don't have any experiences comparing a shallow box to a tall box during the bulk colonization, pinning, and initial fruiting stages. But it's easy to test with shoebox tek by doing a dubtub: flip a shoebox over and put it on top of another shoebox instead of the regular lid, thus creating a tall tub. If desired, fasten with a couple strips of tape.
I dubtub my shoeboxes towards the end of the flush when the shrooms start to push the lid off the shoebox. When that happens, the shoebox is too open so humidity can drop too much and the shroom caps can crack. At least I think that's what's happening as there are multiple reasons for cracked caps. Enclosing the environment by dubtub prevents the cracking.
I've also read that unlatching the lid once the flush gets going helps the flush. The theory being that the extra air exchange promotes growth. That would tie in with the tall tub recommendation - there's more fresh air available. So I unlatch my shoeboxes once the flush gains some momentum.
That all being said, there are experienced folks at the Shroomery who feel basic shoebox is the way to go and there's no need to over-think it with dubtub or other variations. But if you like to tinker, shoebox tek gives you many independent experiments. In my experience, everything pretty much works within reason and there are no hard patterns to what works better. It's difficult to get repeatable results due to variables such as colonization temperature, humidity, multi-spore inoculations, age of the mycelium (if cloning), etc.
BTW, these experiences are only with cubensis. I haven't grown other species which I understand are more particular about their growing conditions.