yields?

[coastalite]

what do you typically yield (dry grams) per half pint cake?

[EmitFitzhume]

FOAF is pretty new to this but his first cakes have averaged 4 grams (dry) on their first flush. Also- I liked your quote so here's another one


"O baby don't it feel like heaven right now" - Tom Petty

[coastalite]

spies like us! LOVE it!

foaf got 7 g dry per half pint cake on first flush on his current project.

he did 5 small tubs w/lids. 2 half pint cakes per tub. 10 total half pints yielded 2.5 Oz. dry!

method: crumbled and cased in tub using 50/50 miracle grow peat moss/verm.

foaf thinks critical step this time around was nuking the 50/50 mixture on high for 5 min in the microwave.

[EmitFitzhume]

Sounds like my FOAF should try the same casing tek...

[Bigjohnny91]

Wow, Happen to have the link to a good thread for that Tek?

[the jesus]

Did you add lime to the peat?

[dizzydank]

ive seen alot fo cakes drop between 2-4 grams dry. some have droped 8 dry. some strains pin better get bigger n such.

[BigStemz]

Originally Posted by the jesus

Did you add lime to the peat?

i have always added 4% lime to my peat 50/50 mix

[coastalite]

Originally Posted by Bigjohnny91

Wow, Happen to have the link to a good thread for that Tek?

my foaf didn't follow any ONE particular tek per se. he basically read a bunch of teks here at topia and used all that combined info to come up with his own SIMPLE-ASS tek.

he let his half pint jars colonize at room temp (about mid 70's).
the jars were done using nothing but cooked long grain brown rice and a top layer of verm and inoculated with a spore syringe. basically 9er tek.

He did PR, SA, AMAZ, and PFC.

Here's the tek he used to make the jars:

Dank-Ass Long Grain Brown Rice Tek
This tek is geared for the newbie and will demonstrate how you can use an inexpensive 2 lb. grocery store brand bag of LGBR (long grain brown rice) to produce fast colonizing half pint jars using a simple GB (glove box). This is the result of a lot of trial and error to find what works by looking at many other teks and borrowing information from them to share with you in (hopefully) an easy to follow process that will get you up and running completely through start to end of jar colonization then to casing, fruiting, harvesting, etc.

Step 1: Order your multi-spore syringe(s).

Step 2: Construct a simple glovebox (GB) if you don't already have one.
Get a cardboard box. Cut the four cardboard flaps off the top of the box and get a sheet of clear plastic and tape it on one side to create a hinge so you can easily open and close the lid. Cut two holes in the side of the box for your hands. Get some new dishwashing gloves and use clear packaging tape to tape them in place. You might want to lay a piece of cardboard down inside the box to give you a flat surface to work on. Now you have your ghetto GB ready to roll.

Step 3: Get miscellaneous materials together & wait impatiently for your spore syringe(s) to arrive. get some rice (see step 5), couple gallons of distilled water, paper towels, 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol, and some horticultural grade fine vermiculite (from Taylor’s – about $5).

Step 4: Get your PC and Jars ready.
If you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to get your jars and a PC (pressure cooker) capable of 15 PSI. The PC used in this tek is an aluminum $40 Presto 8-Quart model. It was verified by the company to be rated at 15 PSI and works fine. By all means, go with a bigger one if you can. It will save you a lot of time.

You can use regular or widemouth half pint jars for this tek. By the way, if you can’t find any jars in your area, you can find them at a Taylor’s (doitbest.com) or Ace (acehardware.com). Both places allow you to order them online (tax free) and have them shipped for FREE to your nearest ACE or Taylor’s store for you to pick up in a few days after you order them. Drill each lid with four 3/8th inch holes.

Step 5: Preparing the Long Grain Brown Rice.
The rice used is a 2 lb. bag of Food Lion brand long grain natural brown rice at $1.39. Get a few bags. Measure out 3 cups of rice and dump into a large pan that has a tight lid. Measure out 5 cups of bottled spring or distilled water and pour it in the pan with the rice. Cover and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a fast boil, reduce the heat to around 2.5 (low/med low) and time it for 40 minutes. Do not open the lid at all during the 40 minutes. Once the 40 minutes is up, turn off the burner and sit it on one of your other burners to cool down and open the lid and fluff it up. Cover it back up and time for another 10 minutes to let it cool a bit and evaporate any remaining water. Then fluff it up again. The rice should be nice and sticky and fluffy with no more water in the pan.

While the rice is cooking, go ahead and get your jars ready. Wash the lids, bands and jars and thoroughly rinse them and turn them upside down to drain out on a clean paper towel. Then take a fork to your rice and fill one of the jars up to the first thread. As you are filling the jar, be careful not to compact the rice down too much. Give it a couple of side to side shakes if there are any large pockets of air. Once it’s filled to the first thread, take a clean damp paper towel and wipe all the way around the inside top of the jar. Now, take your vermiculite and fill the jar the rest of the way and level it off. Now place one of the lids rubber side down. Next, screw the band on a bit snug but not too tight. Cover tightly with two layers of foil. Place them into the PC and this time cook for 45 minutes. Don’t start the timer till the jiggler starts wobbling. Once it’s finished, remove the PC from the burner and let it cool till the pin drops which should take about 20 minutes or so. Let the jars cool for several hours to room temp before inoculating them. Three cups of rice and five cups of spring water will be enough to fill 10 ½ pint jars and have enough left over for a healthy snack.

Step 6: inoculate your Long Grain Brown Rice Jars.
The jars have cooled for several hours or overnight and are now at room temperature. Place the jars of rice in the GB. For this tek, you can inoculate each jar with 1 cc of your spore syringe. Place your 91% soaked alcohol paper towel and syringes in the GB along with your lighter. Secure the lid on the GB and stick your hands in the gloves. Flame, wipe and shake the needle. Hold one of the jars and tilt it at an angle and insert the needle tip as far in as it will go, keeping the tip against the side of the glass. Inject some spore solution in each hole. You might want to flame, wipe, and shake after each jar to reduce your chances of contamination. Once you’ve finished, remove your jars from the GB along with the used paper towel and used syringe(s). You might want to gently shake each jar (side to side) after inoculation to redistribute the vermiculite layer around a bit in case the needle left a hole in the barrier. Label the strain and date. Repeat the process till all your jars are done. Put them somewhere where the temp is mid to upper 70’s to low 80’s. A closet is fine. After 3-4 weeks or so, your jars should be fully colonized.

Step 7: Case them into small storage tubs. Try to find some small plastic storage tubs w/lids from Home Depot. I found a bundled 5 pack of them for $10. I'd estimate the size of each tub would hold about 1.5-2 gallons of water. It's also the perfect size to fit two crumbled up half pint cakes. Wash them out really well, lids too. Get a bag of miracle grow peat moss and get your bag of vermiculite. Get a large bowl, wash it well. Mix a 50/50 ratio of peat/verm. For example, measure 3 cups of peat into the bowl. Then measure 3 cups of verm into the bowl. Mix them with a clean fork. Then slowly add distilled/spring water to the mixture. You want to mix it really well until there is enough water so that if you squeeze a clump of it in your hands, only a few drops of water will trickle out. You don't want it too wet or too dry. Here is an important step IMO: Take your bowl of moistened 50/50 mixture and NUKE it in the microwave for 5 minutes. While it is nuking, take your fully colonized jars and unsrew the bands and remove the lids. Tilt the jars and dump out the excess verm into the trash or disposal unit. Then take a gallon size fresh ziplock and without touching the cakes with your hands, just let them fall out of the jars and into the bag. Do 2 cakes per ziplock. Close ziplock. Crumble the cakes inside the bag into about marble sized chunks. Take your bowl of 50/50 mixture and stir it well and let it cool down some. Spoon an even layer into your tub about 2 inches deep. Next, dump out your crumbled cakes and spread them out evenly over the layer of 50/50 mixture. Next, spoon another thin layer over the top of the crumbled cakes. This layer should just be enough to cover all the clumps of colonized rice cakes. Put the lid on the tub. Put the tub in a closet or somewhere where it will stay in the 70's. Don't mess with it for a few days. After a few days, you should see mycelium poking through. Give it some lite mistings with a spray bottle of distilled water containing a small amount of H2O2. Fan it 2 or 3 times per day and while fanning expose to some light. be patient. it might take a few weeks till you start getting pins. once you start seeing the little knots/pins, stop misting the casing directly. instead, just mist the sides of the tub. This should be enough to keep the humidity levels good. remember to fan them at least twice per day. when the caps start opening up and the veil tears, grab the stem near the bottom and twist and pull upwards trying not to remove a huge clump of casing with it. dry under a fan for 1-3 days or till cracker dry and then you can put them in an airtight container with some desiccant to get them extra dry. hope this info helps. i was amazed at how many pizza toppings came out of those 5 little tubs and only 10 half pint jars.

after the first flush, pour some water an inch or two deep and let the casing float on the water inside the tub for a day or so then dump any remaining water. 2nd flush will be on it's way.

Good luck and hopefully you will soon be enjoying the fruits of your labor!

[coastalite]

Originally Posted by the jesus

Did you add lime to the peat?

no lime was added.

[BigStemz]

sometimes when i DEC my cakes instead of using just verm i use a mix of 60/40 verm /coir. this allows the mycelium to grow and further eastablish a larger colony. the draw back is that you really cant dunk them then without removing and destroying the advacing mycellium growth. i have thought a bout adding a straw to add moisture but have not done it this way yet. of a cake with the 60/40 DEC i do i get somewhere between 8-12 g dry per cake. but it varies with strain.

[GlassFrog11]

When starting with cakes, my yield was about 2-3 dry grams prer flush. After casing the cakes in small baking pans, I was getting about 15-20 dry grams per flush.