Ecuador Grow Journal #1

Genetics- Sporeworks Ecuador (4 syringes)

Spawn- 10 lbs wild bird seed

Spawn containers- quart mason jars filled 1/2 way with 2 holes a little over 1/4 inch each for gas exchange.

Gas exchange filtration- Pollyfill

Substrate- 10 pounds High Mountain compost mixed with local pasturized straw.

Substrate depth- 4 inches.

Fruiting chambers- I bought 9 13 gallon "12 tall clear totes that I will use as many as I can for this grow. I will line with several layers of black trash bags to prevent side pinning or (more likely) will ducktape the sides of the tubs.

humidity- n/a (monotubs)

temperature control- yes

Hey guys its about to be summer so lets get this shit goin! Will be simmering and Pressure cooking for 60 minutes tonight. Anybody think 2 1/4 inch holes is to much for the gas exchange? (ive only done cakes up until now) I will be knocking each qt. mason jar up tomorrow with 10cc spore solution each.

quick question I have read conflicting info on this so I thought I would ask. After I strained my wbs from simmering it is still pretty wet. is that ok? some people say for it to be all the way dry on the outside, but the tek im following simply states to let strain for 20 mins.?

I have had success with this tek. http://www.shroomery.org/9030/Docs-Wild-Bird-Seed-Tek
"Drain: Dump your WBS back into your strainer and allow this to set and drain for 20 minutes. You may want to cover it with the lid or foil to keep the top layer from drying out during this step."
Make sure it isn't dripping water, but doesn't need to be dry.

Yeah thats the same one im following ok good cuz mine isnt dry by any means. but the strainers werent dripping so ill be ok.

could someone confirm this is ok?

uh yeah nvm spend all day drying the seed.......whhhuuuh! Pics of work later.

ok fuck man this is upsetting me opened the fuckin pc and moisture got all up in my jars. Ive been workin to hard for this shit and im just mad as fuck. hesitant to even try again till I get a response.

Did you have foil over the lids?

yeah dude two coffee filters with rubber bands with aluminum foil over that

well I guess ill just let these jars sit here till tomorrow if these fuck up im going to blow the fuck up

I've never pc'd with coffee filters under the foil, did a different tek tell you to do this? Seems like it would be harder for the foil to stick around the lid and filter could also absorb water. Is there water settled in the bottom of the jars or just a little moisture?

theres both, ill just ducktape the foil to the jars tomorrow I guess.

Newbie at mushie cultivation but I'm thinking let them sit and then re-sterilize?

I'm no authority for info... very little actual experience having received previously inoculated jars for my one and only grow. I am in the learning boat tagging along. Try pm'ing some others if you need more attention. Choempi, Darthd3vl (i think that's how you spell it) or someone. Check the sticky.

why bird seed? why not go direct to rye? it has better characteristics all around.

I think wbs allows the mycelium to colonize a bit faster than rye...and in my experience, it took my rye/verm cakes FOREVER to colonize and even longer to fruit. I understand this tek is referring to monotubs, but when it comes to colonization, you would still want the fastest method, which I believe is actually bird seed or brown rice flour. My BRF cakes actually took longer to colonize than my rye, but not only did I start those jars about a week later than the rye jars, but the temperature was too low at the start of colonization. Once birthed, it took about 4-5 days for the first pins to appear, and one of my brf cakes actually began fruiting in vitro BEFORE the damn cake was even 100% colonized! lol I was shocked! Anyway, you just just remove the excess water & let them SLIGHTLY dry out on the tops, then shake the jars, and repeat sterilization WITHOUT the coffee filters. If you must use them, make sure that you cut or fold them in such a way that they only cover the opening of the jar and not the side of the rim. you want the foil to create a nice seal, and even with the lids on, if the coffee filter is exposed to moisture, it will soak up the steam and deposit unwanted excess water into the jars.

Edit: Here's a pic of my first EVER cubensis (Cambodian) to grow from brown rice flour/vermiculite cakes. These 2 shrooms weighed 30g alone...I cant wait to see how many wet grams I can flush off my first 7 cakes! Good luck with the monos and keep us updated!

Then I am not connnecting with the process. I have done it the old fashion way. Innoculate the grain, when you see growth, shake the grain. Usually that one shake is enogh and you get complete coverage about a week from that shake.

Actually, I believe that is where I fucked up with my grain...I shook the jars about a week after I noticed the first signs of growth, but you're actually supposed to wait until they are about 40-50% colonized before you shake. I think the reason for that is because if you have only a small amount of mycelium, it may be damaged in the shaking process and die. However, if there is a substantial amount of it, shaking may still damage or kill some of the mycelium, but the amount that is still intact is more than sufficient to complete colonization...sometimes faster than originally expected.

ok so I put the duct taped aluminum foil jars in the pc so lets see what happens.

IlEastmanlI said:

Actually, I believe that is where I fucked up with my grain...I shook the jars about a week after I noticed the first signs of growth, but you're actually supposed to wait until they are about 40-50% colonized before you shake. I think the reason for that is because if you have only a small amount of mycelium, it may be damaged in the shaking process and die. However, if there is a substantial amount of it, shaking may still damage or kill some of the mycelium, but the amount that is still intact is more than sufficient to complete colonization...sometimes faster than originally expected.

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In my experience it is very difficult to damage mycelium by shaking, to the point that it won't grow. Even a single cell will continue on. I don't want to pass judgements on other teks but I have done it this way for quite some time. I find that if one uses rye cooked at the right grain to water ratio, no added ingredients where the final level of the grain is at about 1/3 from the bottom there needs to be no air exchange. I have done many agar to grain inoculations where two bits of agar and two shakes will colonize a jar in about a week. I recently did this with Shaggy mane and got full colonization in 5 days.

I have never used injection ports in Quart Jars and rarely have I used any sort of breather port. I most often use the blended petrie dish method where a dish is dumped into sterile water and put in a blender. If anything would damage mycelium this would but 5 to 15 seconds works pretty well - I have enough from one dish to innoculate several dozen quart jars at a couple of ccs per. The jars will tend to colonize in short order and growth will only slow after 10 days or so. If I am still not able to use my spawn, I can open the jar while it is upside down and get another weeks worth of favorable growth. Even if I do not, the mycelial mass only slows down, it does not die and revives very rapidly upon exposure to air. The real problem with shaking is the distribution of any contamination. Wet spot is the most common bacterial infection and one shake will quickly inhibit all further mycelial growth, making it look as though you had killed the mycelium. But if you are doing any sort of spawn from the jar, your contamination is still present so avoiding shaking simply puts the problem downstream to the next multiplication.