14 replies to this topic

[Hippie3]

It's only been about 20 hours since I took them out so it's still kinda hard to tell. They seem to be recovering well. They were still buoyant when I took them out. There is new mycelium growth. 24-48 hours more and I should really know. The other 6 I dunked for 27 hours and they recovered very quickly. I know it's not advised to go that long, but I really wanted them soaked good. The other 6 that had that 27 hour dunk have close to 200 shrooms on them, maybe more, and I know that they are going to suck all that water out in no time. I read a thread where someone did a 3 day dunk and had fine results. He was trying to disprove the "no more than 24 hour dunk" statements we have all read. Also, I read a thread where someone did a 2 day dunk and it was fine, so I figured I would give it a shot. Time will tell.

I am excited to do PE6's. Maybe I will do a couple jars of PE6 with my EQ's. I don't think they have the same fruiting time frame so it may be difficult though.

i'm the guy who started telling folks that 24 hours was a limit,
not that you cannot go longer,
i've gone 2-3 days myself before
but began to see some tissue damage around the 48 hr. mark
so being conservative about wasting other peoples' time and effort
i went short on the safe side.
the real 'key', as such, isn't really the time-
it's the dissolved oxygen in the water,
and bacteria breeding in the nutes leaching from substrate-
both problems are easily solved
simply by changing the dunk water
for fresh water once a day.

[Looky]

I noticed that the 41-42 hour dunked cakes are probably about 2 days behind in recovering than the 27 hour ones. They are recovering, but not nearly as fast. I hope that they will still produce big. Pins are there, but by now the 27 hour cakes would have been completely covered in new mycelium growth and these have a bunch of new mycelium growth, just a little slower.

[gsmith1981]

just curious has anyone ever added a little hydrated lime to their bleach dunk. only reason i ask is because i read some where that if you have a ph of say 9 that contaminates really dont care for it as much. maybe i read wrong thats why i ask.

[Sunstar]

I found if you dunk a tray, such as a tray os sub instead of a cake
a couple mins is good cause the sub absorbs very quickly and will elave it to wet. Instead of dunking subs I found to just pour 1/4 or 1/2 cup of water down the side of the tray just as they are starting to pin helps alot.

[malefacter]

i think it wold be interesting to test how much water it actually absorbs in a certain amount of time to see if it is worth it to soak it longer.

it wold be as simple as weighing the cake before and after.

[mycobri]

i have accidentally left healthy cakes dunking for 4 weeks
and they turned to complete oversaturated mush.

tried to spawn them anyway and they never recovered in time
contams won out :puke:

[rocketman]

i think it wold be interesting to test how much water it actually absorbs in a certain amount of time to see if it is worth it to soak it longer.

it wold be as simple as weighing the cake before and after.

Right, because I always dunked 12-14 hours with great results using tap water. (in the fridge)

I would like to know if 24 is better than 12, or if 48 is better thant 24 etc.

How long does it take for the cake to achieve maximum saturation?

[chimp]

I have been trying multiple(changing water) 3 hour dunks lately and the last time I was pretty lucky..on the 4th flush and things still look real healthy and the new pinsets are impressive. Like Hippie said..changing the water is key.

[eatyualive]

ah good thread.

i may be a chicken but with my subs i generally go 4-8 hours. but if i do more, usually will change the water out after the 8 hour mark. the water will be a dark yellowish color and this is when it is usually changed.

but thats just me. interesting to see some results using dunks that long. are we talking substrates or cakes? i never had the balls to try a dunk that long. but are there any good threads that show some timed dunk experiments?

[Hippie3]

cakes, for the most part. casings are faster by far.
we do have some data on weight totals
but exact times are lacking...
http://archives.myco...html?1043328244

[CoyoteMesc]

I have found that different cakes require different dunk times. This is (imo) because of the differences in the mycel. This may only be a ms thing. A clone may colonize the cake the same way, every time, every cake.

Here is what I mean; Hopefully I can explain it to where it makes sense. Some of my grows colonize the cake and leave it lush and solid white. These cakes are covered in thick mycelium. Mycelium in these situations seem to repel water and NEED the extended dunk times. Other cakes are whispy. The mycelium covers the cake but its so thin you seem to almost see through it in places(off white in color). If dunked for more than twelve to fifteen hours or so the cake seems to become water logged. If it isn't a total loss the damaged cake suffers poor pin set, bacteria due to wet spots, and the recovery times are much greater.

Anyone else experience this?

[Deleena24]

I noticed on the page you referenced it mentions milk dunking, and before this I have never seen anything referring to this in the archives...does it work? What are the pros and cons?

[eatyualive]

cakes, for the most part. casings are faster by far.
we do have some data on weight totals
but exact times are lacking...
http://archives.myco...html?1043328244

thanks for the link.

i don't dunk casings more than 4 hours. but i still dunk em!:headbang::headbang:

sometimes i just flood the casings as well.

I have found that different cakes require different dunk times. This is (imo) because of the differences in the mycel. This may only be a ms thing. A clone may colonize the cake the same way, every time, every cake.

Here is what I mean; Hopefully I can explain it to where it makes sense. Some of my grows colonize the cake and leave it lush and solid white. These cakes are covered in thick mycelium. Mycelium in these situations seem to repel water and NEED the extended dunk times. Other cakes are whispy. The mycelium covers the cake but its so thin you seem to almost see through it in places(off white in color). If dunked for more than twelve to fifteen hours or so the cake seems to become water logged. If it isn't a total loss the damaged cake suffers poor pin set, bacteria due to wet spots, and the recovery times are much greater.

Anyone else experience this?

I find that often as well. that it will become water logged and deteriorate. sometimes half the cake is mushy. and many times, this may also be due to a problem inside your substrate that you may not have known was there. like a bad section of uncolonized substrate. this does cause problems and often the cake will just sit and look soggy a few days afterwards. but, if you use similar recipes and substrates, after a while, you kinda figure out your own time frame for that particular situation.

most of the time, the mycelia is more vigorous 1st flush. continual dunks will ware out your cake.

generally, the higher the flush, the lower the dunk time for me. and ive dunked over 10 flushes. so it can be done. but often ill just toss the spent subs around 4-5 flushes.

i actually use a sink spray nozzle between flushes and use the force of the spray to work like scratching the pinning surface. this really helps on 2nd flushes. but doing this, seems to open up the surface a bit. and may be why the cakes become more water logged.

when i make my substrates, they are very loose, no packing or anything its just laid out light and fluffy. so maybe compacting the substrate more would allow for longer dunk times.

tc, pesh, tex, and seem to be strains that really love the dunks. real dunk hearty strains!

[tricktek]

For experimental purposes, I've been considering using a small compressor to pump air into my soak bucket, similiar to what Stamets said the chinese are doing to prevent contams and encourage growth on large liquid cultures (GGMM). I'm thinking that the added air forced through a bubbler of sorts (such as the plate full of holes used in the bottom of my AA sterelizer) would genlty oxygenate the water and help ensure a healthy cake or straw basket during the dunk. ???

[roc]

I noticed on the page you referenced it mentions milk dunking, and before this I have never seen anything referring to this in the archives...does it work? What are the pros and cons?

I am not a fan of milk dunking. Try it but be careful and don't expect a big diff. Nutes are good to go for at least 4 flushes without any milk or other nute supplement.

Hell I have had 8 flushes off of Hipsters donkey doo...