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07-17-03, 16:38

Some of the things I've learned over the years:

Try and use organic brown rice, you can get it bulk at certain grocery stores around here. I grind in a coffee grinder to get a flour, not a sand consistency.

I don't even put holes in the top of my half-pints anymore, when using an oven for innoc and liberal spraying of 80-80% IPA, I just take the tops off and shoot em up, I lose less than 1 in 30 or so. Flip at 60% colonization and gas transfer is fine.

I've never been able to master the water content of grains, so until recently I've just stuck to PF style growing, well with popcorn it's allot easier. Cook your popcorn (bulk organic at the store) in a pressure cooker with RO water for 60mins, take out and rub dry with a towel, throw 2-3TBS of vermiculite in the bottom of a quart or 1-2 in the bottom of a pint and then pile in the popcorn. Cook again for another 60mins and your done. I've found that even with towel-drying the popcorn, verm is still needed to soak up some of that extra water that gets released from the kernels. I incubate in a dark foam cooler, so I've never had pinning problems.

Use RO or distilled water, not putting 575TDS of city crap into your mushies makes a big difference as well. (RO units are <100$ now for a 3-stage with a deionizer)

Walmart sells a 8$ Hepa for vacuum cleaners, attach that bad boy to your ultrasonics.... makes a HUGE difference with contams.

Use opaque or solid colored tubing to connect all your parts, gets rid of all the funky stuff growing in your clear tubes.

Rather large bottles of IPA can be purchased for under 1$, I run under the rule of SPRAY OFTEN, SPRAY EVERYWHERE.... and I have very few contam issues.

I still have yet to get a decent hygrometer, I judge my ultrasonic output by being able to see a very slight mist coming out of the holes ive made, as long as water is barely sitting on the side of the rubbermade, all is well.

With a decently designed setup, an ultrasonic with an expansion chamber that feeds back into the res, that runs to as many bins as you want will run for at least a week with no interaction required. If all your connections are setup to run down, to a final point, then contams are not an issue when recycling water. Only condensation from the expansion chamber makes it back into the res, and contams very rarely find their way all the way back through my system, especially with periodic H2O2 infusions. Again, use RO water and you will never have a problem, even when running 24/7.

By using quality ingredients in the first place (rice, popcorn, WATER!!!!!) not only can you say you have 100% organic mushies (there is a difference), but you encounter allot less problems and EVERYONE is allot more happy.

07-17-03, 16:38	#80 (permalink)
~ratdog Guest Posts: n/a	Some of the things I've learned over the years: Try and use organic brown rice, you can get it bulk at certain grocery stores around here. I grind in a coffee grinder to get a flour, not a sand consistency. I don't even put holes in the top of my half-pints anymore, when using an oven for innoc and liberal spraying of 80-80% IPA, I just take the tops off and shoot em up, I lose less than 1 in 30 or so. Flip at 60% colonization and gas transfer is fine. I've never been able to master the water content of grains, so until recently I've just stuck to PF style growing, well with popcorn it's allot easier. Cook your popcorn (bulk organic at the store) in a pressure cooker with RO water for 60mins, take out and rub dry with a towel, throw 2-3TBS of vermiculite in the bottom of a quart or 1-2 in the bottom of a pint and then pile in the popcorn. Cook again for another 60mins and your done. I've found that even with towel-drying the popcorn, verm is still needed to soak up some of that extra water that gets released from the kernels. I incubate in a dark foam cooler, so I've never had pinning problems. Use RO or distilled water, not putting 575TDS of city crap into your mushies makes a big difference as well. (RO units are <100$ now for a 3-stage with a deionizer) Walmart sells a 8$ Hepa for vacuum cleaners, attach that bad boy to your ultrasonics.... makes a HUGE difference with contams. Use opaque or solid colored tubing to connect all your parts, gets rid of all the funky stuff growing in your clear tubes. Rather large bottles of IPA can be purchased for under 1$, I run under the rule of SPRAY OFTEN, SPRAY EVERYWHERE.... and I have very few contam issues. I still have yet to get a decent hygrometer, I judge my ultrasonic output by being able to see a very slight mist coming out of the holes ive made, as long as water is barely sitting on the side of the rubbermade, all is well. With a decently designed setup, an ultrasonic with an expansion chamber that feeds back into the res, that runs to as many bins as you want will run for at least a week with no interaction required. If all your connections are setup to run down, to a final point, then contams are not an issue when recycling water. Only condensation from the expansion chamber makes it back into the res, and contams very rarely find their way all the way back through my system, especially with periodic H2O2 infusions. Again, use RO water and you will never have a problem, even when running 24/7. By using quality ingredients in the first place (rice, popcorn, WATER!!!!!) not only can you say you have 100% organic mushies (there is a difference), but you encounter allot less problems and EVERYONE is allot more happy.