DEC question

[DjLiquid]

I keep hearing "When misting the inside of your FC, be sure not to get any water on your cakes or you may get some contams". When DEC'ing, the verm is moistened (I used a syringe while the dry verm was on the cake) and was wondering how this is different than misting. Also, if water aborts fruiting then how does this affect the process if you wet the verm on the top of the cake when it dries out? There seem to be quite a few things that contradict eachother from this forum to the archives so I find myself posting to much =p. Sorry for bothering you so much but I don't have the time or money to get this wrong my first time around.

Thanks =D

[Lookyhere]

When you put on the DEC it should be at field capacity. Also, you can mist and get it on the cakes, I do and have, and have had no problems. Once you get pins then you want to be a little more careful with your misting, but if you mist them a little it will be fine. The Dec should not dry out, don't let it dry out.

Don't worry about asking questions, everyone is here to help.

[DjLiquid]

Thanks for the fast reply, it's really appreciated!

[chrisnh]

i make sure the cakes are away from the walls as much has possible so i can get in there with a small fine misting bottle and spray the sides well. then i will spray the cakes with pins from well above the cakes and let it fall onto the cakes. then i have a small battery powered fan i use on the cakes near the pins for a few seconds each cake. this lets me mist the cakes and even the pins a little without having too much water left behind on the pins. not sure if this is really a great idea or not, just what i do. anyone else have an opinion on this?

[toasty]

I use a syringe to water mine also....no problems here! I also make a weak peroxide solution and it works well for me.

[Lookyhere]

I just went and misted my last cake I have about 8-10 times. I use a little 4 oz travel hairspray bottle that I got I think at the dollar store. My last cake is in a half gallon pickle jar and I just popped the top and sprayed it right in. I would take pictures to prove that this wont cause aborts or contams, but this cake is on it's 4th or 5th flush and I'm surprised it's even spitting out any more shrooms (it's pretty spent).

When a FC is 100% RH water will drop on the cakes and shrooms. It's gonna happen. As long as you have good FAE you're ok. IMO Chris, you're making things a little more complicated than it needs to be and doing extra work. Fanning for a few seconds on each cake can't hurt, it's adding FAE, which is good, but IMO I don't think that it's necessary if you just have good normal FAE going.

H2o2 I have read will stall cakes a little and should only be used as a last resort to fight against cobweb. That's just what I've read. I have sprayed a cake with diluted H2o2 and saw stress on my cakes and it took a little longer to fruit. I spray the perlite with H2o2 while my cakes are dunking. That allows enough time for the hydrogen peroxide to evaporate or break down, leaving just plain water.

[chrisnh]

Originally Posted by Lookyhere

IMO Chris, you're making things a little more complicated than it needs to be and doing extra work. Fanning for a few seconds on each cake can't hurt, it's adding FAE, which is good, but IMO I don't think that it's necessary if you just have good normal FAE going

as long as it's not bad, i don't mind doing more than is needed. people talk to their plants, pray for rain for their veggies, the more we love our babies the more we spoil them. just gotta be careful not to go too far and hurt them.

[feralronin]

I think the general idea is to allow the cake to absorb the water as needed from both ends of the cake. I keep my verm at full field capacity at all times.

Doing so I always get lots and lots of pinning happening at the tops and bottoms near the dec.

As far as misting the cakes I don't know about that. Never done it.

[Lookyhere]

I should say that I wouldn't mist them like every hour or anything like that. You don't want to mist the cakes excessively. I would just mist my top casing layer and the mist would also hit the cakes themselves a bit, I would then mist the sides and top of my FC and it does drip, and when it does drip it will drip down the cake sometimes. I didn't go out of my way to directly mist the cakes, but I didn't take all kinds of precautions to not get overspray on them either.

[feralronin]

I had always assumed that it was bad for water to get on the cakes themselves, as they tend to bead up and stick. I have over watered my top layer a few times and it dribble down the sides. Never had a contam problem from it, but I can guess thats really only a problem on large casings when water pools on the surface of the mycellium. Cakes being vertical, water runs down to the bottom of the DEC.

As for condesation build up on the top and then dropping, this also seems to really be only a problem on larger casings. I occasionally will wipe the top inside, but that's only when there is a large temp change and its very built up.

If you are doing cakes, in a perlite FC, just fan 3-5 times a day, keep top and bottom of cake at field capacity, and be patient. You seem to be on the right path.

[oibchip]

There isn't any problems with getting the mist on your cakes or even on the fruits for that matter if u are able to introduce enough FAE to keep the water from "Settling" on the fruits. When the water settles on the fruits/pins and isn't able to evaporate ( it makes them rot) is when you will have abort problems.