milk crate dunk for bulk

[onediadem]

Try doing your straw in a milk crate, find a rubbermaid container it will fit into, and you have yourself an instant fruiting/dunk chamber. Drill a 1" hole in the bottome for co2 escape while fruiting, and use a cork in the hole for dunking. Sooshane's invention, and works BADASS!

[sooshane]

Originally Posted by onediadem

Try doing your straw in a milk crate, find a rubbermaid container it will fit into, and you have yourself an instant fruiting/dunk chamber. Drill a 1" hole in the bottome for co2 escape while fruiting, and use a cork in the hole for dunking. Sooshane's invention, and works BADASS!

Something like this... the crates lift out nicely. A hole in the bottom of the tub makes for easy drainage. It was OneDiaDems Idea

[Hippie3]

[wildburr]

Excellent Idea sooshane, and onediadem. I've still got a bale of straw leftover from my Blue oyster preoject, definitely going to give it a shot. Got a couple of Rye jars about fully colonized with OI, Ill have to do a g2g to get some more spawn. It looks like it would use up a good amount to make up that sub.

[Freaky]

Very nice!

I've used milk crates outdoors before, but its nice to see you do this in an indoor setup!

[onediadem]

Thanks! And thanks for splitting this into it's own thread.

You would be surprised at how very little substrate is actually in that crate. You could do 3-4 of these crates and barely make a dent in bail of straw. There is prolly only about 3+ inches of sub and we spawn fairly heavy about 2 quarts worth. The dimensions of the crate are 12" wide x 18" long x 11" deep.

The substrate is comprised of straw, un-leached commercial composted steer manure, and vermiculite. It is also only 3" thick and uncased. The straw is pasteurized in a pillow case and the verm and compost is mixed and pateurized in the oven. When we dunk we use lime, bleach and a splash of liquid vitamin B1 and only dunk for about 2-5 hours or so.

That pic above showing the crate out of the tub looks a bit nasty but it is only lime build up. That tub hasn't been washed in about 6 months and the crates only get a quick hose down on the lawn. You may not be able to tell but that tub has flaps on the sides that fold over to enclose the tub. When dunking the sub usually stays in the crate and the whole crate floats so, the flaps work out nicely to just close over the tub and lock down the crate under the water. The crates also do not touch the inside bottom of the tub, there is about an 8 inch gap between the bottom of crate and the tub. I'll get a few more pictures up.

We are all about neglect-tek. The tubs only have a sheet of plastic with holes in it that lays over the top but, in this dry environment we still need to mist and fan 3 times a day. The crates can also be fruited outside the tub like under a plastic tent. These crates would be great on shelves in an enclosed grow room with automated misting. Also, something to try would be to fill the crates completely up with substrate and fruit them like you would a laundry basket.

Here's a couple of pics for you. The isolate was chosen for its vigor, fruit girth and density and not so much for length. They get pretty thick. The fruits average about 6"+ long and these are still just pinning, some hitting the 2" mark. They should start taking off pretty fast soon. We see about 3 1/2oz dry per flush. Enough to keep us tied over for awhile. These of course are of some wild legal edible strain - at least that's what the wood gnomes told us... they're quite tasty too.



Top down view of the Crate standing on its side:




The bottom of the crate:




You can see how the subsrate stays locked in:




Here is one fruiting under a plastic tent:

[Freaky]

That is such an easy way to go! Very nice!

Do you find a lot of side or bottom pinning? I mean from the pics it looks like it just shoots em off the top of the sub, but you'd think they'd push through the sides and bottom a bit too.

I just had to rate this 5 shrooms!

[onediadem]

Thanks Freaky! The sub is below the open sections of the crate on those crates shown but we do get some stragglers that push out through the holes. There is a bit of sub build up in some areas but for the most part that pic of the side view is a bit deceiving.

The tented crate picture was a little experiment that we tried. The crate was filled about half way up and has about 4" of exposed substrate around the sides. It just finished its first flush and nothing grew out the sides...bummer. The next time we will fill it all the way up. It would make a kickass pic if those mushies grew out all around it.

[Freaky]

Good to know One!

I'm really glad you guys shared this fungi gem. I agree, some fruits poking out through the holes would be beautiful!

[wildburr]

What is your straw to poo to verm ratio in that sub?

[sooshane]

Hi Wildburr,

Each sub has approximately 50% straw, 30% manure, 20% verm. Mixed with a final layer of plain straw. One hates the poo on the shrooms.

[livewire420]

keep the great post coming ya'll 2 got some great ideas

[onediadem]

Originally Posted by sooshane

Hi Wildburr,

Each sub has approximately 50% straw, 30% manure, 20% verm. Mixed with a final layer of plain straw. One hates the poo on the shrooms.

LOL! Oh yes, the anti-poo fetish. Must disguise it, and hide it from my sensitive constitution. Besides, with a top layer of straw, there is virtually no cleaning involved. Just pick and dry. Who0t! Who wants to eat something that came out of the rear end of another of earths creatures anyway? Not me.

[Hippie3]

tried coir as poo substitute ?

btw
off-topic-
ever heard of kopi luwak
AKA 'civet coffee' ?
it's the world's most rare and expensive coffee
and it's made from coffee beans that were eaten
and excreted from the civet intact then gathered...
sold in london as Caffe Raro for $100 a cup...

[onediadem]

LOL, and naw, as you can see in that one picture,we aint got no verm fetish...


Hip, I have had nothing but issues with coir for some reason. Every time I have used it, I have had nothing but contam issues that normally aren't there otherwise. Even with pasteurizing it. I just gave up on it. I also didn't like how fast it dries out. Apples and oranges tho. I am glad it works so well for others, and would never knock its applications.

[sooshane]

Nice write up hon, it is straight up tits!That tent thing looks pretty ghetto but it does the job well - plastic and the cure all duct tape goes a long way. That tent shown sits on top of a plastic sheet if anyone was curious.

The isolate performs well but is not a true isolate. Several substrains with not so desirable traits grow out as well and I am not to pleased with the bald spots that are there on the surface of that tub (grow error on my part). But, overall they are some decent fruits that look pretty when dried. Not a bad specimen and overall flushes are very nice for an uncased bed. They are pretty thick for the most part and blue like crazy! A very pretty deep blue. Here is one fruit that we cut in half that was exceptionally blue.

Spread the love, have a heart.





And to Wildburr (from another thread (Watering bigger subs between flushes?))

Originally Posted by wildburr

sooshane, Is that Visqueen (plastic sheet) with holes in it covering the tubs. I think I will try this out with Poo Straw and coir. Thanks for a pretty damn cool idea.

Yes it is, I don't know what the thickness is as we got a huge 5' tall roll of it for free, prolly a thousand+ feet left on it and it is of a decent mm - fairly thick. All I do is cut off a section and fold it in half as much as I can until I can't anymore. I take the folded plastic and drill several 1/4 inch holes into it. When unfolded there is about 1 hole per square inch in the plastic.

[eatyualive]

dude, how did i miss this?

very nice. simple yet effective!

"archive material"

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by sooshane

It was OneDiaDems Idea

Originally Posted by onediadem

Sooshane's invention, and works BADASS!

Trying to give credit to someone else for something as cool as this is a refreshing change from the usual "It was mine! Mine I tell you!" attitude we see a lot in the OMC and elsewhere.

And it is cool; simple is good, multi-purpose simplicity is even better.

Like eatyu said, I don't know how I missed this until now either...

[Subbalteatus]

When you say "Dunk" do you mean submerge in water? I know little to nothing about this stuff but it sure is interesting.

Is that what triggers the fruiting?

How long would you let the Straw Poo and Verm colonise before you would dunk?

[eatyualive]

Originally Posted by onediadem

LOL, and naw, as you can see in that one picture,we aint got no verm fetish...


Hip, I have had nothing but issues with coir for some reason. Every time I have used it, I have had nothing but contam issues that normally aren't there otherwise. Even with pasteurizing it. I just gave up on it. I also didn't like how fast it dries out. Apples and oranges tho. I am glad it works so well for others, and would never knock its applications.

i'd say, if you have trouble using it as casing. maybe try mixing it in your sub like you do verm. i find it to benefit flushes. although your flushes are already rockin! so i guess you really don't need it lol...

also one more idea to add to the bunch...


did you guys see those pictures from that commercial cubie grow in the netherlands that mj shroomer has posted on several forums? if not, what they do is grow from top and bottom. leaving their beds bottoms open.

i think its somewhere on here.

http://www.freshmushrooms.nl/

so what about elevating that milk crate box 6-10" off the ground and try fruiting from all directions. ive seen some straw logs in the archives here that use this very same principle. i think it would increase your yield a bit. but im no straw master. ill link you soon.

here is the idea. fruiting from all directions. other than that, i think seeing that crate fruiting from all directions would blow my mind...good luck.

http://archives.mycotopia.net/discus...tml?1100912029

When you say "Dunk" do you mean submerge in water? I know little to nothing about this stuff but it sure is interesting.

Is that what triggers the fruiting ?

How long would you let the straw Poo and verm colonise before you would dunk?

you want to allow your substrate to colonize fully until you dunk. most of the time, a dunk isn't done until post first flush. this reintroduces water to the substrate. the substrate will absorb it like a sponge. this is post flush maintenance usually. in certain cases, your substrate may dry out or the crop is too dense that the substrate cannot support the crop bc the moisture content has been all sucked up by the dense crop. if this is the case, you can dunk before the flush is complete. im ballsy and ill dunk the sub with pins and all. just completely submerged. most people will tell you that this will cause problems but ive not seen it yet as long as the pins are completely submerged.

and. ive also read of people who dunk before the first flush. this is usually due to the sub drying out.

one thing though. dunks will ware your substrate out. imho, there is a fine line between your dunk times depending on the substrate. this may vary substrate to substrate. personally, i think cakes can take a longer dunk due to the compact and strong mycelial network. at times, even subs can take long dunks. and ive read in the archives that some people who do straw logs and such dunk for 12-24 hours. i used to dunk my cakes 12-24 hours even with bleach at times. and even in the fridge. i got real lazy over the years and now only do it for 4-8 hours tops. and get great results.
so just be wary that, if you dunk too long, it may cause problems. you just need to find how long that is for your particular situation. i find 4-8 hours to be perfect for the substrates im using and the methods i use. but this may vary depending on your particular ingredients in your subs. me, im a bit scared of straw so to say. in which i get paranoid about dunking it. if there is a good mix of dung in with the straw, im confident. so really, its all in the eye of the beholder. dunking works, and it works great! anyone who says otherwise, i would not listen to a word they say unless they can prove to me its the dunk thats causing the problems and not the cultivator.

now, on sterility. many will tell you to be as clean as possible and i condone that. but ill admit, ive done some pretty dirty dunks and used my hands and smoked pot around the bins and all. next to a dirty sink full of dishes...and...it worked fine most of the time minus a few instances. so, just try to be as clean as possible. you don't have to be sterile, just clean. and try not to allow the cake itself to touch anything but water. and you should be fine.

ive never had luck with a dunk that long. but that is just me. i usually go no more than 4 hour dunks between flushes. one problem you will find, is that if you don't drain your sub or cake enough after the dunk, sometimes it can turn to mush or deteriorate. this means its water logged. so, if your worried you can always add some dry sterile vermiculite on top of your sub afterwards to soak up the extra moisture.

[mysticwonder]

thanks great start

[camMyco]

After reading this thread I'm going to have to try a crate. I'm in awe!

[bluelou]

Hahah i got plenty crates around here.....

Can see that it could be a neat bulk style!!!
GONNA TRY IT this year,with the help of eats.....
THANKS BUDDY for you know!