A Newbie's Grow BRF Log - First 28+ Days

[Evenfall]

In this log I am going to make an attempt at transcribing a Word document I have been using to keep notes and pictures of my first try at mushroom cultivation. This is probably too much detail for most but will hopefully give those new to the hobby an idea of the time scales involved and what you will see along the journey. I am new to Mycology myself and this is not an attempt to teach someone the correct or best methods. I have made many errors along the way. Many things done during this grow were incorrect or not optimal and I am still learning new things every day. My recommendation is for anyone interested in mushroom cultivation to spend a lot of time reading and talking to others who have experience. When you think you know enough start over and research every step again and have everything in place and ready to take you from germination to fruit storage before you germinate your first spores. I didn't do this and found myself scrambling for an item after I needed it. One example is a decent hygrometer. After birthing my first cake I find that the hygrometer I thought I was going to use is a POS. It turns out I had to order a quility hygrometer online and ship it overnight. The whole time panicing the fruiting chamber (FC) was not at an adaquate humidity level. I lucked out and it turns out relative humidity (RH) was consistatly above 95% in the FC but not know caused several days of stress I could have done without. Another good idea is to setup your incubation chamber (IC) and fruiting chamber (FC) before you need them and make sure you can control the environmental variables (temperature and humidity) as needed. The point I am trying to make is line everything out and know every step through the entire process before taking the first step and you will reduce your stess levels tremendously.
This log covers the first 28 days from sterilization, innoculation, growth, and finally pinning. I will update again as each flush is harvested and include pictures and harvest quantities as appropriate.
　
Experiment #2
Spore Source: Multi-Spore Syringe *undisclosed vendor*
Strain(s): A-Strain and Brazilian
Jar(s) Used: Jar "A" & Jar "B"
Jar Size: 1/2 pint 　
　
7/16/09
Drilled four holes in the lids of two wide-mouth ½ pint jar
Created substrate by mixing 2 cup of vermiculite, 1 cup organic rice flour, and a little over 1 cup of RO water. After adding to jars the substrate is noticeably clumpier and wetter than "Experiment #1". Too much water is a bad thing but I suspect "Experiment #1" may have too little water.
Loosely added substrate to the ½ pint jars leaving ~¾ inch open at the top.
Filled this open space with loosely with dry vermiculite.
Placed lids tightly on the jars.
Place medical tape over drilled holes drilled in the jar lids.
Steamed jars and contents for 90 minutes with lids on.
Let the jars cool to room temperature over night.


7/17/09
Unexpectedly the pressure cooker arrived today. Pressure cooked jars and substrate for 45 minutes and 15 psi. I expect this is OK since the substrate appeared to have plenty of moisture.

*CAPTION: Pressure Cooker

Let jars cool for 6 hours. Outside of jars were at room temperature after 2 hours.
Cleaned and disinfected kitchen.
Took shower and washed hair and face extra well.
Put on clean shorts and sandals.
Disinfected kitchen again with Lysol including shorts and sandals.
Turned oven on lowest setting, 170 degrees.
Turned stove hood on low to help exhaust any air suspended bacteria or fungus.
Put on surgical gloves and washed hands with anti-bacterial soap.
After oven was pre-heated the door was opened and the upper rack was extended as far as possible to create a work shelf. Oven rack bars are too far apart to hold ½ pint jars upright so I placed the try from the pressure cooker on the shelf to work on.
Placed both jars with substrate on the extended oven rack/shelf. From this point on this method will be referred to as the "oven inoculation method".
Attached needles to spore syringes and sterilized tips with a lighter. Cooled needle tips with alcohol swab.
Wiped top of jar "B" with alcohol swab. Forgot to wipe jar "A" before injecting spores. It should have been a sterile environment regardless.
Injected .25cc of solution into each of the four holes of each jar. One jar received strain "A" (A) and the other "Brazilian" (B). There is a slight possibility the two jars are labeled backwards (A is B and B is A).
Wiped top of jars with alcohol swab and replaced with original pieces of surgical tape. I used these pieces since they should have been sterilized during the pressure cooking.
Wiped down outsides of jars and lids with alcohol.
Placed jars in a dark closet. I will closely monitor temperature and add the aquarium if I cannot maintain 78 to 82 degrees during the mycelial growth stage. This is monitored with a thermometer that records highest and lowest temperature.

*CAPTION: Jars inoculated and setup in the closet from step 25. Day 0. Picture includes the jar from "Experiment 1" on the far left labeled "#1".


7/17/09
Day 0 – Temperature 78 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage


7/18/09
Day 1 (morning) – Temperature 79 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage
Day 1 (mid-day) – Temperature 81 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage
Day 1 (Evening) - Lowering target temperature range to 75 to 80 degrees.

7/19/09
Day 2 (mid-day) – Temperature 77 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage
Day 2 (evening) – Temperature 77 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage

*CAPTION: Close-up of jar "A". Lots of moisture still visible on the inside of jar "A" and "B". Will this promote the growth of bad things?


7/20/09
Day 3 (morning) – Temperature 73 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage (turned heating pad on low to raise temperature a couple of degrees)

*CAPTION: No visible changes yet.


7/21/09
Day 4 (morning) – Temperature 79 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage
Day 4 (morning) – There is nothing happening in any experiment since lowing the temperature. All growth in Jar "1" (experiment #1) has stopped. After further research I am going to try a temperature range of 80 to 85 for a couple of days and log the results.


7/22/09
Day 5 (mid-day) – Temperature 79 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage


7/23/09
Day 6 (evening) – Temperature 82 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage – Things have started progressing faster today. Definite mycelial growth can be seen in four locations of each jar. No contamination is visible.

*CAPTION: First growth

*CAPTION: First growth

*CAPTION: First growth

*CAPTION: First growth

*CAPTION: First growth

[Evenfall]

7/24/09
Day 7 (mid-day) – Temperature 84 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage

*CAPTION: Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Jar "B"

[Evenfall]

7/25/09
Day 8 (morning) – Temperature 79 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage – Growth has accelerated over the past two days and changes are noticeable over only a couple hours.

*CAPTION: Jar "A" (morning)

*CAPTION: Jar "A" (morning)

*CAPTION: Jar "A" (morning)

*CAPTION: Jar "B" (morning)

*CAPTION: Jar "B" (morning)

*CAPTION: Jar "B" (morning)

*CAPTION: Jar "B" (morning)

[Evenfall]

Day 9 (morning) - Temperature 79 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage – New Growth continues to appear every time the experiment is checked. Hopefully this continues thru full colonization.


*CAPTION: Day 9 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 9 (morning) - Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 9 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 9 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 9 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 9 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 9 (morning) – Jar "B"

Day 9 (mid-day) – Temperature 81 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage

[Evenfall]

7/27/09
Day 10 (morning) – Temperature 79 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage – It looks like the mycelium growing spots at the injection points may begin to connect with each other later today. These jars seemed to be outperforming the jars from later experiments which used less water.

*CAPTION: Day 10 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 10 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 10 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 10 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 10 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 10 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 10 (morning) – Jar "B"

[Evenfall]

7/28/09
Day 11 (morning) – Temperature 82 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage


*CAPTION: Day 11 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 11 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 11 (morning) – Jar "A"

*CAPTION: Day 11 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 11 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 11 (morning) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 11 (morning) – Jar "B"

[Evenfall]

7/29/09
Day 12 (afternoon) – Temperature 82 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 12 (afternoon) – Jar "B"

[Evenfall]

7/30/09
Day 13 (morning) – Temperature 82 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "A"


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 13 (afternoon) – Jar "B"

8/3/09
Day 17 (afternoon) - Temperature 82 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage – Jar "B" has been fully colonized for two days, I am starting to give at least six hours of low intensity light per day.

[Evenfall]

8/4/09
Day 18 (afternoon) - Temperature 85 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage – Removed Jar "B" from incubator during the daylight hours, it was kept at room temperature ~75. Returned to incubator over night.


*CAPTION: Day 18 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 18 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 18 (afternoon) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 18 (afternoon) – Jar "B"

8/5/09
Day 19 (morning) – Temperature 81 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage - Removed Jar "B" from incubator during the daylight hours, it was kept at room temperature ~75. Returned to incubator over night.

8/6/09
Day 20\AB 0 (evening) – Temperate 82 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage – Birthed Jar "B", dunked for 1 hour, placed on grow side of aquarium. Humidity controlled with damp perlite in the aquarium.



*CAPTION: Day 20/AB 0 (evening) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 20/AB 0 (evening) – Jar "B"

*CAPTION: Day 20/AB 0 (evening) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 20/AB 0 (evening) – Jar "B"

8/8/09


*CAPTION: This "Great Black Wasp" was trying to invade my fruiting chamber. Supposedly these guys aren’t aggressive but he did not look to want my company nor was in the mood to leave. I finally isolated him from the lab and put him down.He is 43mm from head to stinger. Not the biggest but still intimidating. You could hear him flying around from adjacent rooms.

[Evenfall]

Day 22\AB 2 (evening) – Temperature 82 – Location Closet – Mycelial Growth Stage - Fruiting chamber averaging 77 during the day and 73 at night with 90%+ humidity. No clear sign of pin growth yet but copious amounts of white fuzzy mycelium is growing on the top and side of cake.


*CAPTION: Day 22/ AB 2 (evening) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 22/ AB 2 (evening) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 22/ AB 2 (evening) – Jar "B"


*CAPTION: Day 22/ AB 2 (evening) – Jar "B"

8/9/09
Day 23\AB 3 (evening) – Temperature 76 – Location FC – Pinning Stage

8/10/09
Day 24\AB 4 (evening) – Temperature 76 – Location FC – Pinning Stage – Birthed Jar "A" and dunked. Now that I have a bag of vermiculite I DECed Cake "A" and Cake "B" which was birthed and dunked 4 days ago.

8/11/09

*CAPTION: Day 25/AB 5 (mid-day) – Cake "A"

Day 25\AB 5 (evening) – Temperature 76 – Location FC – Pinning Stage – Cake "A" may have some hyphal knots. I am adding several drops of water to the casing layer each day to keep the cakes well hydrated but not over doing it. I rather error on the low side than drown the cakes.

8/12/09


*CAPTION: Day 26/AB 6 - Pick the one you think is correct. I picked the small one in the center.

Day 26\AB 6 (evening) – Temperature 76 – Location FC – Pinning Stage – Cake "A" is showing its first pins. There are two pins near the top of the cake that are forming from the same spot. Cake "B" is still munching on nutrients and shows no signs of pin growth yet.


*CAPTION: Day 26/AB 6 (mid-day) – Cake "A"
　
8/13/09


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 – Fruiting Chamber (side view) – The air pump and red cup are not normally there. I was just testing something today.


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 – Fruiting Chamber (top view) – The air pump and red cup are not normally there. I was just testing something today.


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"

[Evenfall]

*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "B"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (mid-day) – Cake "A"

[Evenfall]

Day 27\AB 7 (evening) – Temperature 76 – Location FC – Pinning Stage – A lot has been happening the past two days. There are 7 well developed pins on Cake "A" and dozens of hyphal knots on the top third of the cake. Cake "B" incubated faster but is slower at developing pins. Today is the first day it is even showing hyphal knots. Interestingly it has about 20 knots all jammed into a 1 square inch spot. Additionally there are several other knots located around the bottom third of the cake.


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (evening) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (evening) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 27/AB 7 (evening) – Cake "A"

8/14/09
Day 28\AB 8 (morning) – Temperature 77 – Location FC – Pinning Stage – All pins on Cake "A" continue to increase in size and more pins are showing up daily. Numerous hyphal knots continue to develop and can now be seen on other parts of the cake besides the top. Several of the knots on Cake "B" are looking more like pins. Additional knots are visible throughout the cake. I have not been logging humidity but it has always shown 96%+ using the "Cigar Aficionado Hygrometer". I am also continuing to add water drop wise with a 1cc syringe to the vermiculite layer on the top of both cakes. This is done only when the vermiculite looks like it could use some more water as I don’t want to drown the underlying mycelium.


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "A" – Top down we can see the two pin clusters are almost opposite each other. On the left there are 8 pins and the right 3 pins all clustered together.


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "A" – Left cluster.


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "A" – Right cluster. These guys are shaped like some people I know.


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "A" – Right cluster.


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "A" – I wonder if these guys will have enough room if they all continue to grow to full size?!


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "B" – First pins on Cake "B" showed up today.

[Evenfall]

*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "B" – I have difficulty showing this cluster of knots in a photo. White on white is not showing anything like it looks in person and I cannot find the right combination of angle and lighting. This is an interesting cluster of 12 to 15 knots in the area the size of a quarter.


*CAPTION: Day 28/AB 8 (mid-day) – Cake "A" – This cluster shows up a little better in pictures.




This completes the log of the first 28 days. I will continue to update this thread as things progress through fruiting and storage for those interested in following the entire process from beginning to end.

[MLBjammer]

That is impressive documentation, a wonderful record for beginners to see. Thank you for posting it.

[Evenfall]

When I started this adventure I had been looking for sometime for something like this. I wanted to see the entire process from beginning to end and put to a time scale with pictures. I never did find it. Instead I pireced together a mental picture from many threads I read. I'm sure there are similar picture filled and complete logs out there but I didn't find them. Many of the logs I did find would start detailed with lots of pictures and then stop somewhere in the middle without the author finishing them. Perhaps they were continued in seperate threads which made finding the continuation of the log difficult.

I plan on continueing to log my experiences through fruiting and drying in this thread so anyone else looking like I was can find an example that is complete (at least full of pictures with dates).

Even though I could not find a similar log, it was the information found in this community that made it possible to even think about getting this far. There are a lot of great people here and it is wonderful that they are willing to help newbs like myself so much. I've seen other advanced communities, both mycology related and not that make newbs feel unwelcome to ask questions or write about their experiences. That isn't the feeling here at Mycotopia and I hope that never changes. When the inexperienced don't feel welcome to talk and ask questions the entire community is hurt in the end. Let me step off the soap box. Sorry. ;-)

[Evenfall]

Day 29\AB 9 (mid-day) – Temperature 79 – Location FC – Pinning Stage – Pins are continue to grow on Cake "A". Three pins that were not seen yesterday have started growing in another spot on the cake. Cake "B" has three pins growing in two locations and continues to show additional knots. There was an accident yesterday that caused the "quick" cleaning and replacement of all the perlite in the FC. The replacement perlite was mixed with several handfuls of sea salt, some hydrogen peroxide, and water. I am having difficulty getting the humidity above the low 90s. I misted the sides of the FC this morning and added water to the DEC vermiculite with a syringe (about 1cc per cake, while taking care to avoid wetting the pins).


*CAPTION: Day 29/AB 9 (mid-day) - Cake "A" – The little lady has something that takes batteries and looks like this.


*CAPTION: Day 29/AB 9 (mid-day) - Cake "A" – Is it OK for this many pins to grow from one spot?


*CAPTION: Day 29/AB 9 (mid-day) - Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 29/AB 9 (mid-day) - Cake "A" – Four new pins can be seen in this picture.


*CAPTION: Day 29/AB 9 (mid-day) - Cake "A"


*CAPTION: Day 29/AB 9 (mid-day) - Cake "B" – Three pins visible. One on top and cluster of two on the right side near the top


*CAPTION: Day 29/AB 9 (mid-day) - Humidity challenges after replacing perlite yesterday evening. Darn, who left that bottle of Windex right next to the water misting bottle anyway!?!?!? Glad I sprayed the empty chamber first.

[Evenfall]

8/16/09
Day 30\AB 10 (morning) – Temperature 82 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Fruits and pins on both cakes have more than doubled in size since yesterday. More pins and knots are becoming visible every few hours. Neither cake has had a pins abort yet. I have raised the temperature in the FC to the low to mid 80s during the daylight hours and upper 70s at night. This morning humidity is very high at 100%.


*CAPTION: Day 30/AB 10 (morning) – Cake "A" - Rapid expansion and growth occurring since this time yesterday.


*CAPTION: Day 30/AB 10 (morning) – Cake "A" - This is the largest fruit at almost 3" in height.


*CAPTION: Day 30/AB 10 (morning) – Cake "A" - It was just a few days ago that this was only a cluster of knots.


*CAPTION: Day 30/AB 10 (morning) – Cake "B" – This is the first pin that developed on this cake.


*CAPTION: Day 30/AB 10 (morning) – Cake "B" – Second pin on this cake.


*CAPTION: Day 30/AB 10 (morning) – Cake "B" – This is the group of knots that all decided to pin last night.


*CAPTION: Day 30/AB 10 (morning) – Cake "B" – A pin snuck up from the casing underneath.


*CAPTION: Humidity has not been a problem today. In fact I am seeing a lot of condensation on everything. I think there may even be fog in the FC. ;-)

[usagolden]

I agree
good documentation
you'll be pullin' in some monster grows in no time

[kcmoxtractor]

Yeah, you got some decent clusters to pick from if you would want to clone to!

[koldjgdaro]

You're a promissing new grower. Good job!

[Evenfall]

I will updated the log tomorrow but I wanted to say I harvested Cake "A" today and it weighed out at 20 grams. My scaled only measure in full grams. This was an "A-Strain" and as a novice I am very happy with the outcome so far.

I'm not going to dry this harvest since it will be "studied" very soon.

I have the cake submerged in water for the next 18 hours or so and then we'll see what the second flush has to offer. It turns out most of the really small pins that developed in the past day or two had aborted and become slimy but I got the two clusters seen in the pictures totally 8 fruits.

My other cake, "B", I had higher hopes for but it has become dissapointing. It colonized the substrate 25% faster but has yet to produce anything more than several small pins.

As for drying and cloning. I have been working on a glove box yesterday and a little bit today. Hopefully I can wrap the main box up tomorrow and then I need to get a few odd and end things to wrap it up and paint or laminate it. I'll post some pictures of it as it nears completion in a new thread. The design specs I have are:

1 - fully sealed
2 - internal led lighting (to better illuminated what you are working on)
3 - exhaust fan powered air-port
4 - storage shelving for jars and tools
5 - switch controls to turn fan and lights on and off
6 - long-term gloves
7 - expandability to add a pre-sterilization entrance-way at a later time

The goel is that all work is done from innoculation to birthing without the jars needing to leave the sterile environment. After the glove box is finished I would like to make a seperate entrance port where items can be sterilized before entering the glove box.

Additionally I have dreams of moving the jars and tools from the PC to the glovebox without exposing them to the open air at all. I don't know if there is a feasable way to accomplish this though plus it isn't something I am going to work on right now. I really want to get the box finished soon so I can work with the LCs safer, take spore prints, and maybe even play with agar.

Inside dimensions are aprox 18x14x24.

[koldjgdaro]

Originally Posted by Evenfall

My other cake, "B", I had higher hopes for but it has become dissapointing. It colonized the substrate 25% faster but has yet to produce anything more than several small pins.

As for drying and cloning. I have been working on a glove box yesterday and a little bit today. Hopefully I can wrap the main box up tomorrow and then I need to get a few odd and end things to wrap it up and paint or laminate it. I'll post some pictures of it as it nears completion in a new thread. The design specs I have are:

1 - fully sealed
2 - internal led lighting (to better illuminated what you are working on)
3 - exhaust fan powered air-port
4 - storage shelving for jars and tools
5 - switch controls to turn fan and lights on and off
6 - long-term gloves
7 - expandability to add a pre-sterilization entrance-way at a later time

The goel is that all work is done from innoculation to birthing without the jars needing to leave the sterile environment. After the glove box is finished I would like to make a seperate entrance port where items can be sterilized before entering the glove box.

Additionally I have dreams of moving the jars and tools from the PC to the glovebox without exposing them to the open air at all. I don't know if there is a feasable way to accomplish this though plus it isn't something I am going to work on right now. I really want to get the box finished soon so I can work with the LCs safer, take spore prints, and maybe even play with agar.

Inside dimensions are aprox 18x14x24.

It's all cool man but I dunno if it's necessary to bring it all to that point. Just keep it simple.

From my experience it seems that the most efficient, easy and effortless way of growing is spawning to small tubs. Cubes are very easy, too...

My perfect plan would look like this:

1. Having one or more good liquid cultures stored in the fridge
2. Sterilizing and innoculating a bunch of jars
3. Spawning straigh to several max 20l (8-10l is better) tubs.
Presterilized mushroom compost would be used.
4. Harvesting and drying.

I would build more complicated and controlled environment if I wanted to grow exotics like Pans, Mexicana and other ones. There's no need to be too neaty about the equipment cause as the time goes it may need rebuilding, resizing etc. Besides it's not worth all the effort cause you can't be trully sterile without the real-deal equipment - and it's needles for the cubes. The truth is that you gotta be sterile at innoculation, all the rest is just working clean. But whatever suits you there! Good luck, I'll be watching.
You got some skills and determination from what I see, just weigh them out so you get the most out of it.

[koldjgdaro]

...

[Evenfall]

Personally I want to have two liquid cultures per strain. One acting as a back-up for the other incase of contamination.

After sampling yesterdays harvest I feel a renewed urgency to finish the glove box. I don't know why I was hoping each flush of each cake would be a sufficient harvest but it is clearly not going to be. I would like to see each harvest bring in at least three times yesterday yield. I don't think that will be feasable while working only with cakes. The magic was there but not enough to "break on through to the other side" as Jim Morrison would sing. I find times like yesterdays experience very frustrating; the engines running but it never gets out of neutral.

Log update follows:

8/17/09
Day 31\AB 11 (morning) – Temperature 77 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Over half the fruits have opened on Cake "A". Since these are growing in clusters the only choices are pick them all or pick none. I decided to pick them all. First flush measured 20g from this cake. Cake "A" is being dunked for the next 18 to 24 hours to rehydrate for the next flush. Pins on Cake "B" are still very small but growing. This has been a very disappointing strain so far. I had high hopes due to its colonization speed.


*CAPTION: Day 31/AB11 (morning) – Cake "A" – About half the mushies have broken their veil during the last 24 hours.


*CAPTION: Day 31/AB11 (morning) – Cake "A" – Time to play farmer and harvest the crops.

8/18/09
Day 32\AB 12 (evening) – Temperature 82 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Cake "A" was only dunked for 14 hours after picking the flush yesterday due to schedule conflicts that made it impossible to go any longer and stay under 24 hours. Cake "B" continues to slowly develop its pins, it now have 9 good sized pins that are slowly developing.

[Evenfall]

It has been a very busy and very exciting couple of days. Things are coming together on the glove box and the last piece I am waiting on arrives tomorrow. Woohoo! If I said anything bad about "Brazil" strain I take it back and happily eat some crow.

That's enough hot-air from me. Here's the past two days.

8/19/09
Day 33\AB 13 (mid-day) – Temperature 82 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Unhappy with the normal yield per flush from a single cake I decided to change things up a bit. I crumbled cake “A” and mixed with an equal volume of saturated vermiculite in a small pan. This follows my understanding of the “Rez-effect” process. This may not be a valid test of this method since this cake has already produced one good flush. The pan was covered and will incubate for a few days to see what happens. Cake “B” is finally awake and growing some decent size fruits.


*CAPTION: Day 33/AB 13 (mid-day) – Cake “B” – The sleeper has awaken!


*CAPTION: Day 33/AB 13 (mid-day) – Cake “A” (aka Rez “A”)


8/20/09
Day 34\AB 14 (evening) – Temperature 82 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage –It has now been 24 hours since I put Cake “A” in the blender and turned him into Rez “A”. I took a peak and there is significant mycelial growth visible on the top. Barring contamination I think this is going to work out nicely. Cake “B” is in gear with the petal to the metal now. About time! I picked three fruits from Cake “B” since their veil broke yesterday. I decided not to pick the largest since his veil broke only a few hours ago and the size dwarfs everything else on the cake. It’ll probably be harvested tomorrow.


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B” – Side profile


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B” – Top view


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B”


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B”


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B”


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B” - I can’t believe this guy is still pinning like this. I don’t know where he plans on getting the water to fill these.


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B”


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B” - Still actively pinning.

(continued next post)

[Evenfall]

8/20/09 (continued from previous post)


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) – Cake “B” - The larger pins that started before the jar was birthed are covered in white fuzz. Very pretty.


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 (evening) - Rez “A” after 24 hours. It slipped my mind and I cased from the very beginning with damp vermiculite. Twenty four hours ago there was no visible mycelium. I should have taken a picture before colonization to see the difference.


*CAPTION: Day 34/AB 14 -Fruits from Cake “B” that were harvested today are sitting in an air-tight container of calcium carbonate to dry. I'm sure these could be utilized before decaying but I am eager to go through the drying process.

[Evenfall]

8/25/09
Day 39\AB 19 (mid-day) – Temperature 81 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Rez "A" has now been uncovered to get some light and see if we can get some pins forming. Cake "B" was completely harvested several days ago and I think that was the end of the first flush. Dunked caked in cool water for 14 hours, DECed and returned to FC.

8/28/09
Day 42\AB 22 (morning) – Temperature 79 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Rez "A" has its first very small pin noticeable today . There are too many knots to bother counting and I am hopeful we will see a good flush soon. Cake "B" has 11 pins that have grown over the past two days.


*CAPTION: Day 42/AB 22 – Rez "A" has its first pin.


*CAPTION: Day 42/AB 22 – Cake "B" showing some nice signs of things to come.


*CAPTION: Day 42/AB 22 – Cake "B" showing some nice signs of things to come


*CAPTION: Day 42/AB 22 – Cake "B" showing some nice signs of things to come

8/29/09
Day 43\AB 23 (mid-day) – Temperature 81 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Rez "A" has 5 noticeable pins developing. They are still very small and will certainly take a few days to fully develop. Cake "B" is probably a day away from harvesting and is continue to show new pins.


*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Cake "B" reaching for the sky.


*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Cake "B"


*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Cake "B"


*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Cake "B"


*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Cake "B"


*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Rez "A" showing first pins.

(continued)

[Evenfall]

*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Rez "A" showing first pins.


*CAPTION: Day 43/AB 23 – Rez "A" showing first pins.

8/30/09
Day 44\AB 24 (morning) – Temperature 79 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – The pins on Rez "A" continue to slowly develop and increase in number. Cake "B" was harvested of all that have broken veils. Wet\Cleaned harvest was 27.


*CAPTION: Day 44/AB 24 – Cake "B" about to be harvested.


*CAPTION: Day 44/AB 24 – Cake "B" about to be harvested.


*CAPTION: Day 44/AB 24 – Cake "B" about to be harvested. This is 9 days since the first flush on 8/21/09.


*CAPTION: Day 44/AB 24 – Cake "B" second flush weigh-in.


*CAPTION: Day 44/AB 24 – Cake "B" harvest separated and about to be placed in the drying chamber. These haven’t started bluing noticeably yet. Speed is the key. The process of picking, cutting, weighing, to placing in the drying chamber happens in less than 4 minutes.

9/1/09
Day 46\AB26 (morning) – Temperature 77 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage - Temperature got a little low in the house last night but the FC is finally getting back to an acceptable temperature. I am waiting on one more pin to finish on Cake "B" before dunking. This will probably be today. Rez "A" has about 15 pins at various stages of development. This is the second flush for this cake and things look surprisingly good so far.


*CAPTION: Day 46/AB 26 – Cake "B" has one more little fruit to pull today and then it’s off for a 14 hour dunk.

9/3/09
Day 48\AB 28 (mid-day) – Temperature 81 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Things are not looking very good for Cake "B" or Rez "A". Cake "B" looks spent and may have had some mold growing in a small spot. I removed it but the rest of the cake no longer looks healthy. It might just be out of juice after two flushed totally almost 60. Rez "A" only had one flush, that was when it was still a cake. I am guessing the mycelium layer is too thin. It is producing a lot of pins but nothing sizable.

[Evenfall]

9/4/09
Day 49\AB 29 (evening) – Temperature 80 – Location FC – Fruiting Stage – Cake "B" looks the same as yesterday, I’m going to keep it in the FC but am not expecting much if anything from it. Rez "A" is still making a lot of pins but they are aborting while still very small. Like the cake I am going to keep it in the FC but don’t expect much more from it.


*CAPTION: Day 49/AB 29 – Cake "B" – Not looking very energetic after the dunk three days ago. This guy might be spent.


*CAPTION: Day 49/AB 29 – Rez "A" – This was originally Cake "A" and was converted to Rez "A" following the rez-effect tek on 8/20. I may have made it too thin. His first pins showed up on 8/28 and abort the next day.
　
Here is a full size photo from the second flush of Cake "B". Just because it looks cool.




I'll be surprised if I get anymore out of these two so this will probably end the photo log of my first grow. Thanks to everyone here for making this possible.

[Brakiska]

Great writeup and results
some pretty nice shots in there

[Sidestreet Getaway]

Nice log and pics. I can see the effort you put into the grow as well as the recording.

[Evenfall]

Nice log and pics. I can see the effort you put into the grow as well as the recording.

Thank you! I am really happy that my first try was this succesful and have a lot of confidence going into future grows and more advanced techniques. I am looking forward to learning bulk techniques next.

I went the extra mile to document everything I could. The thought was to document every step no matter how small so if things turned out well I could use it as a reference in my future grows. Or use it to help find the cause of failure if things didn't work out. Believe it or not keeping this log was the hardest part of the whole process and I doubt I will keep a log in this detail again.

By no means should another first time grower use this as a guide. The log was not made to show someone else a correct method, only how well things can go if you do your homework first. I know I said this at the beginning of the thread but I want to make sure someone doesn't take this log as a tutorial of a "correct" method. In my opinion nothing can substitute for many long hours of going your own research before starting a first grow. Go into this understanding what you are doing, not just blindly following the steps of what someone else did.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Great pics, great text - great thread.

Dude, you are a walking advertisement for why reading instructions and doing your homework can virtually guarantee success in this hobby.

Bravo, man.

[Scratch]

Very nicely documented grow, start to finish.
Great writeup & photos. Nice work!

Suspect that Rez A spent the rest of it's energy
searching for more food and found only wet
vermiculite. That's disappointing since it probably
had at least one more flush to give as a cake.

[Evenfall]

Originally Posted by Scratch

Suspect that Rez A spent the rest of it's energy
searching for more food and found only wet
vermiculite. That's disappointing since it probably
had at least one more flush to give as a cake.

Thanks for the nice comments. I was already keeping this log for myself when I decided to share it but I've had doubts that anyone was interested. Since I started sharing it I saw it through to the end anyway.

If I do a rez-effect cake again it will be at birthing or not at all. As an experiment I took another cake, went straight to rez-effect with it before the furst pins formed, I pulled the first flush fruits this morning and it was 49g. Around 20g more than the first flush from any dec cake I have done. I'm curious what the second flush will bring. Below is a picture of the first flush taken about 14 hours before pulling the fruits.




I'm not going to spend to much time with rez-effect though. With the number of jars incubating I will be learning bulk next. I drool over some of the pictures I see others post from bulk grows, especially comparing these to the small grows from 1/2 pint dec brf cakes.