My project update - possible issue

[Santiago]

I looked at my jars and bags for the first time today since I inoculated them on Monday evening. I took them out of my dark closet, and realized that they, unlike the rest of the upstairs in my house, were quite cool. I can't make an incubator, so I've just got ambient at 79 (so says the electronic thermostat - feels about right). But the jars and bags were cool to the touch. I took them out of the closet and put them in the main part of my bedroom with dark clothes blanketing the clear container the jars are in. Hopefully the spores will go ahead and germinate now instead of just saying "Screw this, it's cold"

There are sign of growth in only one jar, and it's very wispy. I'd say it was cobweb except it's got much more defined edges than I've seen cobweb have in the past. Definitely looks like mycelium - but weak looking mycelium.
No contaminants yet, so at least there's that.

I inoculated Atl #7 into the center of the bags and no sign of growth there, which I'm not surprised by - especially considering the temperature. Hopefully getting them out into the main room will help.

Only other news to report is that I bought the material to make a wood-framed cardboard glovebox with a plexiglass window. I aborted because the frame was a serious hassle without any sort of actual woodworking tools - including clamps, sawhorses, or a drill to use screws with instead of trying to nail 1x2's together. My new idea consists of building the wooden frame with glue partially inside of an already-constructed cardboard box to give it some stability. Wish I had a digital camera, I'm sure I'd get a few laughs.

[nodnarb1978]

79ish will feel cool to the touch! Good luck

[jason_]

79ºF Will be fine for incubation. A few degrees warmer would speed things up just a bit, but don't worry about it much.

As for the myc- It sometimes starts off weak, but may get stronger as it grows.

Good luck.

-Jason

[Santiago]

I checked out my little warrior jars today, and 10 out of 12 jars are exhibiting some very nice, rhizomorphic growth, up to a quarter in size in some of the jars. No sign of any baddies so far, so I'm a believer in big ole' verm barrier technique.
The Atl #7 bags are all showing some growth on the outer edges too, which I'm hoping means that they're growing nicely in the middle of the millet bag. I'm wondering if I should mix the bags up some, or just let them keep going?
I think I'm going to buy an aquarium heater today - I'd really like to get the temperature up a few more degrees.
Anyway, so far so good. Thanks to everyone sending the positive vibes. At some point I'll probably break down and buy a digital camera, but I can't rationalize the expense just yet.

[Hippie3]

mix bags ONCE at about 40-50% colonization for speedy finish

[Lookyhere]

Easy and cheap GB would be to just get a nice sized sterlite container. 64qt cost me $7, and you don't need 1 that big.

[Santiago]

I have an extra Sterilite container laying around, but I don't know how I'd go about getting the holes cut out. I can't afford a drill and 40 dollar holesaw, and I have a glass stovetop and really don't want to stick a clothes hanger on there to heat it up and melt the plastic.

[Hippie3]

use a cardboard box instead, easy to cut

[Santiago]

That's what I'm working on now. I'm trying to give the cardboard a bit of a frame with these 1x2s. I'm glad I didn't do any gluing last night, as I came home pretty intoxicated and thought it'd be a good idea to work on my glovebox.

[Santiago]

Alright! The glovebox is done. I'm headed to the brew store tomorrow for light tan malt extract.

I was going to wait until Tuesday night to check my jars, but I had a pretty crappy day today and hoped my jars would cheer me up. Boy did they NOT disappoint me. Sporeworks comes through yet again. My 10 Atlantis bags are going fairly slow, but the edge of the "pool" of mycelium is very aggressive looking. My PF jars are all showing very significant growth since Saturday morning, with some great looking rhizos. One of them has created a little rhizomorphic finger through the PF, to the eye it really looks like just 2 strands of mycelium. Absolutely beautiful.
I'm going to be buying a digital camera some time this week (boy was Sam's a bust), so I'll make sure to take some pictures, probably next Saturday morning if I can wait that long. No signs of contamination yet. Thanks again all for the good vibes.