Archive through December 30, 2004

Hey all:

A problem I routinely have that nobody seems to be concrned with is this: After Pressure cooking my PF jars, he substrate is pressed up against the inside of the jars so tightly, that the mycelium seems to have a hard time colonizing the surface, slowing colonization significantly. I have just tries olive oiling the inside of two test jars so that after PCing I can pop the cake loose from the walls of the jar to aid in better colonizing. I have yet to find out whether this helps or whether it will inhibit myc growth or not.

Do any of you have this problem?

Thanks,

Deeg

It's hard to get the temp high, this time of year.
I'm going to isolate my growbox next week,but I don't now how I'm gonne do it !?
A simple towel gets the temp a couple degrees higher...so it should not be so difficult to do it !

Hmmmmmm ! looks tasty !!!

(Message edited by spacecake on December 20, 2004)

My teachers are beggining to pin...eventually....HOWEVER, after coming back from a coiple of days off there is some mould growing on the casing tray, but not on the verm or the mushrooms...should I :
a) leave it
b)disinfect a spoon/knife and scrape what i can off...
then wipe with disinfectant (would this disturb the mushies??)

I understand your concern about the DEA...but I'd be a little more sketched out with things travelling across the border to my house than spore providers here snitching...international mail undergoes much more scrutiny than interstate...I like tlg...maybe thats just me tho.

What kind of mold?

I dont know my moulds to well, but its a fine fluffy green looking mould...It has some body to it. It is growing over and around 2 of the corners of the casing tray..

1 How many of you have families?
2 How many of you are single?
3 If you do have families / partners - then is the whole mushy thing accpted / embraced or dissaproved of?
4 Are any of you female?
.....I am interested because I have a girlfriend who is into all of this stuff (not as obsessively as myself)....and thinks it is a great hobby. One day we might have children, and I wanted to know if this can be sensibly balanced with a family life??

this is all purely for my own interest and curiosity....I would appreciate feedback.
cheers guys

[nomoreusmc]

I'm married and have a family, and my wife would kick my butt if I stopped!!!!!!!!!!!

[nomoreusmc]

cut it out and put salt in it's place, IMO

at no point should your children know or be exposed to this.
as with any drugs or illegal activities, they should be safeguarded and seperated from it.

I agree this should be a descreet hobby with children, but it is not illegal here which is a bonus....why would your wife kick your ass if you stopped nomoreusmc ??

[nomoreusmc]

mine is always touching the jars, and never had this problem

Best trip on my life (and first) was in the dam...a few grams of dry (illegal now) sold to me by an american wizard (no joke)......crazy crazy crazy.....allways chasing those visuals.. in england we get ripped off..usually £10 for 15-20grms. Hence why I turned to home growing...goddam bacteria is doing all it can to prevent me though....later

[japes420]

so the verdict is in......the iffy waters are starting to colonize, 4 days later, a little slow maybee, but i didden't shake to see clearer if contam pops up. looks good so far! I just hope its a dence mycelium type. I LOVE B+ fruits I don't care what some people say. way better than my EQs.

Ok, please bear with the length of this question, as some background is necesary to explain what I'm trying to do. I live in an apartment with some rather conservative roommates, great because they pay the rent on time, but not so good if you want to place a trashcan full of steeping dung in the only bathroom. Most of my work must be done while they're at class, so odors are also an issue. Ergo, I have attempted to pasteurize using a few of the oven bag teks I've found here and there.

The problem I've encountered is that at a constant 160 degrees, the bags don't get hot fast enough. One hour at 160 and the internal temperature of the bags was still well below 90. My two attempts to raise the oven temperature (as per the tek) to 300 resulted in flash overheating of the bags to well over 200, despite both attempts to scale back the heat prior.

My solution to this is to purchase a turkey roaster with a digital thermostat/timer (45 bucks at Target). I can stash this baby under my bed, hunker down, be patient with the bags and let them slowly warm over however many hours it will take for them to reach 160. I worry that while core temperatures in the bag have not reache 160, temperatures on the outer layers of the bag will reach 160 sooner and stay that way longer.

The question: It is ok to pasteurize bulk substrate longer than the indicated time, so long as the temp doesn't raise about 160-175?

If this is not a significant issue (fingers crossed), I will most certainly have a pretty cool tek out soon for people with my "security concerns".
Thanks!

[zerolatency]

Don't let the difficulties in life hold you back. It can be done! Although, most likely not by me, yet. Where there is a will there is a way!

[zerolatency]

I have had similar problems with oven teks. Its going to be hard to get the center up to temp. Although its not a major issue, I think the outer layers of substrate or casing would only degrade overtime in the oven heat.

Instead I boil the water from the straw and dung. Turn off and poor into the separate straw and dung containers. You could then put those under your bed.

I wouldn't think it would smell that much more than in the oven for a few hours.

[pskovinsky]

that shouldn't happen if your not tamping the substrate down into the jar at all, things don't usually settle during pcing...

If your following the version of the pf tek that has you tamp the subtrate down with a fork, stop.

Are you heaping the dry verm on top maybe, so that when you put the lid on it squeezes things down?

[llama]

For those that have eaten truffles: Are they worth the cost? What is it that's so great about them? Is it just the novelty of eating an extremely rare food?

[pskovinsky]

The issue i have with getting pureish psilocin is dosing, i don't have a .01mg scale, and they cost a rather large amount of money.
So the simple way, disolve the whole mess in everclear, and figure on a 75% extraction, would actually work better for me.

My only real question for you Triptamine, is whether you have actually done this, or if it's all just theory.
I have no problem with theory, but i like proven things so much more, and i like proven things with pictures best of all.

It seems to me that if you were dedicated to getting all of the good stuff out of a set of mushrooms, you could run the same bits through the extract twice, and then combine the two batches for boiling down etc.

But, really, when we have the ability to produce a couple dry pounds in the closet off straw logs, why does it really matter whether we have a pound worth of extract, or 1.5 pounds worth?

In the time it takes one person to go through a pound worth of extract you can grow a few more.

I finally got around to buying a new pressure canner, but it has maximum pressure of 13 psi. Because it is a self contained spring loaded mechanism, that figure is unchangeable. What's a good, safe amount of time to sterilize at that pressure? Thanks

45minute

[tempest2003]

youve fried too much home slice, this is a personal issue you need to make up, not the board members, use some common sence

[shobimono]

Foaf just put a piece of b+ stem into karo water 3 days ago. The water is still clear and there is growth off the stem, but the water hasn't changed colors at all.

Are you shaking the shit out of those jars? Foaf shakes gently, but it never foams up like your jars.

I've never had an actual truffle but I had the oil - it was used to encrust a filet mignon which was then covered in a demi glace. Best steak I've had in years - it was a few months ago in Little Rock, of all places. I don't know if it was the oil or not, but it tasted kind of nutty but very rich. How expensive is the usual truffle?

Im sorry....what???

Cheers..I removed it with cotton swabs soaked in dis-infectant, then applied a sprinkling of salt....fingerers crossed

[keeny]

Hi everyone! My friend's trying to grow mushrooms for the first time. He's growing a couple cakes of brf/verm and a couple coir/verm casings in bread pans on popcorn. The strain is Koh Samui. They're all in a rubbermaid at 74f/92%rh.

The casings have pinned (hundreds of them) but the pins aren't turning into mushrooms. It's been several weeks and a white fuzz is starting to grow over them (I'm pretty sure it's not cobweb because it's growing so slowly). The cakes have a healthy covering of white fuzz as well.

Last night he decided to try the chronic tek with his cakes, so he scraped the cakes and dunked them. Under the white fuzz were many hard bumps that looked like they might be tiny mushrooms. But everything was growing UNDER the white fuzz. And growing very slowly.

The casings have about 1-2 inches of substrate under about 1/3 in. coir/verm casing.

He was disappointed to not get any mushrooms after all this effort, especially after the substrate colonized so fast.

Any suggestions? Thanks everyone.

[mojorisin]

Owen, I believe it all depends on you and your wife. Do you feel you can balance it?? Would you feel better letting the hobby go for a while?? Is it something you feel you have to do in order to be a good parent??? If so you know yourself what you should do. I do some things in moderation, and i never get fucked up when my kid is around me, that is important to me. Only you can answer these questions my friend, only you know your limitations.....or at least should, if you dont then you dont need to be doing any drugs. This is my opinion, and i wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide. My family and thier safety comes first, but you can have your cake and eat it too if you are willing.

Your oven may not be able to remain stable in the low temp range..I use an oven thermometer to get an accurate reading then put the covered pot in for about 3hrs at 160F .
I use a compost thermometer to check the core temp at 150F
I dont think its much of a problem if the outer layers cook longer , as long as it does'nt get hotter than 175F- in a normal compost pile the center can cook at 160+ for 12hrs or more..

I agree 100% mojo. As I said in the earlier post it is all for my own research. I am 22 and she is my girlfriend so there is plenty of time. But thanks for the info

buy a cooler and a nice big pot to boil
water in...bag your stuff up(compost or
whatever)put it in the cooler dump 170
degree water in the cooler until bag(pillow case)
is submerged..put a weight on top close
the lid and let it sit for 1 1/2 hours...drain,
cool...and use accordingly...make sure not
to forget the lime...
http://mycotopia.net/discus/messages/5/189.html?10 95033240

try this archive stuff also..there is many
different ways to pasturize other then an
oven....

(Message edited by pcsillypj on December 20, 2004)

i've personally had problems
using coir for my casings....
to much overlay watch out for
that. i have since switched to
peat/verm/lime and IME works the
best out of any other casing mix..
those are some pretty pics curry..
hope to see some pin action soon..

[nomoreusmc]

I don't think 2 psi will matter much

[nomoreusmc]

try warming up to 79-80 f, and try indirect honest to god sunlight

1. Are isolated strains performance dependent on substrate? If you test an isolates growth speed, flush size & potency on WBS would those characteristics be different on rye or dung?
2. If you used the strain that worked well on wbs to spawn straw or another bulk substrate would the flush size or more importantly potency change?
3. If so how would one isolate for good growth and potency on different substrates in succession (Grain to straw log, wbs to dung, ect.)
Thanks for your help.

Welcome Keeny, the only thing that comes to mind with your casings is that although your humidity sounds like it may be too high [ white fuzz on pins ] your casing maybe too dry...
If it feels fairly light for its size u could gently flood water down around the edges -let sit for a few miniutes and then drain well-standing on its edge for 15 mins.
As for the cakes -U may have just been a little too anxious but they'll proly come back fine.

What do you think about getting a couple of these guys to build a flowhood?
There are tons of these on ebay selling real cheap. It would sure beat the $125-150
price that I cant seem to find lower.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cate gory=71275&item=4344701214&rd=1

[insight]

Just looking for opinions and experiences, what would be the downfall (if any) casing with BRF Cakes instead of Rye?

brf takes twice the time to colo the jars and is more work imo

[python]

everything gonna be just fine............you are gonna be just fine.......

[python]

[python]

Capt max......i have found a place in france that will sell specially made trees that have the mycorrihizial fungi that is the truffle growing on them already........and they can be planted in america........only thing is it takes 6-10years for growth to start.....kinda like peyote.........and only produces about 75 pounds per acre of 500 trees.........

the best way to go would be learning how to isolate and grow the truffle fungus on the roots......

[python]

i have central heating and cooling so its easy for me

1) No. A good fruiting strain wants to fruit, regardless of spawn or substrate material.
2) You would have a bigger flush on bulk substrate, and in my experience, improved potency.

Just find a good fruiting strain that you like, and keep it going. When you get the really good ones, take a clone and put it on agar in a test tube in the refrigerator. This will keep it for at least a year.

That would supply way too much air. You only want an inch or two of static pressure behind your hepa filter. Get a motor from Grainger.com for under a hundred bucks.

[python]

capt, i am a science major after changing many times and getting away from the pre-med, pre law,........i have contacted professors who are mycologists and they have given me a list of many names of mycologists and universities where i can study to be one(but i will refrain from giving those names out ).......it can be done and i will decide within the next few months what i want to do, pursue the botany....or pursue the mycology.....very hard decision...but my heart is in both areas.....

i dont have a pc, 13psi is better than 0 lol

[agency]

A Koala Bear is choosing to go with Typar instead of Tyvek. The reason is simple. It's free at the moment. I'm posting the specs from a comparison on the two for this adorable Koala -who lacks the nimble digits to properly type.

http://www.ebuild.com/guide/products/productCompar e.asp?sortCode=5&catCode=1624&session=&amp ;page=1&curP rodCompCount=0&productID=238179&productID= 24245

This may not show correctly, so interested parties may wish to follow the link provided. Perhaps I'll trim it. The formatting might get rather messy...
Feel free to make sense of the air exchange, etc.

Upon further review just go to the site it should be easier to read

Basic Product Information
DuPont™ Tyvek® Typar®
Air Leakage Rate (Air-Ins): 0.007 cfm/ sq ft @ 75 pascals 0.0023 L/ S-sq m @ 75 pascals
Air Porosity (Gurley Hill): 300 sec/ 100 cc >2,500 sec/ 100 cc
Burst Strength: 30/ 30 lb/ in. 66 psi
Perforation Type: Non-Perforated Non-Perforated
Trapezoidal Tear Resistance: 6/ 6 lb 67lb XD

Water Vapor Trans. Rate: 58 perms 13.7 perms