My first class with the golden teacher

prone to contamination.

when you got to mix your mycleium with your sub you will contaminate it, because there is no mycelium or bacteria to prevent contamination germination.

with pasteurization you leave good bacteria and microbes.

Poly is spot-on.

A sterilized sub (or casing soil, though those are, by design, not
as nutritious, so it is not as critical there....it is the species of shroom
that need a "live casing soil" that drive the issue for casing soils, but
I massively digress ;0) is wide open to contamination. It is like, whatever
lands there is going to rock. One trich spore and it's mean green all over.

I am finding that these posts open up serious novellas...and I cannot
type that much, nor do you want to read that much, and so I will
drop what bits I can as we go along.

The plain fact is that pasteurization is one major PITA. You have to get
"the stuff" to 140-160 F and then you need to keep it in that window
for 90 minutes. This is part of the hobby that calls for you to pull up
a chair and read a book, next to the effort.

There are easier and harder efforts. Straw? Yes, the pillow case rocks.
...and you just measure the temps of the water it is in. A casing soil
where you have the moisture level just right? For that you must put the
material in a water tight container in which it can still be heated.

I just cased eight blocks the other day (PE, Agaricus Blazei Murrill,
and Psilocybe pseudoaztecorum) and for this I made six quarts of
casing soil ( look up "50/50+ casing soil"). I put this soil into six
quart mason jars, and put them into a turkey roaster, on a rack,
and in as much water as it would hold (up to their upper "shoulder").

I plugged the roaster into a Johnson Control A-419, with the probe
inserted into one of the jars of soil, set to cut off at 115 F, and turned
the unit on. At 115F the unit turned off and the water, still at 212 F
continued to raise the temps into the proper range, where they then
slowly descended together. (you can pasteurize for several hours,
should you need to, this way).

Whew.

Take care,

JD

ok, ill just have to invest in some mason jars..or maybe ill just start casing with 100% vermiculite. vermiculite has absolutly no nutrition to it though..seems like the pan i mixed 1/2 pint colonized sub with equal parts vermiculite, then sprinkled a layer of verm over the top is doing well.

i dunno...i figure something out. if i can just get a harvest out of this ill be happy. i start training for a job on friday and my girl just got notice in she got a couple grants so we should have some money coming in soon. i can pick up a 12 pack of quart sized mason jars to do some pasturizing in...also like i said im going to be doing everything from here on out in as sterile an enviorment as i can. i was under the impression that once you got nice fully colonized corn jars generally the rest is easy street and there no need to work in a sterile enviorment. i guess i was wrong lol... I will also be adding a little patience to my regiment. i think checking on shit daily is contributing to my failing efforts.

anyways thanks for sticking around. at least i still have my 11 jars that seem to be doing well.

RetiredMatthebrute said:

ok, ill just have to invest in some mason jars..or maybe ill just start casing with 100% vermiculite. vermiculite has absolutly no nutrition to it though..seems like the pan i mixed 1/2 pint colonized sub with equal parts vermiculite, then sprinkled a layer of verm over the top is doing well.

i dunno...i figure something out. if i can just get a harvest out of this ill be happy. i start training for a job on friday and my girl just got notice in she got a couple grants so we should have some money coming in soon. i can pick up a 12 pack of quart sized mason jars to do some pasturizing in...also like i said im going to be doing everything from here on out in as sterile an enviorment as i can. i was under the impression that once you got nice fully colonized corn jars generally the rest is easy street and there no need to work in a sterile enviorment. i guess i was wrong lol... I will also be adding a little patience to my regiment. i think checking on shit daily is contributing to my failing efforts.

anyways thanks for sticking around. at least i still have my 11 jars that seem to be doing well.

Click to expand...

Your doing great man, if you came into this expecting not to hit any bumps in the road you a horribly mistaken my friend. . I know I expected some issues myself (not quite to the extreme I encountered) but hoped for the best. Sterilized 4 more jars of corn last night after boiling and letting it sit for 24 hours and I STILL ended up with a pool of water in the bottom of my jars......

add a small bit of verm in the jars.

3 jars from 03-04-12 2 jars from 03-10-12

And here's one jar that I want to show you guys it seems that the dry verm. layer is dropping down on the mycelium is that bad? or is it ok? I pointed with the arrow on how it looks I don't know if you guys can see it.

dam jars look nice...i dont think the dry verm would hurt anything to be honest...may want to wait for a more experienced and knowledgable opinion though.

Yeah the jar looks ok with the dry verm. layer coming down just want to find out if it's bad or not so we shall wait for some more exp. growers to take a look and see what they'll say.

my buddy is saying the veils on my mushies are starting to break...is this normal? after only 3 days...they are only about 2 1/2 inches...

RetiredMatthebrute said:

my buddy is saying the veils on my mushies are starting to break...is this normal? after only 3 days...they are only about 2 1/2 inches...

Click to expand...

From what I have read when the veils are breaking up that means they're ready right? yeah but 3 days seems kinda quick

This can happen, the shifting of the verm layer, especially as the cakes
age and shrink slightly.

Typically, the shifting of the verm layer can have the effect of sifting
down a contam to the BRF cake. This is usually why too much handling
of the jar is not recommended.

Actually, this does not happen all that often (to me, maybe once, when new).

The reality is that that cake also looks pretty well colonized on top.

I do not think that you will have any problem with that shifted verm.

Good luck,

JD

Java, Thank you sir. I can sleep better now haha yeah I was just wondering if it's bad or not. I'll keep an eye on that jar and see how it goes. But by looking at things I might be able to birth two of my jars within next two-two and half weeks.

Like I said the other day matt, once the pins start it can only take days at times. As for the size of them, some strains I think grow smaller fruits, but once the veils start to break they are one step away from opening completely and puking spores all over the place. And by one step I mean hours away.

The size issue kinda evens out I find. You will either get fewer larger fruits,
or many smaller fruits. Genetics definitely plays a role.

This is why cube strains can behave so differently. (think of the squat little
KSSS vs. the classic Golden Teacher looking fruits)

Take care,

JD

My FC I think I'll have two of these for my 5 jars, just don't know if I did put to much holes in it..not sure lol what you guys think? will it work? haha

That looks pretty good. I see holes in the lid. Good. Make sure to
drill the same array on the bottom.

Put 4" of moist perlite in the bottom and you are ready to rock.

Good luck,

JD

Javadog said:

The size issue kinda evens out I find. You will either get fewer larger fruits,
or many smaller fruits. Genetics definitely plays a role.

This is why cube strains can behave so differently. (think of the squat little
KSSS vs. the classic Golden Teacher looking fruits)

Take care,

JD

Click to expand...

The KS in my avatar fruited rather small in huge quantities for the first 2-3 flushs, then the last flush only had about 4 or 5 fruits but they were close to the size of my hand.

Javadog said:

That looks pretty good. I see holes in the lid. Good. Make sure to
drill the same array on the bottom.

Put 4" of moist perlite in the bottom and you are ready to rock.

Good luck,

JD

Click to expand...

JD holes are on all six sides including the lid and the bottom. 4" of perlite that leaves me with about 8" of head room, is that enough? or I can always put another plastic tote on top of it and make it taller that would make the FC about 24" tall.

polyarcturus said:

add a small bit of verm in the jars.

Click to expand...

Was trying to avoid having to do that, really don't want top PC my jars again.....grrrr