35 replies to this topic

[Hippie3]

if you aren't dunking,
you're missing out on a lot of shrooms,
dunking boosts yields by anywhere
from 50-100%
worthwhile, imhfo.

[reverend trips]

i have a few jars of rye berries about 80% colinized, and with my schedule i won't be able to put this project together for a couple of weeks.
should i put these jars in the fridge? if so, should i do it now or when they are fully colonized?
or will they be ok if i just keep them in the incubater?
thanks.

[reefer]

I would wait until they are fully colonized and then refrigerate. I had a similar situation only with BRf cakes and I thought that lowering the temp would slow it down enough that it would finish colonizing when I wanted it to. Lowering the temp seemed to bring colonization to a complete stop, however. (or at least it was so slow I didn't notice anything) Now I'm ready to make some casings but the jars are still colonizing.

One good tip I got from Hippie though - when you refrigerate the spawn make sure it is sealed so it doesn't dry out.

[reverend trips]

will do. thanks for the help!

[destroy_erase_improve]

ive never heard of refridgerating stopping colonization totally after it is taken out of the fridge. wonder why that happened

[reefer]

"ive never heard of refridgerating stopping colonization totally after it is taken out of the fridge. wonder why that happened"

It didn't stop after it was taken out of the fridge, it happened while it was in the fridge.

Its colonizing fine now, it just put me a little more behind schedule than I had planned.

[vrooota]

My first bulk project was castings and coir. Due to a lack of time, fully colonized jars sat around waiting to be used for longer than I would have liked. Also, when preping my substrate I was paranoid about getting it too muddy as that was what many had warned against. Consequently I made it too dry, methinks. A week later, no growth, so I hydrated it a little more and poked some more holes in the oven bag it is incubating in. Surprisingly I finally have some growth from my dormant spawn (I love how big rhizo's get on poop!!!) and no contams yet (2 weeks). The question is: Will the myc ever take over the box enough to fruit or did I stunt it by letting it get old in the jars? MY guess is that the green will take over before it pins, but I'd like to hope otherwise, any suggestions, comments are more than welcome, as I seem to have run into a spell of odd luck with my grows (contams I can't put a finger on ect.)
peace

[morthos]

How old are these jars? I've used jars that have been sitting around for a couple weeks, plus a few days in the 'frige, without problems. When I use older jars of wbs, I scrape away the top layer as it's often dried out.

I'm thinking it may be better to use a filter patch of some sort than poking holes in the oven bags...if you've contam issues, could they not enter through the holes? Be ruthless man!

[vrooota]

couple weeks after after full colo is the jar age
From what I've been told the more fresh air the better as far as contams go, the container is what you might call a mini-LB (dehydration may be a problem)

[highflyer]

Getting anykind of prebagged manure too wet is one of its most common flaws. It will become muddy. Thats one of the several reasons why id always suggest manure directly from the stables if you are going to use manure.

Aside from that....spawn that is several weeks past full colonization is still ok to use. Its fine to go ahead and hydrate the substrate further as you did.

[anticheffy]

I use my spawn so slowly that I often have fully colonized jars sit in a tub for 3 or 4 months and they still seem to do well

Some people say that bacteria will set in after a month or so but it hasnt happened to me yet

[night_ryder]

could i spawn 2 rye cakes to some straw after their second flush, to improve the third flush, or would the myc be to old and not able to recolonise itself and the straw?

[synth]

well, there's that..
but probably more of a concern is this:

the spawn wouldn't be fresh.. you've handled
it some, and it's been exposed to plenty of nasties..
if you break it up and introduce new stuff
for it to colonize, mold spores and stuff that've
landed on it may take over on the straw.

the risk of contam would be significantly higher, probably.

[night_ryder]

i guess so, i think i will just make a flat cake after the third flush, see if i can't sqeeze anything out of it