3rd time's a charm?....Bonne Maman jam jars

[kikashi]

I will attempt in this thread, to follow my progress from start to finish. I have just put 8 innoculated PFT+ jars in my Cubincubator. It's a triple insulated Sterilite containter with drip shield suspended from the top. PFT+ for this round is as follows: 4 cups verm.
2 cups BRF
2/3 cup wet with coffee coffee grounds, ( Kona).
1/2 tsp light amber Barley malt extract. ( has worked real well in the past for colonizing jars)
3 tbsp crushed oyser shells. ( to buffer the malt )
1/2 tsp Gypsum ( to buffer the coffee)
480 ml water
pressure cooked 40min., cooled in sealed bags in the incubator. Innoculated with EQ spore syringe from a reliable source.

Once Colonized I plan to case with verm/peat 50/50. I have made 2 previous casing attempts. The most recent involved 5 perfectly good cakes of EQ, ( see the NeuroMintz thread), and 5 cakes of Z. 2 different casing attempts with peat/verm. I believe my error with these was adding 1/2 tsp of malt extract to the casings. In any event to date I have nothing to show for it.
Cakes from the same batches have fruited nicely on their own,( see neuromintz thread). There is no contam. visible on either casing attempt.

The coffee grounds are a new addition to my jar colonizing routine. I want to try the peat/verm casing without malt. More to come.

BTW. I am trying 2 Bonne Maman jam jars. they have ten sides/edges.

[destroy_erase_improve]

i like the idea of the edged jars, it seems that the myc likes to pin on edges as it is. this may prove to be really good.
please keep us updated

[kikashi]

destroy... I believe yours and hippi3's comments are the reason I wanted to try the jam jars - they are otherwise conical bottom to top so should work. It's with Rodger's idea I'm trying the coffee grounds. 2/3 cup is only significant as that's what came out of my French press after a pot of coffee. I would definately appreciate any comments from all of you as I make my way thru the process. More pics in about 4 days.

[kikashi]

A couple quick notes:

This is being done at about 5300 feet above sea level. RH is generally about 15%+/-5. T varies from -20 to +105 F thru the year. Yea, that's right, I live in Amsterdam of course.

Immediately before inocculation of the jars I rubberbanded the syringe to my ultrasonic toothbrush,( cybersonic), and ran it for about 1.5 min. to disperse the spores. The syringe had been sitting in a box in the fridge for about 2 months.

[kikashi]

This thread will continue where the "It's Alive" thread left off. We'll see where a little culture strain selection goes after a few generations. Then - Mini LB's perhaps.

[destroy_erase_improve]

definately keep us posted
and pics of the edged jars evolution will be great and appreciated

[kikashi]

Yeah and I expect to be doing more of those now . Should get a good chance to see if there's any effect. Like are the edges angled enough to make a diff. 3 weeks we should know.

[kikashi]

Noticed that while my cubincubator is showing 86 F, the floor is cool to the touch. The floor is perlite overlaid with fiberglass screening,( a couple layers). I have added a false floor of styrofoam elevated on phlebotomy needle hubs. This should let the jars get up to proper temp. Will inventory all 8 at the end of the day. It'll be 4 full days since innoc. and I want to mark the fast ones. About half are showing the beginnings of growth now.

[destroy_erase_improve]

86 sounds ok
but my friend likes to have the temp down around 80-82
any way you can shed a few degrees?

[kikashi]

yes but recent experience tells me 86-88 is better. maybe due to altitude/ 10% less oxygen

[destroy_erase_improve]

cool
sounds good then
go with what works optimally for you
i agree your exp with your grows in your area will help you along

it will be cool to see if the myc grow rides up the ridges of the jars also.

The growth rate falls off dramatically when you reach 86F in your spawn or substrate. If the air temp is 86, you can be sure the interior of the jar is much warmer than that. Contamination is also favored at higher temperatures. I wouldn't go over 80F in the incubator.
RR

[kikashi]

thanks for the help rodger and destroy...

I am taking your comments to heart. Big update for me. My Z case - cased 2/24 - is showing some pins finally. not big enough to show in a pic here yet but tomorrow probably. Myceliem is at ~78-80 F. EQ still shows no signs of life. It has however, been a slower strain than the Z at every stage so far. Grown in identical conditions. We'll see, It was cased 1 day before the Z. I screwed up the cases early on by including a little malt in the peat/verm casing.

I have switched the air pump in my cake fruiter (FRICU#1), from the heater tank to it's 10" aquarium stone. that should drop the humidity a bit. I'm trying to keep the temp in there around 76-78 F.

[kikashi]

Destroy, erase..., Rodger, Smegma, anyone;

What temp is good for fruiting mycelium? It's in a case - peat/verm ~ 1.75" under ~.75-1" cake slices, covered with about .75" peat/verm. I mean what temp. should the mycelium be at optimally if I stick a meat thermometer into it.

I don't know about the temperature of the mycelium but the air temperature should be between 72 and 80, even better between 74 and 78. Drop the temperature to that range and introduce fresh air and walla!

[kikashi]

thx dial8

[kikashi]

Back to the task at hand. Of the 8 jars involved 6 show signs of growth at 4 days. Per Destroy... and Rodger's suggestion the incubator is down to 84 and dropping. will post some pics as soon as there's sig. coating going on. Of particular interest - both the Bonne Maman jars show growth.

[destroy_erase_improve]

i agree with dial. low 70s is fine for fruiting

[kikashi]

Temp is now at 72. H right about 90 but will probably fall some more. Have both the stone and the tube bubbling in the heater tank. The stone was off when those EQ's sprouted at the top 1st Flush, 2nd round. The Z at the bottom is third flush from original PFT+malt experiment. Rest are Z or EQ various birthdays and flushes. Temp was 78F H ~95. We'll see. Lower R cake has nothin' happenin' so far but is smooth and due any day.

[kikashi]

z - 33g, eq 13 g - 1 shroom, rest still growing.

[kikashi]

First Z casing attempt. 5 BRF cakes cased 50/50 verm/peat. 6th cake left to fruit has produced about 60 g so far over 3 flushes. This? Maybe 30 when these grow out? Pathetic. Give it till the 8 jars currently incubating are coated. Then it's trash time if it hasn't produced. Need the space to do a little selective EQ breeding for altitude..

[kikashi]

Two of the babies below came out at 28g. Looks like a little more to come.


Question anyone. Can I use the grain from a beer supply store? Typically those are malted grains. Or do I need to find raw fresh grain. Like from farm suppliers.

[cutty]

Im really not sure man but I buy mine from a farm supply store or a bulk health food store.

[kikashi]

thx cutty. I'll look around. It's a question of pre-malted vs whatever malting happens to happen during the pasteurization process.

One more question. Tyvek bags - can get em by the roll. 100/roll. 12 rolls per case. I don't anticipate needing 1200 bags however. Anybody know a link for just a box? The ones I'm looking at are medical grade/ $15 a roll or box. I believe they're 10" x 15".

[kikashi]

Six weeks to coat, 6 days from dunk. EQ spore syringe.

[kikashi]

nice bunch of pins but seems to be stalled here. EQ cake from spore syringe.

[kikashi]

Jelly jar update 10 days from innoc.: 8 of 8 colonizing, 2 clear front runners, 1 real laggard. Hope the photo session didn't get them contammed. None so far.

Both Bonne Maman jars are coating, one is one of my 2 leaders. If the jar on the lower R (facing them), is done in 11 days it'll be a record for me by 1 day.

[Soliver1]

Malted grains? Hmmm .... probably best to stick to what we know works.
It would probably work, but the additional carbs that have been converted into
sugars by sprouting / toasting my provide additional and unneccesary vectors for
unwanted growth / contamination.



soliver

[kikashi]

thx, have found the requisite grain in the interim. I'm finding a little malt extract works well with PFT jars. Just askin.

[kikashi]

this was nice to wake up to!

oh well pic later maybe

[kikashi]

ok uploading now - Thankyou Zen, et al. This is EQ, 1st flush, 38g fresh.

[depayne66]

I can attest that kikashi's malt additive works - I've seen it side by side with unmalted jars, and there's no comparison. I personally believe it'd be contam'd all to hell, though, if he didn't dunk into - and aero-hydrate routinely with - H2O2. And doesn't the CO2 given off at the early stages boost pin development - or do I have it backwards...

[kikashi]

Actually, I use a 20% peroxide/water solution from dunking on. It's nowhere near those jars however