Sterlization / Colonization question

[thevice]

Hi all, i am afraid i did it backwards or just made it a little harder on me when mixing up the substrate and sealing it in 1/2 pint jars. I put just enough vermiculite to cover the bottom of the jar, then gently put in the substrate, after that i filled it just about to the top of the jar with more vermiculite. Right after i put on the lid which was punctured 4 times for innoculation later, then covered it with a 4x4 sheeth of tinfoil. I then fastened the circular seal over top of the tinfoil. I didn't rip it or anything and it seems to be completely sealed with a just-moist enough airy substrate.

Now maybe i tend to overanalyze things and double check things just because this is my first attempt at trying to cultivate some mushrooms but do i keep the jars sealed when i boil them to sterilize? I have no pressure cooker and i am pretty confident in the cleansliness of the room i did this in.
Or is there supposed to be some air going into the jar so it dosen't break from the inside out? Just checking.. if its supposed to remained sealed i guess i just made it a little harder to find the holes in the lid to innoculate.

Basically what im trying to find out is ;should it remain a sealed jar while sterilizing with steam?/ after sterilizing and innoculating i leave the holes open that are again punctured from injecting spores when they i put them away for colonization? or should it be sealed again for this. Any help would be great. peace

[destroy_erase_improve]

ok if im reading it right you did one step wrong
you put the foil between the lid and the ring seal
take the seal off and remove the foil
usually people will put tyvek or a filter there

now put the ring seal back on
and put the foil on TOP of the whole lid
if your steaming you may want to use a larger piece of foil
take a big enough piece to go 1/3 of the way down the jar maybe

make sure its tight
some even use rubberbands

my friend has no experience with boiling her jars.
so she cant help you there
but ive read about fractural/fractional??? steaming technique. takes three days

whatever you do make sure the jars arent too deep into the water
if you have too use a towel or something to lift them up out of the water a little
you dont want the water to finger its way under the foil and into your jars


hope this helps a little
im sure others can help more
with the steaming
welcome to topia
good luck

You want to put the metal ring over the lid with holes, then put the foil over the whole thing. The foil isn't to seal, but just to keep water from dripping off the lid of your boiling pot and through the holes and into your jars, which would ruin the moisture content of your mix. Set it up that way before you boil them. You then remove the foil to inoculate. I think most guys completely wrap up the jar with foil to keep the steam/water out.
RR

lol....beat me.

[destroy_erase_improve]

[reefer]

I always steam my jars so here's a few tips that have helped me.

- put a washcloth in the bottom of the pot that you will be steaming them in. This prevents too much heat being transferred to the glass so fast, which sometimes causes the glass to crack.

- Make the foil pieces big enough that they cover the top half of the jars.

- Fill the water so that its about halfway up the jars. (maybe just a little less)

- Cover the pot while steaming

- Once the water has come to a light/medium boil start the timer for 1 hour and fifteen minutes...you may have to add water once or twice if it gets really low.

-When time's up, leave the lid on the pot and let them cool in the pot for about 30 minutes to an hour.

My success rate with this is 100%. One of the reasons I haven't purchased a PC. (although I need to get one because I'd like to try whole grains)

[thevice]

well its pretty sealed even with the foil in between but, to prevent any contamination im just going to cut out the tinfoil thats in the circle on top therefore exposing all the holes, then ill just wrap the jars halfway down in tinfoil. just so i dont happen to contaminate it by opening up the lid all the way and what not, i allrdy cleaned up my workstation ;o i think i should be okay, do you guys? the lids are very tight. this bugs me now.. you guys tell me to cover it up with tinfoil anyways after i remove where it is currently at.. when using a rubberband around tin foil, wouldn't that be sealing it also? or is it just a way to keep it vented yet not allow any water droplets from entering? ahhhh

[mrhappy]

Yup. exactly. The tin foil allows the steam to penetrate the jar, but prevents water from dripping down from the lid of the pot and getting into the jar.

I use prfessional masking tape cover the innoculation holes; I use prosfessional quality making tape so it will not get all sticky and is easy to remove from the hole for innoculation. Then I take a square of tin foil and push it down over the top of the jar so it goes 1/4 to 1/2 way down the jar. Then I loosen the ring a bit so the steam can penetrate the jar (haven't found that by allowing the steam to penetrate the jars messes up the water ratio).

Then I do the same as reefer, I put towel at the bottom of pot (or I have used a vegitable stamer as well to keep the jars off the bottom), then fill about halfway up the jars and boil for an hour and 15 or an hour and a half. Then I re-tighten the ring and let cool. Then I take off the foil and innoculate by flaming the tip (red hot) and peeling back the tape and innoculate.

I don't have a PC, as I have had good success doing my BRF cakes this way. And I mainly do BRF cakes as I have good sucess. I have also sucessfully done popcorn using a regular pot with 100% success too.

Yeah, as far as you situation goes, I would take the foil out of the center when you are going to innoculate then cover the holes up with some tape.

Hope this helps.
Good luck.

[jwandrews]

Tie up the jars in large sandwitch bags instead of using foil.
If the lid is tight pressure will build in the jars and there will be a
vacumue in the jars as they cool. The vacume will pull in air from
the environment. If the jars in a bag any breathing
will be of clean air.

[viraljimmy]

Use rubber bands on the foil.

[destroy_erase_improve]

if your going to use plastic bags like jwand suggests
make sure it doesnt touch any hot metal on the pc
or expect to be scraping it off after its done

[python]

an easy guide to the pf tek..........

http://forums.mycotopia.net/showthre...t=pf+tek+guide (A More Understandable PF TEK guide)

Don't use plastic bags, that's not a good idea... They could melt and there is no need, just cover with foil and keep the jars from sitting too deep in the water(not at all if you can help it without too much trouble).

[thevice]

well it has been 3 days now since i've sterilzed. soon as the jars cooled down i innoculated. now i think something went wrong for sure, 4 out of the 10 jars once they came out of the pots were almost soaked in the inside. it seems the flour took on a lumpy rice look almost inside of the jar. the other 6 remain moist yet airy. I am guessing those 4 jars aren't going to get anywhere due to this problem..

now today i just checked up on my jars to see how they are doing, and the 4 jars are still very waterlogged it seems, i will just let them go. but i noticed if i look really hard on 2 of the jars i notice a faint white cloud about .5 cm by .5 cm that is almost transluscent, im going to guess this is mycelial starting to grow. now the problem again is, i double cased them and have a nice layer of vermiculite on the top inside of the jars. should i be covering up these holes or just let them go? they are just bare jars inside of a very clean steyrophome mini cooler. thanks for the help, i think i just messed up again though. peace

[nomoreusmc]

foil and rubberbands, worked for thousands

[reefer]

"Tie up the jars in large sandwitch bags instead of using foil.
If the lid is tight pressure will build in the jars and there will be a
vacumue in the jars as they cool. The vacume will pull in air from
the environment. If the jars in a bag any breathing
will be of clean air."

I agree with PB and nomoreusmc, plastic bags are a bad idea. They will melt and make a mess. If you use a dry verm layer and you leave the jars in the pot for a while to cool, there is no reason to worry about contams entering the jars as they cool.

"it seems the flour took on a lumpy rice look almost inside of the jar."

sounds like there was too much water in the jars to start with

"should i be covering up these holes or just let them go?"

Don't cover the holes. It will slow down colonization. The verm layer will keep contams out.