Bwpz' First PF Tek Attempt

Yeah I just toss the jars if they get contaminated, it's not worth it lol.

And I just tested out my pressure cooker. I brought it to 15 psi just fine, just gotta practice keepin it there (which I guess the weight does on its own).

Yeah just remember to turn the heat on low once it reaches 15 PSI, and to make sure it keeps rocking (unless it does not rock because you don't have the weight)
My PC can be used anywhere, and has a built in timer and it only starts timing once it reaches 15 PSI. I love it, besides the fact that it cannot hold quart jars .
I bet if I bought a rack for it, it could hold 1 qt jar on its side.

Blackhash said:

Yeah just remember to turn the heat on low once it reaches 15 PSI, and to make sure it keeps rocking (unless it does not rock because you don't have the weight)
My PC can be used anywhere, and has a built in timer and it only starts timing once it reaches 15 PSI. I love it, besides the fact that it cannot hold quart jars .
I bet if I bought a rack for it, it could hold 1 qt jar on its side.

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Lol, just do a bunch of single cooks xD

And when it reached 15 PSI, I turned it down like 2 notches (so it was still over Medium-High) and it started going down to 10 PSI...and idea why that was?

Try one notch? Or you had it just right to begin with some stoves don't have alot of play between Med and high.

I finally knocked up my first 6 gts... I'm sure they were sterile they sat for 4 days like the others I didn't sterilize and they wernt contamed though they were kept in the PC the whole time... anyways finally knocked em up though I wasn't paying attention on the first 2 and put way too much spore solution in each on lol oh well they may take a little longer. Anyways hope your bulk project goes off... how is your latest bfr batch coming?

poppagetsbaked said:

Try one notch? Or you had it just right to begin with some stoves don't have alot of play between Med and high.

I finally knocked up my first 6 gts... I'm sure they were sterile they sat for 4 days like the others I didn't sterilize and they wernt contamed though they were kept in the PC the whole time... anyways finally knocked em up though I wasn't paying attention on the first 2 and put way too much spore solution in each on lol oh well they may take a little longer. Anyways hope your bulk project goes off... how is your latest bfr batch coming?

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I have 10 right now that have shown growth (one looks like it might turn bright pink lol). 3 have been contaminated, and the other 11 aren't showing anything.

My final decision with these cakes is just to get a 16qt tubs and spawn the cakes in there with some perlite (after dunk and roll, of course).

Good luck on your quarts man, I'd definitely like to see a journal

By the way, this is the pink one I was talking about. Looks more orange now that I look at it.

Well, now I have 3 left that show growth, I checked em out and they were all green as fuck :\. 2 of them don't look too healthy though. When I inoculate my jars this time, I'm going to go to my grandma's bathroom while she's out of town lol, my house is too broke for this shit I guess. I also didn't use the best inoculation method, but whatever, life lesson

Could I use popcorn to make half-pint cakes?

Besides I only really steamed the jars in a pot. I'm sure if I lysol'd my grandma's bathroom and used my PC and a better inoculation tek.

Wipe needle with alcohol, light it with lighter until red, wait a sec, wipe with alcohol, insert into jar, release spores, pull needle out with micropore (side question, would durapore tape work?) tape ready to cover the hole in the tyvek.

not sure on the popcorn, I didn't do quarts I did standard pf-tek 1/2 pint brf, I ended up knocking 6 tonight at around 12am since I screwed up and got lazy with my knocking and waited 4 days

poppagetsbaked said:

not sure on the popcorn, I didn't do quarts I did standard pf-tek 1/2 pint brf, I ended up knocking 6 tonight at around 12am since I screwed up and got lazy with my knocking and waited 4 days

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Lucky bastard

Most of my babies are gone

i just spawned to straw and worm castings about 36 hours ago and already my tray is 65-75% colonized, this is most likely cause i used a lot of spawn, 3 1/2 pint jars!
ill have mushies soon!

tryingtogrow89 said:

i just spawned to straw and worm castings about 36 hours ago and already my tray is 65-75% colonized, this is most likely cause i used a lot of spawn, 3 1/2 pint jars!
ill have mushies soon!

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Hell yeah man, I wanna see how they turn out

Bwpz said:

Hell yeah man, I wanna see how they turn out

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oh ill be postin pics as soon as i start pinning.

I'll take some pics of my jars and start my BRF Journal before I head to DC on Wed next week, I'd like to see some colonization before then but I don't care one way or another they will chug away while I'm gone. I'm also hoping to have my mj journal going by then as well (though I'm not popping my beans until I get back)

Bwpz said:

Yeah I just toss the jars if they get contaminated, it's not worth it lol.

And I just tested out my pressure cooker. I brought it to 15 psi just fine, just gotta practice keepin it there (which I guess the weight does on its own).

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HELL NO. The weight bobbles letting steam out, the spring will simply open up - it is possible that your spring will get you to 20 lbs - if so, you can do things the rest of us can't and it will take you a shorter time to sterilize everything. As Blackhash says, you have to lower the heat - well, you don't have to but you run the risk of running the cooker dry and you do NOT want to do that. A packed cooker has to run 3 or 4 hours (that's with bags, not jars) and you can not imagine the mess if you run it out.

Bwpz said:

I have 10 right now that have shown growth (one looks like it might turn bright pink lol). 3 have been contaminated, and the other 11 aren't showing anything.

My final decision with these cakes is just to get a 16qt tubs and spawn the cakes in there with some perlite (after dunk and roll, of course).

Good luck on your quarts man, I'd definitely like to see a journal

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You have to get your tecnique down, you shoud'nt have more than about 10 percent loss rate. Practice a while being smooth, and efficient in your movements. Are you using injection ports in your lids?

Bwpz said:

Well, now I have 3 left that show growth, I checked em out and they were all green as fuck :\. 2 of them don't look too healthy though. When I inoculate my jars this time, I'm going to go to my grandma's bathroom while she's out of town lol, my house is too broke for this shit I guess. I also didn't use the best inoculation method, but whatever, life lesson

Could I use popcorn to make half-pint cakes?

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Get a tub and turn it on it's side. put it in a draft free area. spray the whole room, AND the tub with lysol (go to the 99 cent store and get it's equvelent). Close the door and go take a shower, put on clean cloths, short sleeves and before you start spray your hands and arms with lysol. Work within the tub so you don't breath directly on your work. You don't need a flame, cold sterilization works just as good for what you are doing - use denatured alcohol and dip your instruments in it every once in a while. Oh, I see you only boiled your jars - good luck with that BW. Seems like you might want to use an injection port and frankly you don't need the micropore stuff.

Popcorn will work just fine if you follow the rules.

1. Cook the popcorn beforehand to just before the kernels burst.
2. Rinse them VERY VERY WELL the corn will deveolp this jelly if you don't that is not conducive to mycelial growth
3. DRY them very very well, some people rub the kernels in towels but you don't have to go that far, just let them sit somewhere for a few hours before you load them into your jars. If you fill your jars only about half full you do not need any filtration or air at all, they will grow quite nicely on the air that is left in the jar. Remember, the kernels should not be wet, damp - ok but dripping no no no. As I said, if you want to get things to go quickly either mix some rye in there or use half a teaspoon of dark molasas or malt extract in your water as you boil the corn. You can get full colonization in less than a week depending on how fast your spores germinate and how often you shake.

canndo said:

You have to get your tecnique down, you shoud'nt have more than about 10 percent loss rate. Practice a while being smooth, and efficient in your movements. Are you using injection ports in your lids?

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Yeah I had 4 injection ports in each lid, and didn't cover them with anything after I injected them (they had foil on for a couple of days, but then removed it).

I'll probably PC the 12 that haven't shown anything and re-do them with popcorn. I've got 3 left showing growth, and 1 looks like it's about to turn pink lol.

That's why they contaminated, you NEED to cover the injection port with micro pore tape or some type of breathable tape.
I only have 1 injection port, right smack dab in the middle.
Covered with micro pore tape and foil while in the PC, then I took off the foil, innoced them, then covered the injection port with micro pore tape.
Micro pore tape is super cheap and you can find it in the first aid section in wal mart, just read the back and if it says breathable tape on it, then its good to go.