1st Time Mushroom Incubation Questions

Hello everyone! It's my first time growing mushrooms, and I have a few questions about the incubation chamber and the steps itself.
My incubation chamber is keeping a constant 81 degrees F, and 50% humidity. Will the inoculated jars be fine? Or do I need a higher (or lower) humidity?
Also, when injecting spores, 1. do you inject the spores through the foil on the jar, and 2. do you need holes in the foil or does it need to be all contained in the jar? Finally, do you need to air out the chamber when the mycelium is forming in the jars?
I am growing in Colorado, so I have to use the tub-in-tub method to keep the tubs warm enough for growth.
Thank you in advance for your help!

1: humidity in the incubation tub isn't all that important as the jars themselves should have the proper moisture level and should be rather sealed except for gas exchange (meaning not much moisture change to the jars themselves) during incubation.

2:The jars should have been fitted either with a tyvek lid, or a polyfill lid for injection (depending on your tek level and wether or not you're doing BRF jars [tyvek underneath the 4 holes pre-drilled in lid] or polyfill/tyvek for WBS/RYE) The foil is only to cover while pressure cooking/boiling to keep water from getting into the jars, and after innoculation to help keep contaminants out once the spores are in. You'll remove the foil while injecting, then replace when done. Remember to re-sterilize your needle between each and every jar in case one jar is contaminated, so it won't transfer to the other jars.

As far as fanning the tub while incubating, I leave well enough alone for at least a week as the more you handle them before full colinization, the more chance you have for contams. People go back and forth about whether light should be kept out, but I like to keep the jars as dark as possible.

Let us know what tek you're using, and in the meantime I'm sure someone with a bit more experience will chime in. Canndo is a wealth of info, so I'm sure he'll be around soon enough

Check out choempi...his teks are spelled out so simple george bush could follow em...but he'd still fuck it up somehow...

I've been holding off on taking off the foil (and honestly I'm worried about taking the jars out of the bag they've been stored in!) just because I don't want to risk contamination.. But the lid is the 4 holes drilled in the top.

if you've not put a contam barrier underneath your lids before cooking, leave the foil on until the jars are in your glovebox or sterile area, and then use micropore tape (medical aisle at most drug stores) to cover the holes after innoculation.

you dont need an incubation chamber you can acually just put them in a cabent at room temp and theyll do just fine but i wouldnt go higher than 80........the jars acually develope there own micro climate so you dont wana boil'em...you need a still air box, rubber gloves, face mask, 99% alcohol, micropore tape, and some bacteria killing lysol all can be bought pretty cheap

Second Albino, mine always incubate just fine at room temp with no tub...

81 is too high, your mycelium produces it's own heat and the core of your jars will be much hotter. Drop it to 78 or so. As others have stated, you needn't worry about humidity at this stage.

I dropped the temp and injected the spores about a week ago. Yesterday I saw growth in 4 of the 6 jars, one of them already looking almost ropy. How long can the jars be exposed to indirect light while I check jars? I don't check it every day, only every 4 days or so.

Also with the jars I injected them a bit high up so I may not be seeing the growth yet in the other 2 jars. Just a note.

Albino, I live in the mtns of Colorado. It's not ideal temp for mushrooms to grow in my cabinets, since my house is usually at 72 or less. (I roommate with someone who's sensitive to temp so I can't just blast the heat.) So I have to use that tub-in-tub method to keep the area warm.
**I'm sorry this was a bit late.

Don't really have to worry too much about the light thing, can check em out. I just do it as little as possible to lessen contam chances... we all peek now and then though

Spores will take a week or so to germinate so don't worry if a couple jars are a little behind.

Incubation of jars is really outdated information.

From RR Himself.

Internal jar temps above 82F actually slow down mycelium growth, and also stimulate contaminant molds. If your incubator is running 81F to 84F, your internal jar temps are going to be 85 to 90, considering that glass is an insulator and mycelium produces heat as it colonizes. Nearly all the growers who used to use incubators have now stopped. Those who haven't have probably never tried to colonize on an open shelf at normal room temp, or they'd have stopped too.

In addition, stale air in incubators are a major cause of contamination.

Click to expand...

What temp range does the cabinet need to be, though? Again, my house is cold. I'd guess in one of my cabinets it's at 60-65 regularly.

60-65 would do fine.

Alright. If anyone following this thread could look at my journal entry and make sure the pictures I posted are OK? They're pictures of my process with the jars.

They look fine to me.


Do you have a dry verm layer? If so foil is not needed as it restricts some gas Exchange.


Also ambient light has been proven beneficial for mycelium growth while colonizing.

I'm not sure if it has that layer, to be honest. I bought my jars pre-sterilized just since it's my first time and I didn't want it all to fail because I didn't sterilize the mix well enough. It's the kit from MidwestGrow with:

Edit


nvm