Strain: B+ (isolate, same as the invitro bag grow)
Inoculation source: liquid culture
Substrate: popcorn spawned to coir/castings/poly
Spawn bag: medium pre-sealable w/ filter patch (from sporeworks.com)
Coir: General Hydroponics CocoTek
Hydration source: EarthJuice tea + GH Chi
Incubation: 16 days @ 83F (+/- 1F)
Time from casing to first pin: 6 days
Four cups of popcorn (per bag) were hydrated with EarthJuice by simmering in a double boiler for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Popcorn at full hydration can be easily sliced with a fingernail. Less than %3 of kernels had split at completion. The hydrated popcorn was dumped into a colander and stirred in front of a fan until mostly cool (about 15 minutes).
Four cups of bulk substrate (per bag) were prepared. Substrate composition was (by hydrated weight): %40 coir, %40 worm castings and %20 polyacrylamide. The coir and castings were hydrated to field capacity with EarthJuice in separate containers. The polyacrylamide was left a little dry (not fully hydrated). After hydration, components were weighed and mixed to the stated percentages.
The EarthJuice tea was a mix of Grow, Catalyst, Microblast (per the “hydroponics fertilizer” recipe on the label). Added to this was %.5 worm castings and %10 General Hydroponics Chi (by volume). The tea was “brewed” for 72 hours at 68F-72F under constant aeration (using an air stone and aquarium pump). Tea not used immediately was canned in quart jars and sterilized @ 15psi for 1 hour (for later use). EarthJuice tea spoils quickly – use it or loose it (or can it!).
The bulk substrate was poured into the bottom of an autoclavable spawn bag and packed *LOOSELY* into the bag’s expanded bottom. The popcorn was then poured on top of the substrate. These layers were NOT mixed. The spawn bag was triple Impulse sealed while still containing a good volume of “dead air” space (approximately as much air by volume as popcorn/substrate). The bags were PCed @ 15psi for 1.5 hours and cooled (in the PC) overnight.
The bags looked like this after the PC run:
(as always, click any pic to enlarge)
More substrate could (perhaps should) have been used. This was very quick, though…
Each bag was inoculated with 40mL of B+ liquid culture. Inoculation took place in a “mondo ghetto” laminar flow work station. The inoculation hole was covered first with electrical tape and then duct tape. Bags were incubated @ 83F for approximately 6 days until the popcorn layer was fully colonized. The bags were then kneaded thoroughly to mix the popcorn and bulk substrate, after which they were again *LOOSELY* packed and incubated for another 10 days until the substrate was fully colonized. The spawn bags were not opened at all during this process.
After approximately 16 days, the “bulk nugget” looked like this:
This isolate displays some crazy rhizomorphs. Almost like little trees.
The bulk nuggets were cased with pure coir and pure vermiculite in two different ways. One was covered on top with coir and surrounded with verm. The other was split, 50/50 with coir and verm. The coir and verm were hydrated to field capacity with tap water. After casing, the nuggets were placed in the fruiting environment. Pins showed up six days later. These pics are day seven. Please pardon the stoned photographer for letting the lens get foggy!
This is the “pre-harvest” pic of the 50/50 nugget:
Pre-harvest pics of the other nugget sucked, so they weren't included.
This isolate certainly seems to prefer coir over vermiculite as a casing layer. The casings were done like this to see which would work better, but the differences were not expected to be this dramatic. It's kind of weird, actually. FOAF suspects it has a lot to do with this particular isolate.
It is ver interesting that this isolate produced mostly uniform (smaller) fruits invitro while producing mostly boomers cased. This is such a cool hobby...
A major road trip has come up, so this will be the last photo update for a week or so...hopefully, these nuggets won't have cobweb beards upon return like FOAF came home to after the last unexpected road trip!
Attached Thumbnails
Edited by BuckarooBanzai, 08 September 2009 - 06:39 PM.
