BRF cake VS Grain for bulk substrate

[akoutdoors]

Is there any andantage to using Colonised Popcorn, or WBS over using BRF cakes to Nock up a bulk substrate of 40%Coir 40% Worm castings and 20% verm?
I think the grains stay contamn free better than Cakes so would this make grains better?

[drtask]

the only think i've heard is popcorn and wbs give more spawn points throughout the substrate than brf cakes. i dont know though. quicker colonization maybe?

[eternalfrost]

grains break up much smaller and very easily giving a more even and faster colinization. cakes are a pin to crumble up and will still be kinda big chunks. cakes have much more chance of contamns too since you can let grains recover for a few hours after shaking to fill in any gaps before being spawned. also, they are easier to get the volume needed, say 1 QT of grain vs. like 6+ half pint pf cakes (youll want more of the cakes since they are mostly verm anyways). speaking of, you prolly wouldnt need to ad much verm to the bulk sub if you are using cakes as they are already packed with it.

still thats not to say that you cant do it i guess

[mushaman]

A foaf likes to use a coffee grinder to grind up her cakes and a half pint goes a long ways.

mush

[akoutdoors]

I didnt even think of the cakes Verm content.... I figured Grain was the best way, But I wanted the pros and cons of Cakes.

actually cakes work very well for noccing bulk substraits..
they are more contam resistant and provide MANY more innoculation points.
they are more contam resistant b/c there is almost no exposed nutrient rich material when you break up a cake.
grains on the other hand do have exposed surfaces when you break them up.
and as for the innoculation points.. if you crumble the cakes really fine, in a large ziplock is my prefered choice, there are thousands of tiny peices of verm with myc attached to it.
the only real draw backs is that 1 quart of corn is about 3 1/2pints worth of spawn. so you end up having to make alot of 1/2 pints if you wanna spawn a large area.
i'm pretty sure PJ has always used cakes as spawn for his ever impressive straw logs and nugs.
lost

[akoutdoors]

THX

[reefer]

I like to use crumbled cakes too. If you crumble them really fine, it gives WAY more innoculation points than popcorn or WBS. I also like to go overboard on the spawn to substrate ratio, so it colonizes in a few days.

It does call for a little more work than preparing the same volume of grain spawn, but I don't mind.

[Pedestrian]

Can't forget the "shredded" cake method for spawning from PF cakes.

Put a small, well cleaned, cheese grater in foil OR an oven safe bag in the PC and sterilize it on your next run.Then, in a fairly clean place, you can use the steril grater to turn a fully colonized cake into excellent spawn for bulk.

A simple way is to put the cake in a large ziplock bag along with the grater and grate from the outside while the bag is sealed. After that you can just dump your spawn into your bulk sub and mix away.

-Ped