86 replies to this topic

[fahtster]

Ok, not sure if the Prof. will let me call this a TEK or not but i've never seen it before and it works, so...

The Jist of it: creating false edges throughout a casing to promote more pins and fruits with certain strains that like to primarily pin at edges... or where the myc. meets the casing layer.

I kept doing flat casings and getting little to no pins in the middle of the casing but lots of pinning at the edges. so i thought, why do I have to do a flat casing? so what i did was lay out the substrate (wbs with a verm. rez) and after doing so, I took a clean butter knife and starting at one side, cut about 3/4 of the way thru the sub and pushed or mounded up about a 2 inch mound. then went to the other side of the mound and did it again until i got to the otherside.
you'll be able to see what exactly i mean with the pics here in a second. you can start on either side but you need to go from one side to the other so that your substrate doesn't fall back on your newly formed mound.
the way i do it is put three qts. worth of sub on one side of the bin and three on the other. just like i did with the popcorn rez'd bins. some may think this is a waste of that two inches down the middle but it's really not since i still use the same amount of sub. in either case (six qts. total). I believe this allows air/gas exchange for the bottom of the sub. anyhow, after i let those mounded subs. recover for a couple days, i case each mound so they look like so:



what this is doing is creating edges (hence the name) that gives the myc. more options for pinning. Now this is only meant for strains that don't like to pin from the casing top but from the sides. heres a couple pix of the mazzies that I just did with this tek. as you can see from the second pic... there are little to no pins coming from the casing layer itself, most are coming from the sides of the casing layer or the gap that i formed with the knife. :)

fahtster

Edited by Sidestreet, 05 October 2016 - 05:07 AM.

[motograter]

This may cure the problem I've been seeing with my B+. I've been getting 3-5 mushies per flush. Almost all on the outer edges of the tray. Think I'll try this with the next flush.

Great idea!! By the pics, it works really well.

[Mortandello]

Mr Fahtster:

can i translate your " new tek" to portuguese and make it avvaillable for brazilian growers through cogumelosmagicos.org, telling where did i get it (bu using your pictures) giving all credits to you and all?(i would put the link to your thread too) i really liked this tek :)

[fahtster]

go for it. :)

fahtster

[Mortandello]

holl:dance:y thanks :

[Im A Fungi]

That is an original idea... I'd like to try it myself.

[Mortandello]

That is an original idea... I'd like to try it myself.

like all from him!
i am reading his tek index and almost crying in hapinnes :) :eusa_pray

[apokalypse]

Maybe append a list of strains that you've encountered that only pin @ edges? Nice writeup :)

[scotia]

What strain is that? And, what strains do you think work best with your 'edging' tek?

Nice idea btw

[fahtster]

those are mazatapec. PESA's are another one that i experienced the edge pinning with... i'm sure theres a bunch more out there. or it could very well be that any strain will have substrains that prefer edges. who knows. but it definately happens. the quick pinning strains like tex, pf, pfrs etc. don't seem to have an edge preference. you can tell edge pinning strains/substrains on cakes really easy... they usually pin slower and at where the DEC meets the cake. ime anyhow. :)

fahtster

[apokalypse]

Maybe it's got something to do with the moisture content in the vermiculite?

[fahtster]

could be, but i definately keep a close eye on casing wetness... if anything, a wet casing promotes more pinning at edges. maybe they are too wet. /me shrugs.

fahtster

[alex27]

hmm edging huh..sounds good to me...I have read of putting "valleys" or "scratches" on a casing layer ..but have also read not to do this ..this is kind of the same...
what if you had edges all over even more than you have now?
and what about not casing it?

[fahtster]

theres definately room for improvement in any tek. I highly doubt anyone will replicate this exactly. i never have done someone else's tek to the T before. like you can see that the ends of the bin isn't pinning as fast as the middle.. i think this is because of the tyvek filters i put in the press and seal lid. the temps started dropping along with the rh in my region. this is causing the bin to dry out a little more at the ends. it's still going to finish out ok, just not as fast as the middle.. you can see in the pics that it's just starting to pin up nicely. so next time i'll probably either eliminate the filters on the lid or make them much smaller.. but probably just get rid of them. i think this accomplishes the same as scratching without harming the sub. definately a different procedure tho. as far as having no casing at all, i don't think that the pin count would be as high if there wasn't a casing at all... BUT, I'm actually doing an EQ sub with these mounds without a casing, so you will get to see an answer to your question in about a week. :)

fahtster

[reverend trips]

Neat! You must be thinking all the time Fahster:)
I love all your work, don't ever stop:bow:

[golly]

I like it Faht...The best pin formation always seems to occur at the intersection of high oxygen ,high humidity, moist substrate and light..
Your Tek maximizes all those parameters...
And for Cake lovers - U could line up half cakes in rows and case em for similar effect..I have done that with Panaeolus , worked well..
Nice goin Man....

[Mortandello]

I like it Faht...The best pin formation always seems to occur at the intersection of high oxygen ,high humidity, moist substrate and light..
Your Tek maximizes all those parameters...
And for Cake lovers - U could line up half cakes in rows and case em for similar effect..I have done that with Panaeolus , worked well..
Nice goin Man....

thanks for the addendun! i was really thinkin in doing that too!
and the strain PESA is my favorite too, i think im triyng this tek with 3 cakes, cutted by half and placed as TRAINS in paralele inside a tub :)
the guys from cogumelos magicos really liked this new tek :)

[Hippie3]

there is nothing new under the sun, they say.

see patrick's sliced flat cake tek

[Nabby]

There was an online tek I read once that suggested doing this. I think they called it "raking"... anyway, it's a good idea... more people should mess with it. At the very least, more surface area means more places for mushies to grow...

[Pixie Dust]

Can you do this with pf style cakes?:eusa_pray:eusa_pray:eusa_pray

Can you cut up cakes and do the same? because Im going to try something with some cakes. :)