Mushroom thread

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Dirtbag

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I know the reaction all too well.
It's the 'work on a piece of artwork for 30 hours only to make a small mistake and ham-fistedly gouge at it with a piece of charcoal and throw it in the trash'... reaction.

I can't say for sure, but I trust if you get a 100+ quart tote for your SAB, you'll be a little less repulsed by it. Better than the $400 minimum to build a hood.

Mmm.. im honestly not sure. Even just transferring a bit of mycelium with a loop from a slant to a petri dish was making me sweat trying not to touch the holes and move slowly and deliberately. Im not a slow mover at all lol.. Thankfully grain is cheap, but ive wasted quite a bit of time so far and i have a very low tolerance for failure.

This hobby so far, is kicking my ass..
 
beluga

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Mmm.. im honestly not sure. Even just transferring a bit of mycelium with a loop from a slant to a petri dish was making me sweat trying not to touch the holes and move slowly and deliberately. Im not a slow mover at all lol.. Thankfully grain is cheap, but ive wasted quite a bit of time so far and i have a very low tolerance for failure.

This hobby so far, is kicking my ass..
You only started in what? October?

You'll be good. Even if you take a step back from it for a bit, you've made good progress to be able to build on.

I wouldn't worry too much about the condensation.
It can cause your myc to grow a little funny, but, like everything else, if it's sterile, it's gonna stay sterile unless something is introduced. Water won't inherently introduce contamination.... unless we're talking about it permeating a filter or something of that nature.

You can try unwrapping it (not unlidding) and leaving it sit in your stationary SAB for a couple days... sometimes that'll be enough to evaporate it.
 
Dirtbag

Dirtbag

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You only started in what? October?

You'll be good. Even if you take a step back from it for a bit, you've made good progress to be able to build on.

I wouldn't worry too much about the condensation.
It can cause your myc to grow a little funny, but, like everything else, if it's sterile, it's gonna stay sterile unless something is introduced. Water won't inherently introduce contamination.... unless we're talking about it permeating a filter or something of that nature.

You can try unwrapping it (not unlidding) and leaving it sit in your stationary SAB for a couple days... sometimes that'll be enough to evaporate it.

Jeez not even that far back. I dropped agar cultures into my first grain jars on Nov 22nd.

BUT.. looks like i might have an even easier method. the place i got my agar and cultures just expanded operations and now sells both 1 and 3 quart containers of fully colonized master spawn ready to bulk, and their agar cultures are now permanently half price, so $20-30 for a fully colonized petri dish depending on variety.

Might almost be worth just going that route and buying colonized agar from them if i can minimize the contams in my grain jars. If i can make 15-20 jars of grain spawn from a single petri for $20... Thats damn appealing.
 
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FourthCity

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Mmm.. im honestly not sure. Even just transferring a bit of mycelium with a loop from a slant to a petri dish was making me sweat trying not to touch the holes and move slowly and deliberately. Im not a slow mover at all lol.. Thankfully grain is cheap, but ive wasted quite a bit of time so far and i have a very low tolerance for failure.

This hobby so far, is kicking my ass..

Jeez not even that far back. I dropped agar cultures into my first grain jars on Nov 22nd.

BUT.. looks like i might have an even easier method. the place i got my agar and cultures just expanded operations and now sells both 1 and 3 quart containers of fully colonized master spawn ready to bulk, and their agar cultures are now permanently half price, so $20-30 for a fully colonized petri dish depending on variety.

Might almost be worth just going that route and buying colonized agar from them if i can minimize the contams in my grain jars. If i can make 15-20 jars of grain spawn from a single petri for $20... Thats damn appealing.
While I'm still very new and have a huge amount to learn on this topic it seems to me that if you are having issues with contams from transfers then buying the colonized agar cultures wont solve that problem and would cost far more than making your own agar and starting with a spore syringe. Same could be said for the colonized spawn if you were going to use it for g2g. With petri dishes costing less than $.20 each when bought in bulk and spore syringes (which can be used to streak hundreds of dishes) at about $25 its really cheap to practice the basics.

I agree with Beluga, I know someone that is just as new to this as you, they are using a 106qt sab and their agar has been about 95% clean so far, only one obvious contam out of every 20 plates, you might just need a little more room.
 
Dirtbag

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While I'm still very new and have a huge amount to learn on this topic it seems to me that if you are having issues with contams from transfers then buying the colonized agar cultures wont solve that problem and would cost far more than making your own agar and starting with a spore syringe. Same could be said for the colonized spawn if you were going to use it for g2g. With petri dishes costing less than $.20 each when bought in bulk and spore syringes (which can be used to streak hundreds of dishes) at about $25 its really cheap to practice the basics.

I agree with Beluga, I know someone that is just as new to this as you, they are using a 106qt sab and their agar has been about 95% clean so far, only one obvious contam out of every 20 plates, you might just need a little more room.

I disagree, the Agar culture i purchased was used to successfully colonize 60% of my grain jars at least. So far, EVERYTHING ive put to agar has become contaminated. Seems to me buying agar cultures and using that to innoculate grain is the safer bet at the moment. Especially considering the syringes of spores and agar cultures are the same price.

Ill get more into agar at some point but not until i have a cleaner area to work in.
 
FourthCity

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I disagree, the Agar culture i purchased was used to successfully colonize 60% of my grain jars at least. So far, EVERYTHING ive put to agar has become contaminated. Seems to me buying agar cultures and using that to innoculate grain is the safer bet at the moment. Especially considering the syringes of spores and agar cultures are the same price.

Ill get more into agar at some point but not until i have a cleaner area to work in.
I don't know why going from agar to grain would be less prone to contaminants than agar to agar or multi spore syringe to agar, but it does make sense that it could be harder to detect contams as quickly in the grain jars. The main benefit I would think the syringe has over the pre cultured agar dish, especially in an environment that is prone to contaminations, is that the needle tip can be flame sterilized between each use whereas you risk contaminating the dish every time you open the lid for a transfer. Again, I still know very little on the topic and I'm kinda just thinking out loud, maybe I'm misunderstanding something.
 
Dirtbag

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I don't know why going from agar to grain would be less prone to contaminants than agar to agar or multi spore syringe to agar, but it does make sense that it could be harder to detect contams as quickly in the grain jars. The main benefit I would think the syringe has over the pre cultured agar dish, especially in an environment that is prone to contaminations, is that the needle tip can be flame sterilized between each use whereas you risk contaminating the dish every time you open the lid for a transfer. Again, I still know very little on the topic and I'm kinda just thinking out loud, maybe I'm misunderstanding something.

The agar dish culture (for me at least) is single use really, once its open i cut it all up and move to grain jars, and last time i also put a wedge on another fresh agar petri to make more, but that got contaminated. And yeah i think youre right about the contam being less noticable in the grain, but I also think the agar is a much easier food source for contams compared to grain. And it at least it looks like the agar to grain stuff will make it to mushroom stage, which i cant say for anything ive put to agar so far.
 
Dirtbag

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Sweet baby Jesus Its a Christmas miracle!!🤣 I know it doesnt look like much, and i wouldnt have even noticed it If I wasnt helicopter parenting these but..

PIN! Well, more like a micropin....There is actually 2 tiny pins just popping in one of the tubs. And i swear it wasnt there 5 hrs ago when we went to dinner at the inlaws. Damn i feel like a proud papa. Can wait to see what pops up tomorrow.
20201224 232754
 
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Dirtbag

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Just walk away, come back in 24 hours:)

Right! Last night i had 2 tiny pins and this morning i counted over dozen in just one box lol. The other shoebox had none last night and this morning its loaded with them. My buddy said it should only take about 3-5 days for Golden teachers to go from pins to mushrooms. Likely around 5 days till harvest.

Im so excited now! lol, I wish i wasnt such a fuckin spaz sometimes..
Seeing this has reinvigorated my interest big time. But i absolutely feel like i need to make a few changes to improve my success rate.

This spring im going to downsize my pot operation and setup a few tents in the shed instead, 1 or 2 for growing pot, and a couple for growing mushrooms. And im definitely gonna build a laminar flow hood. Gonna be awesome.
 
1diesel1

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Right! Last night i had 2 tiny pins and this morning i counted over dozen in just one box lol. The other shoebox had none last night and this morning its loaded with them. My buddy said it should only take about 3-5 days for Golden teachers to go from pins to mushrooms. Likely around 5 days till harvest.

Im so excited now! lol, I wish i wasnt such a fuckin spaz sometimes..
Seeing this has reinvigorated my interest big time. But i absolutely feel like i need to make a few changes to improve my success rate.

This spring im going to downsize my pot operation and setup a few tents in the shed instead, 1 or 2 for growing pot, and a couple for growing mushrooms. And im definitely gonna build a laminar flow hood. Gonna be awesome.
Just remember with mushrooms, as well as flowers (but 10 times over with mushrooms)
 
chemistry

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Right! Last night i had 2 tiny pins and this morning i counted over dozen in just one box lol. The other shoebox had none last night and this morning its loaded with them. My buddy said it should only take about 3-5 days for Golden teachers to go from pins to mushrooms. Likely around 5 days till harvest.

Im so excited now! lol, I wish i wasnt such a fuckin spaz sometimes..
Seeing this has reinvigorated my interest big time. But i absolutely feel like i need to make a few changes to improve my success rate.

This spring im going to downsize my pot operation and setup a few tents in the shed instead, 1 or 2 for growing pot, and a couple for growing mushrooms. And im definitely gonna build a laminar flow hood. Gonna be awesome.


How big will these 1 or 2 pot tents be. lol Looking forward to the pics of the new mushy set up in the Spring. 👍
 
Dirtbag

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How big will these 1 or 2 pot tents be. lol Looking forward to the pics of the new mushy set up in the Spring. 👍

Im thinking of going with a 2x2 or 2x4 for clones and seedlings and a 4x4 flower tent and running LED in them.
Ill setup the flow hood where my clone area is now for mushroom work and maybe put a martha in the main room, or maybe just racks with monotubs.
 
Jimster

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I GOT FRUIT!!
I didn't bother things on Christmas day and decided to check on things this cold morning. I opened my tub and lo and behold, I found a couple of caps starting on a few corners. I didn't really see the pins that I was expecting, but the cakes retained their color and didn't appear to be contaminated. I guess I'll know a lot more real soon! My first sucessful mycological project. I also popped enough beans to start another round of the regular project with all new genetics. As shitty as 2020 has been for me so far, things are looking better at the very end of it!
 
Jimster

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Got a question on making the jars up. I saw the process making the medium and topping it with vermiculite before steaming for a while. Would it be feasible to sterilize them in an oven instead of a pressure cooker type of thing? I know that you would need to be careful with the moisture level, more so than steaming, but it sounds like it should work out OK. Any thought from those who have ventured into this process?
 
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