My first class with the golden teacher

[canndo]

of course your allowed to post pics on my thread. hit me up if you need help building a list of shit to get.

as far as the pressure cooker goes make sure you inspect the rubber seal if your buying used. if its dried out at all dont buy it. The reason i suggest just buying new is it will last much longer than a used one and it is much safer. you have kids and shit running around and the last think you need is the lid blowing off of a superheated pressure cooker and potentially burning yourself or someone in the house. they can be dangerous so just buy wisely and dont grab the cheapest pos you find. remember that items at second hand stores dont always make it there because someone needed money, alot of shit people sell to them places is junk that "looks" like its in ok condition.

be safe man.

I had a 32 qt cooker "explode" on me - at 15 lbs my wife opted to move the cooker and she accidently snapped off the emergency pressure release valve. It was my fault not hers (as I continued to tell her). I should replace the gaskets and seals every two years but I didn't. The seal became brittle and blew under maximum pressure - the cooker had more than 5 inches of water in it as well.


THAT was one of the most frightenig things I have encountered. If my wife had had her hand or arm over the vent she would have gotten 3rd degree burns over 5 or 6 percent of her body. The steam stream hit the ceiling and condensed instantly into a virtual rain storm. The floor of my kitchen and my dining room had 1/8th to 1/4 inch of water all over it (or so it seemed). there was no water left in the pot - the bags had all exploded leaving smeary kernels everywhere.

Be aware that if a pressure cooker has been over heated or if it has been dropped it is possible that microfractures can have been introduced into the aluminum and you may get a failure at below 15 lb. If that happens you WILL have a bomb going off in your kitchen. If the vessel is in good shape, either your weight (or spring assembly) will give way and you will get a directed stream of super heated steam - but it will be directed upward. If for some reason the weight vent is blocked then the relief valve will blow and you will still have only a directed stream but if the vessel fails, even at below 15 lbs, you will be very very sorry.

I now replace all seals and vents every year (of course between canning and mushroom stuff and micropropagation stuff I have my big cookers go many many hours)..


Be careful, be reasonable, and don't be afraid of spending a few extra dollars on your most essential tools.

 

[canndo]

i wont be doing anything that advanced yet. need to get one grow under my belt first.

I have never really ate mushrooms before so im kinda excited to try em out. will prob start off with maybe 1-2g my first time. i dont want a full blown trip just a taste to see what its like. what do you guys think?

That is a very big question. you will only have your first mushroom experience once. you can either dip your foot in the pool to check the temperature or you can dive in.


I am a diver, but not everyone is. Consider your alternatives carefully before you decide. The down side of taking too little is that you can actually have a bad experience. The down side of taking a larger dose is that you can..... have a bad experience. It has been my understanding however that the mushroom takes exception to those who grow their own and will more likely than not bestow upon the larger dose taker - a more profound and wonderful experience. Were I you, I would look toward 3 grams dry, perhaps a tiny bit more.


But again that is me, with the benefit of hindsight.

 

[canndo]

Hey guys what's the difference between spawn bags and jars? or there's non just the bags are bigger?

I use jars only for experimental purposes, all of my bulk grows involve bags - I love bags. However, unless you are purchasing bags from a third party, you have to learn the art of pressure cooking bags - and it isn't always easy.

 

[canndo]

so far from what i understand the jars need to be dumped into a fruiting chamber and then cased. the bags come already cased and once full inoculated you just open the bag and fruit right in the bag.

i personally like the way the bags look, they have a neophrene injection site which looks pretty sweet.

[video=youtube;kcim7YBITn0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcim7YBITn0[/video]

No no no, that will defeat the process of casing - AND the process of shaking your spawn or substrate.

 

[canndo]

different substrates. but no difference really you could make a bag of anything or a jar of anything the size is the main difference, but really when it comes to bags you want something that is gonna form like a cake, jars are better for grain cause it supports the grain and keeps it stable while the mycelium grows around it.

Not quite, you can easily knead your bag so that you will have he equivelent of two or three or four quart jars of fully colonized spawn to do with what you please.

 

[canndo]

Let us look at the spore syringe situation for a moment.


It is illegal to grow p. cubensis mushrooms in the United States - in ANY state you are liable for the illegal manufacture of a schedule I substance.


Your spore providers are aware of this. They also know that the production of syringes requires that someone somewhere actually produce fruiting bodies from which they take prints - and from those prints they produce their syringes. How wise is it to erect a web site advertising the legal sale of spores when they must probably be growing fruit in in their facility.


Not wise.

I don't know what they do to get their spore syringes but it is likely that they are growing the fruit in a place where the pressure is not so strong.


I have gotten syringes from different vendors that were contaminate. If you encounter a contaminated syringe yow will fail, it is impossible to do otherwise - IMPOSSIBLE. Yo can do everything right and you will still fail. I am not sure at all that syringes from different vendors do not all eminate from the same source. Be aware.

the only way you can indemnify yourself from this sort of failure is to do a test on agar, if the agar produces a pure growth then you know that syringe is pure, otherwise you are just going to have to hope that your vendor has done their due diligence.

I have encountered such contamination 4 different times, one of them with the sort of mushrooms you put on your pizza (admittedly - very exotic pizza).

So don't be too hard on yourself if you jump directly to spore (or multipoint) innoculation of grain.

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

I don't know how well that one will work dude - you are doing precision work and but your hands are in a position other than natural, it i s probably best to have your hands side by side.

i thought about this and i thought it would be more difficult but the glove box is verry smal so i will be able to reach both sides with both hands. that being said i dont doubt your right. For now i will try it as is, if it fails its a matter of picking up anothe r10 bucks worth of stuff and making a new one. if i continue with this then i will probabally end up building a bigger one anyways and then i will put both on one side of the box. where this box is so small i thought my hands would be cramped up if i put them on the same side.

That is a very big question. you will only have your first mushroom experience once. you can either dip your foot in the pool to check the temperature or you can dive in.


I am a diver, but not everyone is. Consider your alternatives carefully before you decide. The down side of taking too little is that you can actually have a bad experience. The down side of taking a larger dose is that you can..... have a bad experience. It has been my understanding however that the mushroom takes exception to those who grow their own and will more likely than not bestow upon the larger dose taker - a more profound and wonderful experience. Were I you, I would look toward 3 grams dry, perhaps a tiny bit more.


But again that is me, with the benefit of hindsight.

thanks for your insight on this. i plan on doing lots of research before i do them. i am a dip your toe in kinda guy lol i like to start small and work my way up if i feel comfortable. different strokes right? 3 grams dosent sound un reasonable. I do have some friends/family that have done them before and will probabally test drive them before i get the chance. so to see what kind of trip they get off an 1/8th will give me a better calibration of how much i should try my first go around.

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

No no no, that will defeat the process of casing - AND the process of shaking your spawn or substrate.

i dont plan on using this, another member who is following the thread is looking for pre sterilized medium. someone mentioned bags so i tossed this video i cam across the other day out to give him more of a understanding of what the pre sterilized bags consisted of.

 

[canndo]

Hey, if you can aquire a bunch of presterilized bags, go for it. I wouldn't do it but I happen to have everything I need to make my own.

 

[Xrangex]

alright got the stuff to make my incubator....man why is it i can always find projects with my hobbies....

anyways hope this is it for now. going to do a video tutorial ill post the you tube link up here.

going to do a mini fridge with a thermostat and light bulb type incubator. wish me luck. will also do a video tutorial on the glove box as i couldnt really find much on you tube for that. i found one guy but he used cardboard tubes for the arm holes and i dont like that idea...all plastic all the way. cardboard is too easily contamanated and the contams can sink into it and be really difficult to sterilize properly...that my opinion.

Dude, you've got to send me a link for DIY incubator! I gota mini fridge and my regular fridge can hold all the beer in there. Plus i get paid in 3 days and will be starting my grow soon

 

[Xrangex]

How wise is it to erect a web site...

Haha, websites cant get boners bro

 

[polyarcturus]

you guys are really over thinking this incubation thing... ive been incubating at 65 degree all winter with no stunting im aware of may take a week longer to fully conlinized but ive never really noticed, i hear its makes for more potent shrooms doing thing at the lower temp spectrum.

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

Dude, you've got to send me a link for DIY incubator! I gota mini fridge and my regular fridge can hold all the beer in there. Plus i get paid in 3 days and will be starting my grow soon

im going over tomorow to start work on my fridge. im going to try and do a vid on it.

heres a diagram




if you have the fridge you need

a piece of plywood to section off your light
a socket and bulb
a thermostat

and thats really it man

 

[canndo]

you guys are really over thinking this incubation thing... ive been incubating at 65 degree all winter with no stunting im aware of may take a week longer to fully conlinized but ive never really noticed, i hear its makes for more potent shrooms doing thing at the lower temp spectrum.

There are some who maintain that the slower the colonization and fruition of this mushroom the more potent. I don't believe it but you make a valid point here - lower temperatures only mean slower growth, nothing else, the mushroom is originaly "designed" to encounter and cope with low temps. The point is to relax as you have done - the contaminants, should there be any will be slowed as well as the mycelium, no change. All it costs is a little more time than someone who is cooking away at 85 degrees.

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

There are some who maintain that the slower the colonization and fruition of this mushroom the more potent. I don't believe it but you make a valid point here - lower temperatures only mean slower growth, nothing else, the mushroom is originaly "designed" to encounter and cope with low temps. The point is to relax as you have done - the contaminants, should there be any will be slowed as well as the mycelium, no change. All it costs is a little more time than someone who is cooking away at 85 degrees.

i was thinking of setting my incubator to 80. not looking to push the bounderies and i hear 85+ it too hot. i also read that the mycelium produces at lest 2-4 additional degrees of heat so if i go 79-80 i should be in good standing right?

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

anyways i been drinking all night...time to take a toke of the blue cheese and be done dadda lol

 

[polyarcturus]

There are some who maintain that the slower the colonization and fruition of this mushroom the more potent. I don't believe it but you make a valid point here - lower temperatures only mean slower growth, nothing else, the mushroom is originaly "designed" to encounter and cope with low temps. The point is to relax as you have done - the contaminants, should there be any will be slowed as well as the mycelium, no change. All it costs is a little more time than someone who is cooking away at 85 degrees.

yeah im lazy i know...

 

[canndo]

Depends upon the ability of your substrate to dissapate heat. An inch and a half of live substrate will not show you much of an internal rise in temperatures. a 6 inch deep block of colonized straw will have trouble expelling that extra heat and the internal can rise more than your 2 to 5 degrees. A 12 inch deep block of rich compost will rise more than 8 degrees - of course such a substrate has it's own ways of coping - in that it will absorb the liquid that the mycelium exudes in reaction to high temperatures but you are still subjecting your grow to stresses it would be better off not encountering. Of course if you suplement your substrate you will be heating it up even more - suplemental oil, ground cotton seed meal, ground dent corn, microencapsulated nutrients introduced at spawn or pre-case will drive your temps very very high to the point where you must consider refrigeration. The results of such, if it is successful will be an 80 percent increase in yield - depending on surface area and tolerance for additional flushes.

 

[canndo]

yeah im lazy i know...

With mushrooms Poly, aside from cleanliness, lazy is good.

 

[canndo]

anyways i been drinking all night...time to take a toke of the blue cheese and be done dadda lol

No, now is the time for you to work, best get to it with washing down the walls using 10 percent bleach, now is the time to clean your floor and search for those bits of moldy cheese in your fridge - quick, there is much work to be done.


you can rest after you see pins.