| First off - greetings! Long time, no see....
Flax - use it whole, in small amounts. Flax powder will turn to a hideous slimey gunk if you use very much at all. Just a dab will do ya.
Bee Pollen - very expensive...but you only need a pinch per cake, really. Works nice in liquid cultures and agar, too. But again, just a tiny pinch (or a knife point, if that is more familiar).
Agar is fun. Pectin is a shitty substitute. Pectin is full of sugars that will throw off your nutrient mix and favor contaminants. Also, pectin forms a really weak gel. If you want a cheap substitute, you can get agar (also called Kanten) from oriental food stores. Be aware, food grade agar can be a bitch to dissolve fully, unless you can get flakes in a plastic/mylar bag. Flakes are reasonably easy to dissolve, but you need HOT water and LOTS of stirring.
Dropping the cash on lab grade agar is well worth it. A little goes a long way, making plates, by the way.
The secret to the polyfill port on a regular bag is to get it tight enough to keep out contams but loose enough to allow air flow. This is almost impossible to achieve without a stiff tube (PVC pipe, for instance) around the polyfill. You just can't grab a wad of polyfill tight enough without choking off the air flow. A little fresh air is crucial to success with bags.
Don't worry about overlay. It isn't really a problem with cubensis. Cubies will fruit quite nicely from a totally white mycelia "overlay." The only problem is later, after the first flush, trying to rehydrate. But that is what dunks are for... |