Oven bags drying out, help!

[RedOctober]

Ok so SWIM is pleased to say that he has finally figured out a way to not melt oven bags in the pc. Now the problem is that he is doing popcorn spawn in the bags and injecting them with LC, but the popcorn dries out and colonization halts after about a week and a half. His setup is this:

6 quarts of cooked popcorn into an oven bag with an improvided polyfil filter( polyfil stuffed into a 1/2 inch PVC coupler, 26 cents @ Home Depot). Bag opening is folded up and secured around the coupler with rubber bands and pc'd for an hour @ 15 psi. Bag is removed and allowed to cool. Bag is shot up with roughly 35cc of LC and placed inside a large ziplock bag in a feeble attempt to retain moisture with moistened cotton balls placed inside. Bag is airrated daily for fresh air and gas exchange (ie air is forced into the oven bag through the filter inflating it temporarily like a baloon. The air slowly diffuses out again.)

As I said, even with all this, colonization halts after about 2 weeks and popcorn is visible dry. What should SWIM do about this?

He has mentioned injecting some sterile, pc'd water into the bag to rehydrate. Or perhaps add a bit of verm. He is mostly frustrated though.

Is 6 quarts of substrate just too much for 35cc of LC to colonize?

[Pirate]

He has mentioned injecting some sterile, pc'd water into the bag to rehydrate. Or perhaps add a bit of verm . He is mostly frustrated though.

Is 6 quarts of substrate just too much for 35cc of LC to colonize?

I think injecting some sterile water into the bag is a good solution. This method has saved me many jars when experimenting with new substrates and substrate ratio..or me just being an idiot but either way it works.

To my ears 35cc sounds like it could get the job done..

[Freaky]

Good to see you again Red!

Sorry I can't help on rehydration advise, but I'm wondering if they are drying out because too much air is flowing through your polyfiltered hole, maybe its too big? Just a thought. A smaller circumference tube might help keep air exchanging without the possibility of drying it out.

Another suggestion may be to mix some verm in with the popcorn to help keep it hydrated after pcing.

Sorry I can't be of more help, hope you find a solution.

[Pirate]

so whats the method of PC an oven bag or is it just as simple as im thinking..

load substrate and..pc lol (with maybe a towel wrapped around it)

[golly]

Ya don't need to inflate spawnbags everyday for FAE ..It's not till it's mostly colo'd that that would be of much benefit..
Kinda sounds like the popcorn could have been more hydrated to begin with...What was your method...?
But anyhoo , u could try injecting some water and turn the bag periodically to help it absorb evenly...

[RedOctober]

Good to see you too Freaky. I took a break for a while but I miss you guys!

Anyhow to elaborate a bit for Pirate and golly, SWIM simply simmered the corn for 1 hr, drained, rinsed, and loaded it into the bag freshly rinsed so that there was still plenty of moisture on the corn. Then just like you said Pirate, they were wraped in a towel and pc'd for 1 hr.

I think you may be right that the opening is a little too large so SWIM will have to improvise something. Unfortunately anything smaller than the 1/2 inch couplers makes it just impossible to fold the bag around it properly(terrible grammar I know).

SWIM will update me on how the water injection goes. He has noticed that lowering the temp created condensation which may help as well.

[Freaky]

I have to agree with Golly, the popcorn wasn't hydrated enough. It usually needs a 24 hr. soak prior to the simmer. Or if you are going to simmer it only, I'd go no less than 3 hours adding water as needed. Some folks pressure cook it for about 45 minutes to an hour I believe then use it.

Good to know you are getting back into the swing of things!