Stalled Whole Rice Jar?

[Darkstalker420]

Hi i noc'ed up a test jar to see if my LC was ok i feel i did this to soon and the LC wasn't yet strong enough. This first noc up did not produce any growth so after about 5 days i noc'ed it again and sure enough the myc started to slowly colonize the rice. The jar is what i would say abut 80% colonized (the whole jar is covered in ropey myc but i can still see the rice grains). The jar has not progressed for a few days i gave it a sniff and it is a nice mushroom smell i tried flipping the jar for a day and nothing happened.

I didn't have access to a grinder to grind the rice so used whole brown rice with a bit of verm (just incase!) the jar didn't look wet when noc'ed but im a bit worried it could be to dry. I can see condensation on the inside of the jar and spots of bright white myc between the rice grains it just can't seem to cover all the whole lot?? and i can still see the grains. Im tempted to noc it again with a small amount of LC just to see what happens (as it seems to have stalled i won't really be losing anything).

What do you guys/gals think i can do sorry there are no pix as i'm using Windows 7 X64 and it won't find my girlfriends digicam.

Thanx.

[Irishlion]

Originally Posted by Darkstalker420

Hi i noc'ed up a test jar to see if my LC was ok i feel i did this to soon and the LC wasn't yet strong enough. This first noc up did not produce any growth so after about 5 days i noc'ed it again and sure enough the myc started to slowly colonize the rice. The jar is what i would say abut 80% colonized (the whole jar is covered in ropey myc but i can still see the rice grains). The jar has not progressed for a few days i gave it a sniff and it is a nice mushroom smell i tried flipping the jar for a day and nothing happened.

I didn't have access to a grinder to grind the rice so used whole brown rice with a bit of verm (just incase!) the jar didn't look wet when noc'ed but im a bit worried it could be to dry. I can see condensation on the inside of the jar and spots of bright white myc between the rice grains it just can't seem to cover all the whole lot?? and i can still see the grains. Im tempted to noc it again with a small amount of LC just to see what happens (as it seems to have stalled i won't really be losing anything).

What do you guys/gals think i can do sorry there are no pix as i'm using Windows 7 X64 and it won't find my girlfriends digicam.

Thanx.

What you using for FAE for the jar, does it have tape over the holes, or just a dry verm layer without the tape over the holes. Sometimes flipping the jar is enough to get it to finish.

[Darkstalker420]

The jar is sat in our airing cupboard (25-28c) the 4 holes are uncovered with a dry verm barrier i check them once or twice a day and fan the door for a min or two i will flip the jar again and leave it this way. I noc'ed up another two last night one with more verm in one with about the same so i can tell if my mix is off.

Do you think the condensation is ok (thre isn't enough water for it to run or form drops kind of like myc sweat!!?).

Thanx.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Flip the cakes and leave them that way. CO2 is heavier than air and will slowly drain out, drawing in fresh air (filtered by the verm).

A small amount of condensation in the jar is nothing to worry about. The temp swing from 25C to 28C (77F-82F) is probably causing the condensation.

25C is a little cool, but it will work - it just takes longer. Be patient and everything should be fine.

Adding LC at this point will not speed things up, it is only a contaminant vector.

[Irishlion]

Originally Posted by BuckarooBanzai

Flip the cakes and leave them that way. CO2 is heavier than air and will slowly drain out, drawing in fresh air (filtered by the verm).

A small amount of condensation in the jar is nothing to worry about. The temp swing from 25C to 28C (77F-82F) is probably causing the condensation.

25C is a little cool, but it will work - it just takes longer. Be patient and everything should be fine.

Adding LC at this point will not speed things up, it is only a contaminant vector.

Yep what he said

[Darkstalker420]

Thanx everyone will flip as i said and wait it out. Noc'ed up some WBS and plan to use the horse poo my mrs got from her friends stable (nice and earthy no pee smell) just got to convice her to allow it in the kitchen lol.

Thanx.

[BuckarooBanzai]

One of the great things about worm castings is the word castings.

It lets her ignore almost completely the idea of a 50lb bag of poop on the kitchen counter...

[Darkstalker420]

Hi BuckarooBanzai so i could use worm castings instead of hpoo? would they be as good as poo? and would you prepare them the same?. I was going to (if the WBS works out) pasturize the poo in oven bags in a big pan off water (field capacity first of course) pasturize and mix with WBS and put in ice cream tubs (with a few holes in the lids) allow to colonize and put in FC.

Not being a "country" person the idea of fondling hpoo don't fill me with joy and although worm castings are the same "thing" it just don't seem as bad for some reason. So could i do a straight swap hpoo for worm castings??.

Thanx.

[MLBjammer]

Just click on The Banzai Institute attached to all of Buck's posts for details about how Buck uses castings. He sterilizes them.

I would recommend h-poo personally, as I think it has more nutrients than castings. One cannot argue with the good results many have with castings, though.

H-poo, when leeched and dried, is much like compost and smells loamy, like a forest floor. It is not too gross.

In this hobby you must remember: love the dung, love the dung, etc.

Good luck.

[BuckarooBanzai]

You can swap castings for hpoo. I find castings to be preferable for storage and preparation to horse or cow poo.

You can NOT Pasteurize castings - they turn into mud. Just run them through the PC like everything else.

If you use castings, you need something to "fluff" the mixture (coir is perfect). Castings are terrible by themselves - the mud thing. Coir is also better PCed/sterilized than Pasteurized. Coir will absorb and hold a ton of moisture.

Hpoo isn't nasty, but ya do have to fondle it a bit to get it shredded properly (big chunks don't colonize - they tend to contaminate). But MLB is right. ALL poo you do mushrooms with mostly smells like loam/dirt - like the woods after a long rain storm.

If the poo stinks gross/bad - don't use it! Stanky poo is full of bacteria and totally inappropriate for growing mushrooms.