How's this for a bulk substrate?

[p2k1]

How does this bulk substrate sound?
Coconut coir fibre-35%
http://pet.imageg.net/graphics/produ...-3758909dt.jpg
Wheat straw pellets-35% "Swheat Scoop litter is made from naturally processed, secondary (non-food grade) wheat grown in the heart of the Great Plains states. "
http://pet.imageg.net/graphics/produ...757490t400.jpg
Organic compost-20% "Natural and organic - fortified with composted manure"
http://s7d5.scene7.com/is/image/CanadianTire/0594476_1?$medium$&defaultImage=image_na_EN
Vermiculite-10%
http://s7d5.scene7.com/is/image/CanadianTire/0594607_1?$medium$&defaultImage=image_na_EN

Step 1. Colonize mycrotopia supercake spawn bags from multispore LC innoculation
Step 2. Expand compressed coir
Step 3. Mix coir, straw pellets, vermiculite and compost
Step 4. Hydrate to field capacity
Step 5. Pasteurize in the oven in a baking tray
Step 6. Mix with spawn in ziploc bag, close zipper on polyfill filter
Step 7. Cut air slits and turn on fan when colonized
Step 8. Harvest

[MLBjammer]

Just get some donkey doo from H3. You will be glad you did. It is the "fine wine" of poo.

[Soliver]

Any of those three ingredients have been used as a bulk substrate - should work just
fine, but you may want to check your PH before spawning. I'm not a fan of adjusting
PH (or anything for that matter - I never seem to get it right, then when the grow
doesn't work great, I wonder where I messed up), so I tend to use straight poo for
bulk, but your recipe sounds sound enough

soliver

[p2k1]

I know Hippies got the best substrate I just cant afford the shipping costs he has to pay.
I have no experience checking/buffering ph

[Soliver]

Man, Horse Poop is everywhere - in the time it take you to figure out ph buffering, you
can probably make a few phone calls and get what you need locally. Hip has a great
product, especially if you don't have time or gumption to do the legwork yourself, but
shit is usually free for the taking. Just tell 'em you're layering your garden with hot
ferts NOW so it'll mellow by spring planting.



soliver

[p2k1]

No questioning the value of the real shit
I live in an apartment now though and cant be lugging poop up the stairs or processing it in my place so I must go with the practical

[TheFreak]

add 1 cup of calcium carb for ph purposes during pasteurization works great for me no matter what sub im using
http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2752699

[p2k1]

As far as ph is concerned, does adding calcium carb "neutralize" it to a desirable state regardless of substrate make up? Can you add too much?

[TheFreak]

no you cant add to much. i just add a cup or 2 deeping on if im doing 2 tub or 4. the carb acts as a long term buffer i do believe i picked this up at another site and have been using it ever since.

[TheFreak]

brb gonna try and dig you up some info on it

Originally Posted by RR

Calcium carbonate is used as a long term buffer and gypsum keeps the pH from wildly swinging.

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by RR

Calcium carbonate is used as a long term buffer and gypsum keeps the pH from wildly swinging.

CaCO2 is indeed a long-term buffer, but it's so long-term that it's really not particularly useful. It takes longer for most of the calcium to be made available for affecting pH than the grow will last. I've obsessed with pH to the point of precisely checking and adjusting my substrate pH, my casing soil pH, and the pH of any water I used. When I said "to hell with all that" my results were still just fine.

However, I do add some hydrated lime and gypsum to my spawn, and I add aged hydrated lime and gypsum to bulk subs.

I'll add about a teaspoon of fresh hydrated lime to a 20 pound bag of WBS when I cook it up (or, now that I don't pre-cook WBS I just add the lime to the water I use and mix it up beforehand) and one gram of gypsum per quart jar of spawn. Hydrated lime is instantly available so adding a tiny bit of it keeps the substrate a bit cleaner since it neutralizes some metabolites.

I don't know where RR gets that gypsum "keeps the pH from wildly swinging" because that's the very definition of a "buffer," and gypsum is not being used as a buffer in this context. It's acidic, but it lowers pH so slowly that it doesn't become a problem during the short duration of a grow. It helps make grain easier to break up in jars and provides an essential micronutrient (sulfur) to the mycelium.

In bulk subs, I add random amounts of 'aged' lime (a scoop here, a scoop there). I had an old bag of hydrated lime sitting in the shed for a year and when I checked it in some water, it had lost most of it's alkalinity and only made the water a little more basic (compared to when fresh!). Old hydrated lime becomes CaCO2, but still retains more ability to actively buffer pH than straight CaCO2.

[eatyualive]

you can get those test ph strips that just touch the substrate and they change colors indicating the ph being acidic, alkaline or neutral.

[viewer6922]

are moving right along. Great!...pm me, I can get you lime....you just have to pay postage. The lime is for free.....

[OuTdOoR.Pins]

Just wanted to make note... "Swheat Scoop" is NOT wheat straw pellets like "Country Critter" and does not expand nicely into a pre-chopped straw substitute. It is more like a powder or chopped and ground bits of wheat and possibly straw as well. I have not used "Swheat Scoop" as bulk yet but I add it to WBS jars with awesome results. After soaking for 12-24hrs, simmering for 30min and straining the WBS I let it steam off for a few mins. Im extremely impatient so instead of waiting for the extra water to evaporate off I add 2 big tablespoons of dry "Swheat Scoop" to each pint jar of WBS. I have a small PC that fits 5 wide mouth pints. Shake that stuff up to coat the WBS before you PC and you will be amazed how much faster the mycelium runs and climbs and jumps and stretches between grains. (note: put 2 scoops WBS before the 2 scoops "Swheat Scoop" or it will clump in the bottom and form a cake that is hard to break up)
p.s. this is my first post

[MLBjammer]

Welcome to Mycotopia.

[Pure madness 2]

I use 100% coir. More ingredients = extra money spent. Kiss. But I support hippie and if you want dung buy it from him.

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by Pure madness 2

I use 100% coir. More ingredients = extra money spent.

True, but it might be well worth it: More ingredients= more money spent= proportionally higher yields in the same amount of time.

I think worm castings and coir were made for each other, and IMO the increase in cost and complexity of using supplements is not enough to cancel out the benefits of what I generally add to my bulk subs (castings, gypsum, lime, hydrogel).