First grow PR's (PF tek) [AUS]

[fingers]

Thanks again guys,

I honestly had no idea i'd so totally enjoy cubes the way I (we) did. I've never been the biggest fan of hallucinogens/uppers so, it was all the more a treat when it was ten times as enjoyable as other similar psychoactives.

Buck, you're the man dude. I dont think I've seen many educators/teachers who so whole heartedly enjoy passing on their craft. It makes it all the more satisfying when you know you're not just a pain in the butt asking annoying questions.
Also, sorry if my last PM sounded a bit 'space cadet'esque' . I was just reeeally enthused by the experience. Afterwards i was thinkin "oh s#it, did i sound like a total wierd assed tripper!!? . I think you know where i was comming from.

About my 'former expert', he didn't respond to my last message I dont think he would have been overly thrilled with so many methods he shotdown being (once again) proven to be effective) Oh well, without darkness, what would light be? (if ya know what i mean )

That statement you made about 'what seems important' Buck, that hit that mutha f#*kin nail square on the head! It's like all the bullshit just disolves away, and all you see is clarity.
If the world leaders dropped some cubies right before peace talks etc. I think we'd be living in a much nicer world.

Doc D, thanks for the tip, I've noticed a lot of people in the U.S mention how cheap dessicant is. For some reason it's a lot more expensive here. I'll buy some regardless and do the 2 days air/fan dry then dessicant.
About the napkins I used to do that myself. Mcdonalds and hungry jacks was my main napkin/paper towel suppliers (Hungry Jacks = aussie name for Burger King... you know what they call a quarter pounder in france?)

And the 2 grams dose was absolutely perfect Hip. Thanks for that
I figure you can usually rely on the advice of the older (more 'mature'? ) practitioners of the psychoactive arts. Seems like the younger a person is, the more gung ho they seem to be with psychoactives (myself included ). In your (my) youth the best way to enjoy any substance is to excess. Boys will be boys i guess.

Anyway, I'll be birthing those cakes tommorow. I was advised to wait a few days after 100% colonisation (just to be sure). And I did a count today, and found that my 15 cakes is actually 12. I soooo should have bought that damn P.C from day one!! Then again, you never know you're gonna be addicted to a hobby until you give it a go.



I thought my baby gurl Zoe had developed enough to be post worthy again. She's a lot healthier now that the nutes are being changed weekly. The black plastic seems to have helped a lot also. Far too much light was getting into the res and the nutes were pretty mirky.
I'll take a lot better care of her now that she's clearly going to survive the long haul.

My L.C is comming along nicely, and i have a couple of small experimental grow projects on the go. I'll post when they appear that they will bare fruit. Regardless it's all great learning.

Oh BTW, nobody has any thoughts on the button mushroom 'kits' i scored? I know they aren't as fascinating in the sense of 'trip induce'ability'.... but i thought they're pretty funky for $5....maybe it's just me

Take care guys,

and thanks AGAIN!!

Fingers

[BuckarooBanzai]

Your plant looks NICE, man. Big pretty wide leaves and very short nodes. That girl is clearly getting plenty of light. Are you going to keep pinching/pruning? I see a couple of growth tips in there - should make a nice bush!

No comment on the mushroom kits, really. I only really know anything about growing the one kind of mushroom! I haven't been doing this mycology thing for very long at all. Previously, I was a "wander around in the fields five or six weeks a year and hope for bounty" kind of guy. The realization that they could be grown at home was HUGE (but still recent) to me!

Post some pics and stuff if you get results from the kit, though. I've seen those kits online many places, but I've never ordered one.

[fingers]

Thanks dude,

I cant take much credit for the sexyness of the little girl. A lot of it comes down to it being a PHENOMINAL strain. A major factor i believe is the extremely high level os airation of the nutrients.
Its my understanding that the better the airation the better the plants growth. So i have a pretty powerful air pump even for multiple plants airating the nutes for the one mother plant.

Surprising even to me, i have not pruned or manipulated the growth of the plant in any way. I'd actually like it if it were far lankier/taller as I plan to clone from her.

About the grow kit, I really wouldn't have bought them at the RR price. I've become more and more interested in edibles for some reason, but i'll definately be focusing on the beloved cubes for a few years to come i think.

Anyway, i just spent a few hours innoculating my first experimental poo grow. I've done only 2 bags, and i've been a little experimental with it.
I'm very curious to see how it goes. I'll post the results in the next week or so (if i haven't stuffed it up )

Take car brutha, guys,

Fingers

[fingers]

Hey guys,
While i was out today, i got to thinking...and i realised i hadn't posted a pic of my cakes in a long time. Seeing some the smaller ones are 500ml, and the last 2 large ones are 700ml, they've taken their time to fully colonise.
I remembered someone mentioning using a magnifying glass with their camera, and i thought it sounded worth a try. I picked up a pretty damn cheap glass magnifying glass ($2 ) and these pics were done with my cam, and the $2 M.G. Considering this is probably the nastiest digital camera you could buy, i think they came up pretty good




This is one of the 700ml jars. Only two remain of the original ten.







Thanks for viewing guys. I'll be throwing to gether my F.C (just for the cakes) tommorow. And i have 4 cakes as yet at a thorough 100% colonisation. I'll take a few pics of the results of the set up i have in mind.
Be well guys
Fingers

[BuckarooBanzai]

Damn, the girl looks sweet. Stupid good bush action there!

Those are without question the best cake pictures you have uploaded yet. Congratulations magnifying glass! KISS, eh?

You 'bout ready to birth the cake?

[fingers]

Hey Bucksta,

Thanks for the compliment on the little gurl. She's doin a lot better then i thought she would at this stage.
I just changed the res and lid for a fully opague one. That alge was grotesque. Keeping light out of a cheap transparent tub turned out to be harder then i thought. I'm now using soda water as a foliar spray, and a couple of suplimentental fluro's to increase the ganglyness.
Speaking of which, I haven't pruned or manipulated the growth in any way. The bushyness is said to be a combination of the characteristics of the strain, and the fact that the light was at minimum safe distance from the plant. She's starting to grow a taller already

The magnifying glass thing i actually read somewhere here on topia. Another member was using one for better results so i thought i'd give it a go. Great idea i think. (cant remember who posted it )

Yesterday I was given this tinted fish tank by a friend who owns a rental property. The tenant up and left, and this was one of the items left behind. Not a bad little score i think



At the moment I'm using a tub (equivelant to a 90 liter rubbermail) as an F.C. For some reason the cake that was in its own small tub within the larger tub has some lovely white furr growing already. Dont know why the exposed ones (the ones in the pic) weren't going as well.


The green tub in the left courner is the one with nice( ryzomorphic??) growth. I just transfered the other two into similar size tubs. Time will tell. I got a massive sack of perlite and am using the method in your HUGE write up Buck. With the wet perlite on the bottom, 4 pp chinese take away tubs holding a tray above the perlite. Cakes on the tray, an inch clearance around the edge of the tray. I cant work out what the problem is.

Oh BTW, check out what was in the fish tank.



There were two of these suckers (australian crustation called the 'Cherax destructor' (sounds like a bad guy from star trek doesn't it? )
More commonly known as a 'yabby'. I'm still weighing up if I'm gonna keep the suckers as pets or throw em in a local fresh water dam.

Anyway buddy, thanks for the response again. I'm about to post in my 'second grow planning stage' thread with a few Questions and photo's. If you got the time could you possibly give me your opinions on that s#:t too dude?

Thanks again Buckz

Fingers

[BuckarooBanzai]

Nice score on the aquarium. That will make a nice terrarium. Cool crayfish as well!

Don't worry about getting your lady to stretch out too much (short clones aren't so bad). She'll stretch plenty when you go 12/12. If the light was super close, that might be why spider mites were suggested earlier. You might have had a little bit of leaf cook going on. Plenty fine going now, obviously!

I wouldn't stress too much over the cake's differing performance, either. Sometimes they just do odd little things. Kind of unpredictable.
I'll keep a look out for your other thread.

[fingers]

Yeah i was pleased with the tank as soon as i saw it

I't doesn't have a lid, but there's a glass sales joint next to the local train station. I'm gonna pop in there tommorow with the dimensions. Get a lid cut.
Should i get it cut with a slightly lesser depth so as to have a gap along the length of the lid for air/gas exchange??

The main reason I'm trying to stretch out my plant is for maximum vegitation for clones. My goal is to eventually have 8-10 plants, and with approx 25% failing (thinking negatively) I like to have a fair few extras. For ten plants i'd ideally like to take 20 cuttings.
Having the mother plant strong enough to live on after is important to me also, so i figure the bigger the better.

I think the reason the difference in performance of the cakes spooked me is cos the one that was healthiest was in it's own smaller tub/FC.

Overally I'm pretty happy with the progress. Re organisting the set up has been harder then i thought. Keeping the air temp stable in the incubator while pushing up the temp under it to accomodate the fruiting cakes is taking a lot of experimenting. I'm almost set though, I figure by this time tommorow it should be balanced again.

So what have you got going ATM Buck? I cant see you not having a grow going. Then again, you did just get back from travel. Any plans for the next grow?

Thanks brutha, and take care (seeya guys)

Fingers

[BuckarooBanzai]

If you are shooting for clones only, I would definitetly top that girl. Every growth tip you cut will become two nice new shoots in a week or two.

As to the grow, well, I don't grow. It's illegal, you know, to grow these things in the USA.

My FOAF, however, has a few very simple cakes going right now. Nothing at all to write home about, just to have a freshie now and again. Previous work has put the "magic in storage" quotient nice and high, so no need for bigness at the moment. Mostly it is just my friend and his wife who eats 'em, so a little goes a pretty long way.

Don't worry, you'll end up sitting on a big pile of them in no time...

[fingers]

ahh yes, my apologies,

Sometimes i forget that you live vicariously through that friend
So he's doing some cakes huh? I would have thought he'd have gone with a couple of bags.
IMO cakes are a massive ball buster that takes far too long. Then again, if the magic's available, its available. So no need for being in a hurry.
Even if on a tiny scale, i'd have thought this dude would be trying wierd and interesting experimental grows or something.
I have one cake participating in a rather strange little experiment that i'm not yet at liberty to discuss. (mainly cos its probably a totally idiotic stoner idea )
Anyway, I just got out of bed and got that yahoo serious look goin. I should get up and at em. It's an amazingly beutiful sunny day outside What a damn nice change

Take care mate

Fingers

[BIGBOOMER]

looking really good bro keep it up

[fingers]

Just a quick photo update and quick question.

This is one of the 4 cakes i have fruiting right now. The rhyzomorphic growth looks great i think. A lot more vigourous then the first cake.
The one in an enclosed green tub is even more vigourous, but getting a good pic of it is a little tough.



This is the air purifier i got my hands on. It's usual retail price is $99.95, but was on sale at $65. I can return the thing easily if it's not really worth having.


It indicated a '4 stage hepa filter'. A built in ioniser. A 4 timer setting, and remote control. It's effective up to 40 cubic meters, and indicates some form of gas filtration.
I have absolutely no idea what an ioniser does in terms of assisting mushroom growth, but I'm fairly sure i've seen ionisers refered to here on topia. Would you guys think it's worth keeping? Moneys pretty tight this fort night, so unless it's really worth having, i'll return/refund it.



Here's a pic i took yesterday of the papivars. The last pic i posted they were just sprouts. They seem to be a lot healthier and more vigourous now that the weather has started getting a lot nicer. When i sowed these seeds i didn't know much at all about papivars, so i sowed a lot more seeds then i should have.
Between the natural 'survival of the fittest' and my plucking the weaker sprouts, they'll be thined out to a nicer quantity.

Oh and last thing, two days ago i cleared out a good little area in my back garden. It gets nice soft lighting in the day. The tree's soften the direct light a little, but doesnt block the light all together. I got a large piece of weed matting. It's that stuff thats a plastic weave, so it's not air/water tight, but it'll keep the grow rather clean i think.
Now i need to do some reading on some good outdoor grows. If i remember correctly Golly and Rev trips are both kick ass with outdoor work. Might hunt through their grow threads when i post tonight.
I luv this little area in the back yard. From the house you cant see this area at all, and unless u were looking for it, youd never know it was there.
As my MRS says "it looks like a little secret garden!!" She's a little cutie



Take care guys, and thanks again for taking the time to read my log and helping where you can.

Fingers

[fingers]

Hey all,

It's good to be back online isnt it
In the time that we've been offline I've harvested the first flush of 3 cakes, and just birthed another 4. I have another 4 cakes still incubating. 2 of them are 700ml canning jars so have taken a little longer of course. (12 cakes of the original 30 survived to fruiting)
Here's a couple of pics from the first cakes.



The cake in the baby bottle steriliser to the left was the victim of a stoners hairbrain experiment. (didnt work )
I ended up just washing the cake off in distilled water and re-casing it.
It's now started fruiting, but it's taken a little longer. (this image was taken about 3-4 days ago.)



I got that 5.2 megapixel Fuji cam last week It's a lot more reliable, and the picture quality seems a little nicer.

I finally got around to cutting them clones tonight. My mother plant's HUGE now. I really shoulda taken the clones at least a week ago.



They were cut right before this image was taken. That's why they look so limp. I guess having ur limbs cut from your body has a way of ruining ur mood.

Last image, my edibles. (white buttons ('agaricus bisporus' i think )



(I've yet to work out what the substrate is. I hear the Australian mushroom industry growers keeps their substrate recipe's a guarded secret. The casing is pete/lime, other then that I dont know much. Seems to be going reasonably well though.

Take care guys, and see you on the threads

Fingers

[llamabox]

Looking good Fingers. Keep the pics coming.

[golly]

Yeah ,nice collection of goodies...will u be able to keep things cool for fruiting the Agaricus...i think they prefer 50s to low 60s F....

[BuckarooBanzai]

Lookin' sweet, man!!! The only thing better than eating your own mushies is having more of your own mushies than you can eat!

Just don't eat too many of 'em, just because you have them. Work your way up to more SLOWLY and you'll have a much better time.

Great looking pics from the new camera, by the way!

Have you started taking spore prints to share with the peeps yet?

PLEASE keep us updated on the MJ, especially as it flowers!

[BigHoward]

Don' know How I missed Your Thread, just finished reading through it, & it Kicks Ass. It was like a Book you couldn't put down. Great work and Congradulations. I am just about to start my 1st real project, and will be posting soon. But Your Thread Was Most Excelent, Keep Up The Great Work just hope I can do 1/2 as well as you did. By The Way

[fingers]

Hey fellaz,

Thanks Llama, it's a lot easier getting pics now that i dont have to take ten blurred shots to every one clear one (oh btw, isn't Zandors stuff awsome I'm learning heaps from him )

Golly i saw the temperature's agaricus need to fruit, and just knew i didn't stand a chance in my grow room. Only the west end of the house is heated, so i cleared two shelves in the kitchen pantry.
Not needing light makes them pretty low maintenace. I just lightly mist them 2-3 times a day and I'm done

I hear you on the risk of over indulgence but i think it's a safe bet that i wouldn't go hard taking them often. The addictive personality traits settled down around my early twenties. Not to say i dont love the ride, but travel too often and i start to get tired of too many flights.

Have i taken spore prints to share around? Of course i have! Thanks to the kindness of fellow topiates I've gone from 3 prints to 8. To not send some of that good karma back out there would be a travesty
The first few i took were a little pale, but a few more hours and allowing the caps to open a lot more fixed that.

I dont have any boomers worth taking a pic of, so here's a different image from the last 3 cakes. (I luv looking at everyone else's pics so i try to keep up as best i can )



And one more, i know this is a sorry excuse for a macro shot compared to some of you guys.(Especially urs Buck, i still got them awsome macros of urs saved in my favorite grow images folder )



The thing i cant figure is why the opposite side of this cake has absolutely no pinning, not even any light rhyzomorphic growth.

Oh yeah, I'll definately keep the pics comming with the weed. I have a really good feeling about this grow. It's still a little too early to be counting my chickens, but i will. 16 of them clones are already turning back up to the light. And the mother plant looked happy again the morning after the 20 clones were cut. other then a great smoke, it seem's its a resiliant strain from the perspective of the difficulty (or lack therof) in growing it. It's been a few years since my last grow so that comes in very very handy.
If it turns out as good as the heads the seed came from (and i can manage to turn a female male) I'll generate a bag of seed stock and throw a dozen into a competitions pool or something like that. (This is a strain that is meant for sharing it's that good

Anyway, if i dont shudup now i'll bable on for another few hundred words. Damn the hiatus reminds you how good a family we got here at topia. No disrespect to the competition, but regardless of size or what not, it sure as shit aint no topia


Take care guys, and thanks for the replies

Fingers

[eu_por_exemplo]

GREAT FINGERS!


Good JOB!!

[BuckarooBanzai]

NICE!

Lovin’ the pic, man. Nothing wrong with that at all!!!

Oh, and you can go batshit wondering why one side of the cake pins (or one part of the case) while another lies totally dormant…the little suckers are just odd that way.

Oh, and I didn’t mean be careful not to eat them too often, I meant be careful not to eat too many of them at once! It is almost impossible to eat these guys too often unless you just get stupid. Once a week is real nice, with little trace doses here and there on slow days…

In closing, not to be rude, but please remember that MJ seeds are illegal in the States. Trading them over Mycotopia is strictly against the rules. If you wanted to offer those to anybody, you would have to do it through email (I'm subtle, eh?).

Man…loving that cake shot!!!

[fingers]

Oh my bad Buck,

I dont know where i got this idea in my head, but i thought if it was a give away it couldn't be classed as a transaction. That applies to day to day life here in Australia, obviously not online though. My apologies buddy.

Thanks a lot Howard. Thats a huge compliment considering it's my first grow thread Much appreciated

Oh btw Buck,
I've been given some info that stressing a female will turn her male. 48 hours without light and they'll turn apparently.So i should have a bag of seeds done easier then i thought



Note to self (pre flowering - Sep 18th)

I finally got around to getting another timer and putting the mother to flower. I might have to go get some extra reflective sheeting if that damn street light interupts her sleep.

Clones are still looking good, and the cakes (both 1st & 2nd flush) are showing some crisp white furrr so the run of good luck seems to go on. Oh btw, i blew another damn aquarium heater last week. The nutes got so low that the thing just blew up. )



(Mother plant 1st day flowering cycle)

Oh Buckeroo,i have a question... what are your thoughts of open air fruiting cakes?? I've tried with 3, and they dont seem to be fruiting anywhere except the small layer of casing beneath the cake. Would you case them now and give up on the open air method?

I dunno, I'm probably stressing over nothing and they'll fruit well soon enough. I just get a little hesitant trying a method that seems so uncommon with cakes.

Anyway, thanks for the tips as always Buckz. I've had a few packs of WBS for months, and popcorn for a few weeks.So i think it might be time to get started on some spawn for my next bags project.
I'm thinking i might try your bulk nugget tek. My first half assed experiment with bags went nowhere. They didn't colonise at all.

Take care Buck, guys, and see you on the threads

P.S Didn't forget you exemplo, thanks again for the kind word & prints. I'll have them PR's in the mail to you this week.


Fingers