I've been wanting to start growing again after a few PF Teks in my early 20's. The gist is that I wanted to try stepping up a bit and like many others, love tech & automation and have seen the arguments both for and against automation. Long story short, I want to dabble and work towards a proof of concept. So far I obtained spores from Mushrooms(dot)com, was supposed to get 1 PE syringe and 1 pan cyan jamaican print, however they were out of that print so without asking to specify they just sent me the syringe of the cyans too. Ive been reading and watching everything I could on the steps to a next level grow and was able to build a pretty badass (IMO) portable flow hood that uses an inline duct fan to get the CFM to 100 (actual CFM 107). I created 4 32qt tubs for fruiting and modified a Crane Drop humidifier to handle all 4 tubs with the use of "t's", although I don't expect it to run all the time.
To start my flow hood was set up in the doorway of a closet to minimize the air flow around the environment. After spraying and wiping it all down, I used the syringes with pre-poured PDA agar dishes I sourced from Etsy. Next time I'd like to pour my own but I wanted to eliminate at least 1 contam vector and cut my startup work a tiny bit with the plan to make half Penis Envy and half Pan Cyan Jamaican. As for my noob agar procedure lol, I did just one ms drop off of an inoculating loop I made from 18ga SS vape wire that I twisted with a drill and secured in an Exacto knife handle and sterilized. I've never done agar and I def think I need practice so I don't gouge it lol. I dont know if the loop was too big, wire too thin, agar too soft, but when I tried to streak the various lines and patterns it would catch and dig in to the agar. Nonetheless, I flamed the tip in between each streak.
Currently for incubation I have all the dishes inside a smaller tub on top of a dry towel, then placed inside one of the 32qt tubs on top of a seedling mat thats controlled by an Inkbird temp/humid controller keeping it within 5 degrees of 83. Currently there aren't plans for the Inkbird hygrometer; I imagine I could hook a fan up to it but again, I doubt on the small scale it'd be needed much anyway. They have been incubating for 11 days and now im HAPPY to say, I have lots of growth, both good and bad, and likely need to transfer but need to make sure im not grabbing anything im not supposed to lol. The green colonies are obvious, but want to be sure the others are mycelium before doing all the work. I thought the pan cyans weren't working but then I spotted the thinner and almost transparent look of it as it starts. Some plates still have absolutely nothing still. Any suggestions or feedback regarding the transfers is greatly appreciated. Im excited and grateful to be a part of this community ;-p
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Edited by scofos83, 17 March 2020 - 10:46 PM.
I had spawned to bulk sub of manure/straw, verm, and some gypsum. Cased with peat/verm/calcium carbonate. Misted and placed back in original closet. Due to drastic temp flux I made the decision (with girls approval haha) to move into the closet in the other room. After wiping down and cleaning I set it up the same which was 2 tubs stacked on each side with the humidifier between them, along with a heating pad both hooked to Inkbird controller. Everything seemed good once set up, however got case of noob paranoia coupled with the threads reminding over and over you cant just crank it up and walk away so I kept checking every hour or so and went to bed. I woke up in the am to inkbird alarm on humidity because excessive condensation had pooled in the tube leading to the control tub and blocked the humidity and air flow. Im guessing lack of FAE, high humidity/temp, and/or a rushed setup introduced me to cobweb mold. And wow it IS impressively fast. The one tub went from small dime size to 3/4 of casing surface overnight and a second has small circular splotch. I treated with Hydrogen peroxide spray and seemed to clear it up. I fixed the condensation issue by using a space heater in the actual room and tweaked the humidity system based on JOC tek idea with central reservoir. I also got a Germ guardian air purifier that had $50 rebate:), UV, and Hepa to clean and add some flow. I first had it up on the top shelf on its side angled to blow downward towards the closet door and a small Vornado personal size fan to add some flow back up.
