PF Tek/Invitro Tips & Misconceptions - (HAVING TROUBLES? READ HERE)

[cap]

found some juicy info in the dump...

this is essential reading for any newbie using the PF tek or Hippie's Mycrotek (invitro)

When growing invitro when is it best to remove tape or foil? at 100% col or only after you see pins?

thanks

Originally Posted by Imok Urok

First, don't tape the jars unless using air permeable tape
like the type used for flesh wounds/injuries.

If you have tape on your jars and the jars are 100%
remove the tape asap.

You don't have to flip the jars.
That is done to finish the colonization of cakes that have
stalled before reaching 100% colonization or have excess moisture
in the jar and you are trying to drain it out.

Light from day one is a must for invitro.
Some strains are slower to pin/fruit invitro and the light
from day one will make up for that limitation.

You don't need to "cold shock" cubies.
They are warmth loving shrooms and don't benefit from cold
(you will even retard the growth of the shrooms doing that)
Cold is how you slow/stop the development of the mushies
in the invitro jars so you can have fresh picked any time.

Invitro is slower than using fruiting chambers but the
fruit will me more of a solid mass.

Since your jars are 100%, remove the tape, keep up the light
keep the jars warm(80-85f) and forget about them for a week or two.
You are very close to success now.

Originally Posted by Python

i wouldn't tape.......

and as long as the jar is colonizing fine.....you could leave the foil on indefinately......just as long as your jars can get light....you could also remove it at anytime too.......i usually leave it on

i incubate at room temp 65-75 degrees...so thats what i recommend

85 would be a bit high, i'd go with 80 max.......also the temps don't have to be constant but keeping the room draft free is a plus.....

light stimulates pinning, if your invitro growing hit with light early in the colonization process..if birthing i'd hit with light at about 80 percent colonized (or when fully colonized) for pinning invitro, or you could just birth which is nice too.

as far as a pc, there are a couple of nice websites with cheap ones. Presto is a good one that is less expensive. But, ya...a PC would be your best investment

Ok i came with one question now i have four..

1. So when growing invitro you do not need tape or foil after its 100%. I thought you would want to lock the humidity in and give it an air exchange every few days.

2. You can dump the verm layer and start the wait for fruiting before you see pins? As long as its 100%

3. Is best temp for fruiting 75 or more closer to 80-85 like Imok said?

4. Even though when I seal a jar with foil and make the seal appear air tight by blocking the holes it still allows more air exchange then if i use a regular masking tape.

Originally Posted by Imok Urok

1. Foil is ok, it is more for keeping drips out of the
jar when sterilizing but it really isn't that much of
a barrier to air exchange.
After the cake is 100% it is pretty much contam proof
and the moisture is bound in the cake.
The foil really serves no purpose after that.

2. Correct

3. The rule is the warmer the environment the better the growth.
That means the better for all growth.
The spores/fungi/shrooms you want will still grow at 70-75f
but others are less likely to grow.
To give your invitro jars a leg up keep them at the same
temps you incubated them at.

4. True

Originally Posted by Taoist Shredder

I have done both and either way will work fine..........its just easier to not incubate for me......

And i have seen superb results at 65-75

Same here. If I had to generalize I would say that for newbies incubation has a tendency to fry jars; I have found that anything in excess of 80 degrees is pretty high, though as Zen says he likes the old "85/75" method of incubating/fruiting temp, which is time tested and works for most. I wonder how much temp really does. I put a brick of corn into my friedge over when I left to go up to the mountains over Thanksgiving, hydrated from a dunk the night before, and it sat until a few days ago (a good week and a half in the fridge). And it pinned in the fridge. Granted they're little aborted pins, but they were not there when I put it in the thing. Cubensis fruiting at 40 degrees? Not really mushrooms, but still, I found it interesting. So if optimal temp for fruits is 74, we see they will produce fruits 20+ degrees less than that. Raise the temp 20 degrees and they're definately going to burn. I always find temp and light two of the most interesting variables with fungus (especially cubies).

from-- http://forums.mycotopia.net/showthre...?t=620&page=11 (fungi Archive through December 12, 2004)
thanks to Python, Taoist, and of course Imok for the above..

again, i found this in the dump and IMHO these deserved to be saved..
great info here..

be well

[Hippie3]

i've grown cubies in hot unventilated storage buildings
in the heat of summer
where the temps stayed in the mid 90's minimum
for days on end
and got bumper crops of 10-14 inch boomers off the cakes.
so don't under-estimate their ability to take the heat
once free from the confines of glass jars.
cubensis is a species born in the tropical jungles,
but glass traps heat.