Inspired By sandman
Revised and simplified for apartment dwellers by : indicaz
Performed by: The Dog
The idea here was to use sandman's idea using Huge gusseted poly bags as a terrariium and enclosed environment for total neglect and ease of maintenence. I believe he was originally inspired by the monotub/dub tub idea.
I took this idea a step further and decided that since the bags were so large I would use a total of 40 pounds of horse poop/coir and would spawn such substrate with a total of 12 quart jars of the amazonian variety.
I also needed to simplify things as well as modify some things being that we are using such a LARGE amount of substrate.
In the following TEK I will disclose step by step how I went about doing this.
on 10/21 Popcorn Quarts were made and innoculated using LC, the jars colonized exceptioanlly fast further making me a firm believer in my new lid style... I also have found that if you leave your popcorn jars out for 5 or so days after you pressure cook the corn seem to age somewhat... As long as you see no contams go ahead and innoculate... The mycelium grew very quickly on the aged popcorn for some reason.. More about this later.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
A brick of coir and a brown paper large shopping bag full of shredded horse poop were added to this bin and re hydrated using warm water for about 20 minutes... The dog soaked said substrate to field capacity and mixed it up real well!
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162304698
My dog then sniffed and approved of the combination :) and loaded said poop/coir mix into a pillowcase as shown, this was allowed to further leach out on the lid of the bin for a lil while... somewhere around 20 minutes
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162304698
This pillowcase after drained was added to a bin, and several heavy iron skillets were placed on top of the bag, for safetys sake the dog decided to add 1 CUP of HYDRATED LIME to the mix for pasteurization
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
In the meantime the dog decided it was time to start heating water... 2 pots were filled with tap water and allowed to simmer till the temperature of 165-170 Farenheight was achieved. A candy thermometer was used.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
The thermometer was left in pot during simmer , and when ready was removed from pot . Make sure you have the temps correct! You must use a thermometer to test your water
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
During the simmering process various jars were selected.. I selected 12 jars fro this large project, my reasoning was not to be wasteful but rather for yield and speed of colonization of the substrate. I also have ready in larger commercial bulk production they use A ton of spawn to prevent contams. Im not sure but i believe this may be called Super Spawning
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
The HOT water that was at 165-17- Farenheight was added to the bin and the bin was covered.... The water covered the pillow case by no less then 5 inches.... the dog likes to really immerse the pillowcase for shits and giggles
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
This was allowed to soak for 70 minutes! I dont suggest going any less!
Do not let your temps go over 180F, anything over can damage crucial and beneficial bacteria. We arent trying to sterilize, just pasteurize.
The resulting soak after 70 minutes is shown below.... As you can see alot of yucky stuff rose to the top
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
The pillow case was then removed and allowed to drain right in the sink... I let it drain for an hour or so... at which time i lifted the bag up for awhile and no additional liquid drained out. Also during this time the pillowcase cooled down a great deal.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
The piilow case was then put back into the bin that was well rinsed. and allowed to sit a bit more for drainage and cooling.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
The pillow case was then loaded into the poly bag, the whole pillowcase.... and when the whole pillowcase was inside the bag it was turned upside down and unloaded inside the bag. The dog did this so no poop//coir got all over the place. Also this way you dont touch substrate more then u have too.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
After being loaded into the bag, the bag was lifted off table and moved around a bit, kinda shaken.. so that the layer of poop/coir was even, from this point it was pretty cool, but needed some more cooling time, so the dog gave it about another 20 minutes
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
The below pic is the resulting mixture of coir and poop loaded into the bag
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
During this additional cooling stage a second look at the jars was given to make sure everything was 100%
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
Also during this cooling process X's were made in the bag every 4-5 inches for polyfill vents... This is very important . the bag will need quite a bit of air exchange considering the amount of spawn and substrate.. This bag will wind up weighing mor ethen 50 pounds
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
Holes were made and poly fill was added, I used a steak knife to make the holes and my finger to make the holes bigger....
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
A better view of all the poly fill holes without the addition fo the 2 holes up top on the top of the bag, u will need to add 2 more holes at the top of the bag as well.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
jars were then broken up, and shaked in preperation of spawning
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
Jars were emptied out inside the bag and a then mixed very well!! make sure the grain spawn is properly distributed and dosent end up in all the corners or on the bottom. try to make it so the polyfill IS NOT buried by substrate although the dog had a small problem with this as I added the poly fill holes before I added spawn, I would suggest doing it after you add spawn , however if you dont , have no fear it should all work out anyways.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
The huge bag was the placed on a shelf with the top part of the bag pulled ttightly and secured in an upwards direction... This is important we are trying to build a tent... you do not want any saggy upper portions of the bag... This will serve as its terrarium throught the cycle.. No misting will be needed... makle sure to keep the bag in the dark for the next 7 days at approx 74 farenheight
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
This is the same bag incubating after 2 days! as you can see mycelium is recovering and looks very good. I think this will be ready to start giving light within 5 more days due to the large amount of spawn used.
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1162305140
I hope this helps people and if you have any questions feel free to ask...
Im not sure that I covered everything and I will revise this as I can. However reading over this I seem to have covered most of the details... Yes I know it seems so simple!
Thats because it is.
Any questions?
Peace
Indi
