my lc always takes forever to colonize. why?

[mushmind]

i use 4 tspns to 500 ml. water. pc and inject two cc's multispore through hips self healing ports. three weeks and only sparse growth although it definitely is myc. temps vary but remain low. usually 70 or below.

[vinz]

4 tspns of?
how long do you PC? u think it PCed too long and caramelized the sugars? that sometimes causes it not to grow..
also it takes like 3-5 days to start showing growth then it would increase in a week.. then start shaking it and mixing it up every now and then and before you know it, it would be full already.. some get the stirrer and just have it stirrring all the time..
what strain did you use? or the spores may also be old and dry and might need a few more days to rehydrate so might take a little longer to germinate?

[Freaky]

The low temp. is most likely the main reason in my opinion. If you can get the temp. up to at least the mid to high 70's you'll see quicker growth.

[sandman]

try 1 gram of light malt extract and 500ml water. For fastest growth possible 24/7 mag stir will get you 100% in 4 days from lc/tissue and 6 days from spores.

[marmy]

My non veteraned opinion is that it is too sweet and your temps are too low.

From the information I have gathered from this site and interviewing my foaf I have noticed that:

The LC should be 4%. My foaf weighs the distilled water and weighs the sugar source. So if you had 300 grams of water, you could use 12 grams of sugar source. Or at least that is what my FOAF uses.. maybe its supposed to be 4% by volume.. I have never seen any information either way.

It is better to have less than more of a sugar source.

Also, my foaf noticed that the pint jars with more air space colonized better than less airspace. ( not used a bubbler airport jet) . Might just be coincidence too.

with temps 80 degrees or so my foaf sees good colonization.


My foaf's favorite recipe is 4% Liquid Dextrose and a pinch of nutritional yeast.

[mushmind]

thanks you guys for the input. i was gone a few days there. i didn't shake my jar for two days and it warmed up here and boom big colonization. but it still took a long time. i had used karo syrup. maybe i'll use some malt next time in one jar and some potato dextrose in another.