1/2 or full pint?

[a420kid]

ok i got a setup that should work great for fruiting now and im gonna start new jars to fruit when i get home from vacation i normally use 1/2 pint jars im wondering should i use pints instead? what will be diffrent? bigger flushes? bigger shrooms? and how many cc's of spores per jar do i wanna use? thx all im gonna fruit them as cakes. or should i just stick to my 1/2 pint jars

[toasty]

I never had luck with pints. Colonized too slow for me. I was always under the impression that one wanted fastest colonization to be out any would be contams. Just my opion, your mileage may vary.

[reefer]

Yeah, if you want twice as much spawn- make twice as many 1/2 pint jars. They colonize much faster.

[cheeseball]

I would have to agree. I did pint and they took forever to colonize, and to be honest never truly finished, they hit a point and didn't colonize the last 5-10% so I cased them. I am doing 1/2 pint now.

[anticheffy]

yea , full pints dont do well it would seem
I have some PE jars that are months old and have stalled, and the three that did finish arent fruiting worth a crap, I mean not even enough to get off. I was trying to teach mrs. anti-c the basics and thought we would start with cakes. The only thing I accomplished was to make her loose complete intrest in sharing my hobby.

[cutty]

I use 1 pint jars on a regular...Just add more spore solution/keep at around 70 degrees and the colo time will be very fast.My 1 pint jars colo in about 17-22 days with a nocc up of 10-15cc multispore solution.

[a420kid]

cutty you mean you use 10 to 15 cc per jar? that seams like alot

i was thinking pints would be twice as much cake in the fruiting chamber cause they are mostly just taller

[cutty]

Yes I do use that much and that works fine with a PF style cake (1 pint).Theres more shroom food in a 1 pint so you should get about 5-7 grams dry on average from a 1 pint cake.I also use that much spore solution for rye jars but I use 1 litre jars when using rye.

Originally Posted by a420kid

cutty you mean you use 10 to 15 cc per jar? that seams like alot

i was thinking pints would be twice as much cake in the fruiting chamber cause they are mostly just taller

[perrch01]

I started using pints on cutty's advice and I love them. I use more innoculum but since I only use karo water it doesn't really matter. Always get great flushes and haven't had any problems with lag or contams...

[Digi7ech]

My FOAF has done pints and has had more success with them than 1/2 pints.
Although there are so many variable that you can never really pin point the problem.

The pint BRF cakes did well. Only a couple contam'd during incubation.
Then some went their own way after a few flushes.

My foaf is now trying WBS and used Liquid karo.
My friend never does spore inoc's now.
They just spore inoc a small jar of karo water and let's it colonize.The Myc instantly kick ass once incolulated into the wbs or BRF. No waiting to see if it even worked. You will know within a day.

That and you can turn 1cc of spores into 100CC of live gogo juice. SO you can load pints up without worry.

[Lazlo]

Originally Posted by perrch01

I started using pints on cutty's advice and I love them. I use more innoculum but since I only use karo water it doesn't really matter. Always get great flushes and haven't had any problems with lag or contams...

I agree. Why sell yourself short. Go 1 pint. Just up the amount of innoculum.

[vrooota]

depends.....whole rice cakes like I've used distribute sporewater better than brf/verm when you innoc and then roll it around, I've had pints at full colo like that after less than two weeks. pf tek I think, is meant for 1/2 pints

[a420kid]

im keep doing 1/2 pint and try the honey tekthen use that to innc full pints so at least something will grow

They just spore inoc a small jar of karo water and let's it colonize.The Myc instantly kick ass once incolulated into the wbs or BRF. No waiting to see if it even worked. You will know within a day.

now do i use the same ratio of karo as i would honey ?

[doobydoobydoo]

Myself prefers 1/2 pints...

They seem to treat me well

Larger jars are sorta nice, but not so great for all strains. I mean, look at it like this... in a 1/2 pint jar, you use 1/4 cup of brf flour... and can easily get 3-5 flushes imo with many strains averaging about 14g per cake or more of dried mush... By making a larger cake, it takes more time to colonize and feed, but the surface area to pop out mushies too seems to play a far more important role in producing MORE mushies cuz of the more area for them to pop out from. The food base is somewhat key, but I get a little shocked at someone filling a large rubbermaid bin with like 18" of substrate when they could have made 3 or 4 bins and gotten more quicker...

Strain though does play a role. (me on a rant, me relax in a bit hehe) ... I find tex do not to much better on larger masses or food or denser masses. They just like to colonize quick and pop out small mushrooms. B+ on the other hand is complete opposite end... It likes to eat food and have a decent myc base to pop up the BIG + things I can really do. Just two unique animals of same goodness

Now for the bottom line...

Find what works best for what you are growing, and work from there. YES, this may take a few batches on different substrates and things to see how it does... But, once you find what your strain is liking, you can do it very well and decide if 1/2 pints are too slow or two small, if grains are better, if straw is nicer, if liquid into things is good, etc...

Sorry for the rant, thanks for reading lol

DDD out.

[Hippie3]

most who grow cakes long
soon come to prefer half pints
but either can be made to work.

[candykid420]

your screename is very close to mine

[gema]

All I use are pints. Yes they take longer to grow but you get more substrate. I just turn up the heat to 85-86F and takes me 3 weeks to fully coloinate.

[Hippie3]

i just banged out a 6 pack of pints in 7 days flat,
by using liquid culture inoculant via 6 holes in lid
using ~1.5 cc per hole so it reached the bottom.

[blackout]

Leave the PF mix purposely dry, then you can add lots of LC which speeds up colonisation massively.

[rhizzo]

BRF/vermiculite > 1/2 pint jar
grain spawn > full pint

going a bit larger > filterbag...

[malefacter]

if you use a home made long needle that can reach the bottom inject a bit there then pull it out half way and inject a bit there and so on it will colonize almost as fast as a 1/2 pint and you get 1/4 cup more sub if using a verm filter

here is the link to make needles any length, the only thing i wold do differently is heat the existing needle while pulling on it with pliers until it just slips out without melting the plastic then you don't hav to drill threw metal also i wold cut the tube with a dremal and make the point with a bench grinder (a file will work)

http://www.mycotopia.net/discus/mess...tml?1004853150

[loochypooch]

Nice thread. I'm thinking lots of LC could make it too damp in the jar, especially if using around 8cc's, which seems to be the idea. So using tyvek over the entire top of the jar with just a ring may help to allow some moisture to escape?

[TVCasualty]

I go pints for direct fruiting off cakes, and 1/2 pints for making quick liquid spawn with the blender.

Too much work cleaning and processing all those little jars, especially since I have no dishwasher. Might take longer to colonize, but my bare-bones recipe for cakes with no casings or dunks usually average out to 9-10 dry g. per pint (I do, however, use water injections between flushes). Next time I'll be adding bee pollen and the various other ingredients I've seen mentioned around here with impressive yield reports.

loochypooch: Mix up the substrate drier to account for the LC water.

One thing I add to mine that I haven't heard mentioned is a small amount of whole grain cooked wheat, mixed right into the BRF medium. Took a lot of tests to figure the ratio of BRF to whole grain. Going higher than 1/4 part grain to 1 part BRF (by volume) starts contamination problems for me. At or below that ratio I usually have zero contams.

[malefacter]

Originally Posted by TVCasualty

I go pints for direct fruiting off cakes, and 1/2 pints for making quick liquid spawn with the blender.

Too much work cleaning and processing all those little jars, especially since I have no dishwasher. Might take longer to colonize, but my bare-bones recipe for cakes with no casings or dunks usually average out to 9-10 dry g. per pint (I do, however, use water injections between flushes). Next time I'll be adding bee pollen and the various other ingredients I've seen mentioned around here with impressive yield reports.

loochypooch: Mix up the substrate drier to account for the LC water.

One thing I add to mine that I haven't heard mentioned is a small amount of whole grain cooked wheat, mixed right into the BRF medium. Took a lot of tests to figure the ratio of BRF to whole grain. Going higher than 1/4 part grain to 1 part BRF (by volume) starts contamination problems for me. At or below that ratio I usually have zero contams.

treat it like a whole grain spawn and pc for an hr that should take care of contam problems

[Socklessman]

I am for the pint cakes. I usually can't make up my mind if I should fruit'em, or use'em on spawn. So it is nice too have a pint because I can use it for whatever, as opposed to a dinky 1/2 pint. Granite, the half pints might be nicer for cakes then the pint, but I always like too keep my options open.

[Defiance]

I think you should use 1/2 pints with a spore syringe. I've only had luck on the pints with aggressive LCs or blender clone water.

[MrMycelium]

If i had to chose between the two, I have to go with pints. Im a 1 quart, WBS, LC, kinda guy.

I usally get around 30-40grams dry per 1 quart jar.

Really like the pint jars for my LC's. Just right.

[Tactile Tunafish]

Since we don't have a PC yet, we now have gotten to the point of spawning BRF PF cakes to hpoo/coir bulk casings made from pint jars.

Too many variables go into determining if length of colonization in our case is dependent upon jar size, because we were working with two different strains (both multispore), and the one had additives, and never tried halfs.

The good part about whole pints is that there is less labor involved with needle flame sterilization between inoculation points, less jar washing/filling, less lids to make up, with half the risk of contamination.

But the bad part is that when one goes, it's really like losing the material of two.

The pint jars are more convenient for everyday household use when they aren't being used for science experiments.

We look forward to going to grain/WBS isolate soon. That will be the ultimate.

[shroom_seeker]

1/2 pints never let me down.

[Endo]

ill do you guys one better. i just picked up kind of on accident.. 4oz jars, i thought they were bigger than they were actually, im gonna get some pic for you guys later .. maybe even do a mini cake journal. i packed them with standard pf cake material and pc'd them at 15psi for 45 min alone with some regular jars and shot them up with simple karo ARG LC. well shall see how they do. i did 12 so im probably going end up fruiting 6 like that and crumbling and casing 6 of them with coir and verm.

[Tactile Tunafish]

Originally Posted by Lazlo

I agree. Why sell yourself short. Go 1 pint. Just up the amount of innoculum.

how much longer would you steam-sterilize the whole (1 pint) BRF PF jars than the usual 1/2 pint ?

thanks in advance,

TTF

[Sideshow]

Originally Posted by Tactile Tunafish

how much longer would you steam-sterilize the whole (1 pint) BRF PF jars than the usual 1/2 pint ?
thanks in advance,
TTF

I would say no more than an hour @15psi. I wouldn't try this w/o a PC
I would think that fruiting surface of the cake is a nonissue

By making a larger cake, it takes more time to colonize and feed, but the surface area to pop out mushies too seems to play a far more important role in producing MORE mushies cuz of the more area for them to pop out from.

2 -1/2 pints are a larger surface area.
I've always had contam issues on the back side of a project (ie subsequent flushes) rather than during, say, innocculations. I would think pints wouldn't hold up as long.
Bottle culture for pints might be cool
commercial-enoke4.jpg
1/4 pints are great, imo, for LC's and faht-tek iso jars.

[The Rogue Angel]

When I first started out the store was out of 1/2 pints so I did my first cakes with pints. I later bought 1/2 pints but I have always seemed to get better results with pints. I know some people say smaller jars give more surface area and that is true and others like more substrate offered by pints. but for me when I go back to cakes,I use my pints for the nostalgia of that first grow.

[prism1234]

Use Pints for grain spawn, fill em all the way up. 5 days with LC