14 replies to this topic

[doobydoobydoo]

Here's how I dunk my pf cakes in a bucket.



Step 1
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Clean off any excess verm. Either from the birthed cakes as shown here, or off the cakes from your terrarium, and toss the cakes into the bucket. Check them for contams, and if they look like they may have some, so not dunk with the good cakes as it will spread.



http://mycotopia.net...62&d=1139795006


http://mycotopia.net...64&d=1139795006


http://mycotopia.net...66&d=1139795006



Step 2
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Fill the bucket with tap water (I have "city" water, not a well), and put something on top to keep them submerged. In this case I used an old tupperware thing and a partially filled gallon of water. :) Screens, or whatever you may have, will work also.



http://mycotopia.net...67&d=1139795093

http://mycotopia.net...68&d=1139795093




Step 3
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After the dunk time is over, take off that weight thing, take out the cakes, and pat dry with paper towels, and put back into your terrariums recasing with verm. The water might be a little nasty lookin, no big deal. Try to dump this water and excess verm outside if possible. Verm will not rot if flushed down the drain, it's not organic, so we don't want to clog up the pipes. :)



http://mycotopia.net...69&d=1139795093

http://mycotopia.net...71&d=1139795093




... Then wait for the fruits...



:)

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[FLcubiefan]

For someone a little Greener, like myself, would dunking them all together be a horrible contam risk, or should i take the extra effort and dunk them all seperate?

[arezap]

No bleach, peroxide or anything ddd?

[doobydoobydoo]

No bleach, peroxide or anything ddd?

no, nothing cept water from the faucet :)

[doobydoobydoo]

For someone a little Greener, like myself, would dunking them all together be a horrible contam risk, or should i take the extra effort and dunk them all seperate?

Well, as I said, inspect them as you clean them, if you think it's got contams, don't dunk with the rest otherwise it's sure to spread and be bad. You'd probably want to dunk them each in their own containers or bags from what you are saying.

After dunking something you think may have contams, or a cake you may have say, cut in half a tossed the bad part, you can do a short bleach DIP. NOT A DUNK, but a dip. Very short time, only 10min max. Use a solution of 1 part bleach to 200 parts water. 1:200. This will kill anything bad on the outsides of the cake, and sorta makes the cakes look like hell, but they grow back just fine. It kills all molds, including the outer parts of the cake slightly, but it does recover. I can't suggest dunking contamed cakes though, just not a good idea at all. It is possible though to clean them a bit and remove bad parts (sometimes...), and in case of danger, to help, the dip can be of great assistance. Bleach Dip Info From Topia's Archive

Here's some dunking info from the archives as well: Dunking Info From Topia's Archives

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[OZ]

for individual dunking, i have been dunking the cakes in their own jars, just fill with water... the cake will hit the lid cuz it flots, so 6/7th of the entire cake will be submerged

[OZ]

do you re-use that verm???

[arezap]

Faof dunks each cake in their jars with a bottle cap used to keep them submerged and puts them in the fridge for 8-12 hours. Foaf thinks you cannot always see contams, especially if they're inside the cake and have not surfaced yet, so keeps the cakes all separate instaed of bulk dunking. Foaf hasn't had any luck cleaning up contammed cakes, the bleach seems to delay the recontamination for a week or so, even if the bad part was cut out, but that's all. Now they just promptly toss any contaminated cakes.

[doobydoobydoo]

Great write up and pictorial Dooby!!!!!

Thank you. :)

do you re-use that verm???

Nope, toss it out. I could probably oven sterilize it, but I don't bother. Some of it goes into the veggie garden and tilled under, sometimes, but not always.

Any Refridgeration? And how many hours of a dunk?

No refridgeration.

I dunno, don't really want to put a definate time stamp on the dunk. The dunk time varies depending on how the cakes feel and the strain. Sometimes the cakes feel more moist then others just by weight, other times they feel very light and dry and airy. Those get longer dunks in most cases.

The strain makes a difference too from what I have seen. Some love dunking, some only like short dunks. Tex I dunk the longest of anything I've worked with so far. Very rare that I'll have a cake collapse from too long of a dunk. Other strains, can't think off which off the top of my head, I would not dare do as long a dunk cuz I've had the cakes crumble apart after and be all soft and basically, just crap out and die.

As a rule, I'd work with a short 8 hr dunk at first, see how the cakes are and if they still feel solid and/or dryish, they could take a longer dunk next time. I wouldn't do some more than 18hrs. Tex, I've dunked some of them as long as 26hrs and they were solid still and fruited awesome. :) so..... Others I've done 12 hr dunks, dunk in the am, take em out and back into chambers at night. Kinda gotta see what works in your situation. 8-18hrs is a good range unless they are really really dry or a hardy ass myc strain I'd summerize.

[python]

the massive dunker DDD

[doobydoobydoo]

makes the tex grow big and strong :) heh and everything else for that matter. heheheh

[Lefty]

Nice pics Doob! Did you clean/scrape the cakes much?

[Hippie3]

excellent write up
archive material

ziplock baggies make handy dunk containers too
and i do prefer to refrigerate if the dunk time > a couple hours.