Shroom Help

Hey guys after my first attemp failed, I just inncoulated my jars for a second try last tuesday. I just checked them and they all are caking but in about half I see very small green dots and i'm not sure if it's tricoderma. What would happen if I let them all continue and it turned out to be the mold? I don't wanna have to throw out my cakes Im growing Mexi-Cub

if its green.. its mold.. let them continue if your not sure.. but once its mold its done throw them out.. sterilize for longer period next time.. use a.pressure.cooker if possible makes it so much easier.

Should I move the jars to a new location? Also when I innoculate am I suppose to cover the puncture holes with tape?

Nah don't cover the holes the jars need to breath some.

Yeah if you have other not contaminated jars remove the possible contaminated jars right away.

you should just grab these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rye-berries-mushroom-substrate-grow-bag-2-1-lb-bags-new-/180624635264?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0e113580

ive used them a few times and theyre rreally good for beginning. its a bitch to clone from them but can be done.

but if you use this youd have to get something to transfer the spawn onto.

a 5 dollar coco brick at walmart or any pet store will do.

best of luck!

How long do I need to boil the jars for the clean out all the mold? Would the dishwasher work just as good? Won't the jars crack if I boil them too long? Thanks for the help so far!

they are 100% correct any color besides the color of white mycellium is a big no no you can wait but chances are your jars are gonzo. what method are you using? pf tek? the one with the brown rice flour and verm? give me your exact process for making substrate and sterelizing to innoculating the jars and incubation and i can tell you exactly what went wrong

A pressure cooker has a tray made for jars, the steam basically sterilizes them, not the water. You can get one from Walmart for less than 15 bucks, you pressure cook them for 45mins, really shouldn't be that complicated lol.

http://www.shroomery.org/8409/PF-Tek

Follow this step by step and it's flawless.

If done right you don't need any air holes at all. But I don't know if that method will work with PF. Another reason I don't advise PF. What sterilizes anything is moisture at high heat. 250 degrees of moist air will kill 99.9 percent of anything kept in it for 30 minutes - it's that last.01 percent that kills you especially if what you are trying to kill is an endospore - some organisms, when threatened with dry heat will form a chitenous shell that will keep the spore viable through very intense conditions - these spores have been known to grow after thousands of years of dormancy in some mummy's nose - dry heat. But you can trick them into coming out of their shells by giving them nice warm wet conditions for a few days - and THEN zapping them where they are suseptable to relatively low temperatures of.... 212. So a fella might want to set up his substrate, let it incubate for a day, sterilize it in boiling water for an hour or so, let it incubate again for a day or so, and then boil it a second time.

Always remember that it only takes a single spore to ruin your whole day.

bf80255 said:

they are 100% correct any color besides the color of white mycellium is a big no no you can wait but chances are your jars are gonzo. what method are you using? pf tek? the one with the brown rice flour and verm? give me your exact process for making substrate and sterelizing to innoculating the jars and incubation and i can tell you exactly what went wrong

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I'm doing the brown rice flour & verm way, I put the jars in the dishwasher to clean them from the previous failed attemp, after I made the substrate exactly like they say to do so in 'Lets grow mushrooms" the video. Then after adding lids and some micropore tape I started injecting the spores, I did resterilize after each innoculation but with alcohol not a hot flame. Also I did not have a pressure cooker so I just wiped the lip of the lid with a napkin like they do in 'Lets grow mushrooms' It's most likely the fact that I didn't use a pressure cooker that's my downfall. Whats the best way to clean my jars after dumping out the ones with Trich?

If you can't sterilize them in a pressure cooker, you can empty them, wrap them in foil and bake them in an oven at 400 degrees for half an hour or so. It isn't perfect but it seems like you are not taking sterility seriously. Oh, and brown rice flour and verm isn't a very good method. Find something other than PF tech.

Started using Popcorn.. and never looked back.. easy, fast, decent yielder, not the most of any method but yields in about same time as pf tek but you can do tubs as big as you want... no need to add anything no poo no coir.. (sometimes layer of verm on top and bottom) I just followed ancs instructions been hapoy with that way since.

Pressure cooker will rock your world though man.. 15-30$ at walmart.

canndo said:

If you can't sterilize them in a pressure cooker, you can empty them, wrap them in foil and bake them in an oven at 400 degrees for half an hour or so. It isn't perfect but it seems like you are not taking sterility seriously. Oh, and brown rice flour and verm isn't a very good method. Find something other than PF tech.

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yea this or use a bleach water mix solution and let the jars be totally submerged for like 24 hours. but yeah ther right get a pressure cooker if u can afford it if not pf tek works great its tried and true www.fanaticus.com that sight has the exact process written down just try again bud and remember clean clean clean thats how you get results if you think your doing a bit too much then in my experience your doing it right lol. i used to grow exactly like the video your referencing (pf tek) till i stepped my game up just a bit and got a pressure cooker now i do rhye seed way more efficient just a lil more advanced.

u can bruise by contact with mist... found that out, that wasnt a contam

Pressure Cooker

I've only been around these boards, and this hobby as a whole for a few months. Get one. Those jars you had that were contaminated, I'm betting you opened them... in open air! This is... well... bad! When you open a contaminated jar in open air without throwing them in the Pressure Cooker for 90 minutes at 15 PSI, you're letting mold spores contaminate your home. You open that jar in one side of the house, the other side of the house will likely have mold spores in it not long after.

When my jars get contaminations, I pressure cook them to re sterilize, throw the sub away, soak the jars in bleach for 24 hours, and try again.

Sterility is key, simply boiling them in water is no where near as efficient.

Oh and those holes. cover them with micropore tape. Don't leave them open.

Green is Bad, Blue is good. Good luck

SnakeByte said:

Green is Bad, Blue is good. Good luck

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A small correction - there are green staining strains of P. Cubensis. The green indicates a wholely different active molecule with - pretty much the same effects. But it is an extraordinarily rare occurance.

Yeah this is why you should research and study before you do anything. That's one of the biggest rules is to immediately take the jar outside and empty is somewhere far away and look away or wear a mask when you do it too, some contams can easily get in your lungs, I always just toss the whole jar lol, I rarely got contaminations tho because I made sure everything was clean before I started, even sterilized the whole room I kept them in before I did everything and keep it that way before I start anything else, I go overboard but better safe than sorry.

Trolling said:

Yeah this is why you should research and study before you do anything. That's one of the biggest rules is to immediately take the jar outside and empty is somewhere far away and look away or wear a mask when you do it too, some contams can easily get in your lungs, I always just toss the whole jar lol, I rarely got contaminations tho because I made sure everything was clean before I started, even sterilized the whole room I kept them in before I did everything and keep it that way before I start anything else, I go overboard but better safe than sorry.

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Trolling makes a very valid point - DO NOT take contamination lightly, there are some very very nasty sorts of molds that will either compromise your lungs permanently, compromise your immune system or cause cancer - 10 or 20 years from now. Aflatoxin is no laughing matter and the mold that produces it is more common than we would like. Even your trich can, in large enough amounts, cause you some serious health problems. I had always taken my own advice - presterilizing my contaminated jars - or as Trolling says - simply throw the damn jar out - it costs what? a buck? I am in no way certain, but it is possible that the time I had to clean a heavily conaminated room, filled with spores from black pin mold and white oyster mushrooms I did not use a particle mask. Several weeks later I found that I was getting night sweats and was on and off again delerious - swatting at gnats in the air that my wife kept telling me did not exist. I finally went to the doctor where it was discovered that I had pneumonia. I cannot directly correlate the two events but now I will not work with heavy spore producing fruit or contamination without a good particle mask. Pay attention, we don't want people getting sick from their hobby.