26 replies to this topic

[Jigalow]

It seems my pcorn is drying out faster then it is colonizing..
Do I take a risk if I use it as spawn if it's not fully colonized?
Or, should I ride it out let it complete before use?

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[mushhut]

If the mycelium hasn't full colonized don't use it as spawn. You would just be wasting time and materials. I seen here one time about sombody adding steral water to the jar can work. I tried it with a jar drying out and it failed. Adding water to the spawn didn't work out for me but it may have for sombody else. I don't know of what else to tell you to do about drying out spawn. U can try to add water but I would use 1/4 to 1/2 cc of water if you want to try to save the jars.

[Jigalow]

Thanks Mush, think I'm kinda fucked.... I'll try to shoot
it and wet it a bit...

[Skatterman420]

I think like 1-2 cc's of water then shake the shit out of the popcorn to distribute it.


Oh and turn it on it's side and roll it over to a diff side every once in a while

[scientia]

that corn still looks fairly hydrated. is it cubensis growing on it, or pans?

if it'd cubensis, i'd say it's probably contaminated. that wispy growth is usually a sign there is something else growing in there competing with the mycelium.

i'd toss it and move on to another batch. i don't see the injecting water working very well, imo.

[Jigalow]

It's cube, shoot with 10 cc's of LC. I shot it light as
I was sooo worried about over wetting....a little over a week old.

[TastyBeverage]

What is your prep like? And are you concerned because it just looks dry or is the growth actually stalling out?

[dial8]

Tasty is getting to the jist of things. We need to know if its really drying out or not. We need to know your prep and your lid set up. You can always inject sterile water but you really want to do it right from the beginning.

[Jigalow]

I used fahtster prep, and it came out perfect. But now it seems
the MYc has almost stoped and the corn is losing size and wrinkling.



Here is fahtster's Prep

this is how I prepare corn... it's really easy.
Popcorn prep. - First, put your corn in the PC without your jar rack (the plate the PC comes with to keep the jars off the bottom of the pc.) and cover with at least three inches of water.
you can probably go a little less once you get the hang of how much the dry kernels will absorb. on average the kernel will expand 3 times it's size.
Now PC at 15 psi for 1 hour. after an hour, turn off the PC and left the pressure adjust back to zero... once the safety nob drops, you can unscrew the lid. be very careful.. the PC will still be very hot. don't let the steam get ya in the face.
Now pour the corn into a strainer. I rinse off the corn with hot water first. the kernels will have lots of starch on them.. if you rinse with cold water first the starch will coegulate making it a bitch to get off. rinsing is a very important part of the process... you want to get the kernels as free from starch as possible. once you've rinsed with hot water... rinse with cold. this will cool the kernels down making them easier to handle and also 'tighten' the kernel up making it not so mooshy.
once rinsed, i let the corn sit for a few minutes to drain. Next i lay down a piece of paper towel and lay the corn on top of that in a single kernel layer. then i place another piece of paper towel on top of the corn layer and roll my hands lightly over the corn.

again, it's not what you use, it's how you use it.

fahtster

[Jigalow]

I'll get some better pics brb..

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[dial8]

What do your lids look like?

[Shroomette]

I agree with Tasty but, a lot of times we overlook the fact that popcorn absorbs the moisture content. So, if it is really dry I would at 1 or 2 cc's of sterile water imo.

[Jigalow]

I added the new pics to my last post.
The lid is a sealed Whatman filter disc with an a tab of micro spore tape.

[TastyBeverage]

Hmmm... are you maybe leaving the lids too loose? :eusa_thin

The only other thing i can think of is that the grains just aren't hydrated enough when they go into the jar. Do you do the bite test? The grain should be kind of al dente, not soft like canned corn obviously, but kind of chewy like a garbonzo bean.

[Jigalow]

1st off thanks for helpin' out guys/gals. :bow:

Yep, at prep they seemed fully hydrated.
This is my 1st stab at PopCorn let me add.
Humidity or lack of, is an on going battle for me.
Lids are tight and the filter is small and sealed in.

[Jigalow]

The grain should be kind of al dente, not soft like canned corn obviously, but kind of chewy like a garbonzo bean.

Stop your making me hungry for pasta! lol
But really, they were a bit softer then al dente @ prep.

[TastyBeverage]

I'm kind of new to popcorn too, but what i've been doing is adding a little vermiculite to the bottom of the jar and then putting the grain in a *little bit* wet. Not enough for water to be pooling or anything, i just don't bother to dry the grains off by hand after draining well. The vermiculite absorbs any liquid that trickles down, but keeps it available inside of the jar. They've been turning out perfect so far. :)

As for the current situation, i guess there's not much else you can do but inject a small amount of sterile water. Or you can use what's already colonized to do g2g transfers.

[Jigalow]

Tasty I'm grateful for you taking the time on this post.
I will skip the paper towel dry and try the verm layer
When I start off another batch.

I don't mind shooting the jars with water to rewet them.
how many CC's for a full mason jar would you recommend?

Also how many CC's have you been shooting up your PopCorn
mason Jars with of LC?

[mydarling]

well, i had some jars of wbs that looked like that, like they were drying out pretty bad.... quite sure this is cause we had the dehumidifier in the room to dry weed/shrooms... heh. at first i thought it might be yeast (speckly looking white spots all over grain). but i just left them alone and they colonized fine, maybe a little slow but thats all. just used them to make a monotub! if it was contam, i'm pretty sure the myc overgrew whatever it was & they turned out ok.


quart jar at 5 days after g2g transfer:

http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1228591843

after 24 days of colonization:

http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1228591843

5 jars like that used for spawn into this monotub. 2 days after spawning:

http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1228591843

hopefully yours will recover as well!! again, i just turned off the dehumidifier and left them alone.

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[TastyBeverage]

Yeah i agree, sounds like your environment there is very dry. I would say for a jar that size start out with ~2 cc's and then gently roll the jar around to distribute the water. You can always add a little more if you feel it isn't enough, but once in there you can't get it back out! I don't like to shake my jars if they're already stressed in some way; gives the mycelium less to recover from.

I've been noc'ing my jars with wooden dowels or g2g transfers, so no extra liquid is going into them.

EDIT: Another alternative would be to shoot a whole bunch of sterile water into the jar, shake it up like crazy and then suck the water back out-- instant LC solution in your syringe. You'd have to make an airport though, and it would be tricky based on the configuration of your lid.