Oven-Bag Pasteurization Pictorial


A great way for the pasteurization of straw/compost/dung.




This method was first brought to my attention by our fellow member, 6Tango. It is a great way for the pasteurization of straw/compost/dung. I have noticed that unlike the conventional method of "cooking" your bulk substrates in a pillowcase submerged in water, there is no strong odor, no loss of nutrients and no excess water drainage. The best is that you will not have to wait a few days to inoculate, due to the time for your pillowcase to drain all its excess water!!

When you pasteurize your straw/compost/dung in submerged water, you will notice that the resulting water is brown. This is most of the nitrogen and other nutrients which are flushed out from the substrate, not to mention your pot is pretty dirty and brown afterwards.

So here is the full pictorial of how using an oven-bag, and baking your compost/straw/dung in the oven to achieve full pasteurization.

Materials
Oven, oven safe bags, bulk substrate, water, tape (or string), meat thermometer.

Preparation

1) You will first want to pre-heat your oven to about 300F.



Here is a picture of the oven bag. You might want to get that ready!



2) Next, load your oven bag with the desired amount of bulk substrate. In this pictorial I will be using the ©MycotaPro compost. It is comprised of aged cow dung, wheat straw, barley and other cool things. Make sure that your straw/compost/dung has been thoroughly dried before loading. This gets rid of some of the harmful bacteria, and is more likely to achieve full pasteurization.



Now if you wish, or if you have very fine compost, (like the MycotaPro compost) you will want to add some vermiculite. I dont believe it will be wanted with wheat straw. It is basically there to hold a little more water within the substrate, as well as keeping it fluffier and less dense. You can add 10%-30% vermiculite. Its also a good way to add volume to your bulk substrate.



3) Next, it is time to add water to your substrate. What is great about using oven bags, is that you will not have excess water from submerging a pillowcase into water. You will only add the amount of water that you need. However, it is recommended that you add tad bit more water due the evaporation during the baking time.

Water is the key ingredient into your substrate. You will want enough to keep it hydrated through a few flushes, yet, you do not want it overly wet so it doesn't cause any sort of contamination. As noted in "The Mushroom Cultivator" by Paul Stamets, a "field consistency" is the optimum water ratio into the substrate. It is a little more wet than damp. When you take a handful of the substrate, and you squeeze your fist as hard as you can, and a little trickle of water runs out of your fingers, you know you have added enough water.



Here is the consistency you are looking for:




4) Now that you have your straw/compost/dung all hydrated, all you need to do now is to tie off the top of the oven bag and then place a thermometer through the top, like so:



Baking

During the baking process, you will need to attend to your oven to check the thermometer for about the first hour. It is very important that you do not allow the temperature inside the bag to get above 185F! Once your thermometer has reached the temperature of about 170-180, turn down the oven to about 190-200F.

shroomery copy and paste, fail.

Your so effing cool,...r u trying to sound like all the cool guys on shroomery or what? Your a tool, go back to the bag. Your the "massive fail"...

This is about the education not your ignorance, free material, legally spread.
So learn, read or shutup. You already said a bunch of crap that shows what you really know and that seems to be little. So stop.

autoclave bags are better.

turkey bags are thin, expensive and the seams fail.

autoclave bags are thick, cheap and don't break open.

I felt cool when my kettle was full of shit water after the oven bag seam failed.

search oven bags on the shroomery, not good.

only benefit of oven bags is that they're for sale at the grocery.

Turkey bags are a dollar, 1 little dollar for 2, double them up and never break one again, also a water bath keeps them from getting brittle. Are you really suggesting buying autoclave quality bags to do a simple past job in? That is absolutlely insane, last I checked AC bags were much more spendy and not needed unless actually autoclaving.
Ive actually forgone bags totally and used a huge broiler with a lid for roasts, filled up somewhat wet aith sub and pastuerized away...
Being frugal dont mean doing the wrong thing.