sonar
Well-Known Member
I spawned this tub 12 days ago with 5 quarts popcorn spawn. Decided to check the progress since I haven't opened it up until this point and was surprised to see it was pinning already. So, I took the tape off the holes and filled with loose polyfil to put it in fruiting properly.
The substrate is 1 brick of coco coir from the pet store with 1 quart of verm. The pet store stuff is only like $3 a brick and I think pet stores are a lot more common that hydro stores in most areas so no need to order online if there isn't a hydro store near you. I also hear that the stuff intented for plants is intentionally laced with trichoderma, a nasty mold that is the nemesis to the mushroom cultivator. I imagine it helps roots uptake nutrients or works to help break soil down, I don't know, but you don't want it anywhere near you spawn that's for sure. I pasturized the coir and verm together by putting them both into a 5 gallon bucket and dumping 4 quarts of boiling water in and putting the lid on. Wrapped a blanket around it then to try to keep as much of the heat in as long as possible. Once the whole thing was cool (about 6-8 hours) I mixed it up to break up any chunks and spawned with my 5 quarts of Ecuador popcorn spawn.
The tek I used (more or less) can be found here:
How I do Coir
Only changes I made were only using 1 quart of verm instead of 2, and I also break the coir up by peeling off the layers with a screwdriver. If you've ever worked with coir you know what I mean. It is pressed into layers that you can peel away if you are careful. I feel that allows for more even heat and water absorption.
That's pretty much it. I don't think it gets much simpler than that. I'll continue to post updates when things get more interesting.
The substrate is 1 brick of coco coir from the pet store with 1 quart of verm. The pet store stuff is only like $3 a brick and I think pet stores are a lot more common that hydro stores in most areas so no need to order online if there isn't a hydro store near you. I also hear that the stuff intented for plants is intentionally laced with trichoderma, a nasty mold that is the nemesis to the mushroom cultivator. I imagine it helps roots uptake nutrients or works to help break soil down, I don't know, but you don't want it anywhere near you spawn that's for sure. I pasturized the coir and verm together by putting them both into a 5 gallon bucket and dumping 4 quarts of boiling water in and putting the lid on. Wrapped a blanket around it then to try to keep as much of the heat in as long as possible. Once the whole thing was cool (about 6-8 hours) I mixed it up to break up any chunks and spawned with my 5 quarts of Ecuador popcorn spawn.
The tek I used (more or less) can be found here:
How I do Coir
Only changes I made were only using 1 quart of verm instead of 2, and I also break the coir up by peeling off the layers with a screwdriver. If you've ever worked with coir you know what I mean. It is pressed into layers that you can peel away if you are careful. I feel that allows for more even heat and water absorption.
That's pretty much it. I don't think it gets much simpler than that. I'll continue to post updates when things get more interesting.
