Anybody growing mushrooms willing to talk???

7L!fTeD24 said:

This last week While preparing cvg I've been Doing bucket Tek pasteurization then When it's cooled down i've been loading That CVG into Turkey bags and pressure cooking it at 15PSI for 2 hours. Do you guys think this is overkill? Or just right?

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It's not overkill. If you doubt the cleanliness of your substrate, two hours is a bare minimum. A bad batch of grain can have billions of cysts. (Spores that have encircled themselves with a very tough coating that will withstand very high temperatures at very high pressures.


Remember that cysts and spores due in "half lives". You may kill half of the cysts in an hour, half of those left in another hour, half of THOSE in another hour...like that. Fine, but if there are enough cysts, then statistically there maybe at least one left living at four hours.


One is all you need to ruin a bag. Just one out of billions.

If one coaxed the organism out of that little envelope then it can be far more easily destroyed in moist heat. The best way to soften them all up is with warm moisture and 24 hours or so. Your pasteurization will kill none of these hidden pests but it will lure them out of their cysts.

Remember also that packing your cooker correctly is key. Heat and moisture invades the bags unevenly. If you put two bags side by side it is no different than it being one large bag and that may not be heated thoroughly throughout. If you stack 4 in a pot then it is even worse.

They make sterile test strips that will indicate if the insides of the bags were hot enough (but not for how long).

You should always space all bags away from each other. Jars are pretty much safe.

If you doubt your technique, cook them up as you usually do and then just let them sit for a week.

If they go bad you know it's the grain.

If your ports are staying open after using them only a few times, your needles are the wrong gauge for the port.
I use 20's and rarely chew them up like that. The port/needle system is designed for aseptic use on humans from sterile vials without extra precautions. Also, if you are making your own, be sure that the port hole is narrower than the port insert so the rubber inside is constricted.

canndo said:

If your ports are staying open after using them only a few times, your needles are the wrong gauge for the port.
I use 20's and rarely chew them up like that. The port/needle system is designed for aseptic use on humans from sterile vials without extra precautions. Also, if you are making your own, be sure that the port hole is narrower than the port insert so the rubber inside is constricted.

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I used to use the stick on ships that just stick on top of lid right over the hole, but lately I've been liking Rtv.

I'm having a lot better luck now that I'm not drawing multiple syringes from the Same jar of lc. I Made 12 pint jars of lc from 1 lc syringe so now I just pull up one syringe and dump the jar. Trying to narrow down where these contams come from even though I'm sure it's multiple things, hopefully taking the extra step pasteurizing then pressure cooking my CVG helps even more.

canndo said:

If your ports are staying open after using them only a few times, your needles are the wrong gauge for the port.
I use 20's and rarely chew them up like that. The port/needle system is designed for aseptic use on humans from sterile vials without extra precautions. Also, if you are making your own, be sure that the port hole is narrower than the port insert so the rubber inside is constricted.

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I use 16ga needles.
They get worked because I heat the needle, wipe/cool with iso wipe and then quickly burn off the iso and then stab. Do that 20 times in a row(30cc syringes) The heat of the needle, because i’m always in a rush, fucks up the ports. I just cant allow myself to trust needles fresh out the wrappers.

Fangthane said:

I've only ever used spore syringes so far, and the first grow went awesomely with them. This thread seems to have become an advertisement for Skeleton Crew's stuff in recent months, and none of it seems to be remotely negative. While I guess that old-ass syringe could easily be shot, I have no real reason to think the new one has any issues. It's not like I'm seeing any contams going on, just nothing at all seems to be happening.

Not really a huge deal. But even the small expense behind growing shrooms is more than I can really justify, so failure stings just a bit more than with the average person who's got $$ to play with. It was meant more or less as just a fun thing about growing stuff that looked cool; with the little stockpile I have in the freezer, it's not like I'm desperate to produce some meds ASAFP.

Not sure if the seller is going to want me to send the bags back or not, but if he doesn't I'll probably cut them open to see if ANYTHING at all was growing in the middle.

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For me It's hard to say that a syringe from a trusted vendor isn't good. I've bought from 5 different vendors and have had failures from all of them atleast once. Hard to say why, most likely something I did wrong.

Aeroknow said:

I use 16ga needles.
They get worked because I heat the needle, wipe/cool with iso wipe and then quickly burn off the iso and then stab. Do that 20 times in a row(30cc syringes) The heat of the needle, because i’m always in a rush, fucks up the ports. I don’t trust needles fresh out the wrappers.

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Same

7L!fTeD24 said:

I used to use the stick on ships that just stick on top of lid right over the hole, but lately I've been liking Rtv.

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I stepped up my lid production game by using rtv in a caulking gun instead of those little tubes. Those things fucking suck. The injection ports really don’t need glued down, the hole is the perfect size but i do it anyways. It’s mainly for the syringe filters.
Oh and i got plenty of those plastic lids with the silicone gaskets, but i’ve had problems with them popping off in the pressure cooker. And I leave my lids cracked when i put them in there. So i just use the regular lids and replace the ports and or filters when needed and completely make new ones after a few uses because they get all rusty and shit.

7L!fTeD24 said:

Hard to say why, most likely something I did wrong.

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Been operating under the assumption that at least the new syringe should be good. It's nice and clear, and I can see the little black spore specks in it. Me fucking something up is always very possible, but can't think of anything stupid I may have done while inoculating. That part isn't exactly rocket surgery. Guess it all comes down to one of these 3 possibilities: I'm a fucking idiot; the syringes aren't viable; or the bags weren't viable. Just seems like 3 bags and 2 different syringes should have grown at least something, even if just a big lump on contaminated goop. Absolutely nothing happening with any of the bags is the most confusing part to me.

Maybe for shits and giggles I should head down to the Dollar Store and pick up some Uncle Ben's foil packs to inoculate, just to see whether both syringes will successfully colonize in that.

Fangthane said:

Been operating under the assumption that at least the new syringe should be good. It's nice and clear, and I can see the little black spore specks in it. Me fucking something up is always very possible, but can't think of anything stupid I may have done while inoculating. That part isn't exactly rocket surgery. Guess it all comes down to one of these 3 possibilities: I'm a fucking idiot; the syringes aren't viable; or the bags weren't viable. Just seems like 3 bags and 2 different syringes should have grown at least something, even if just a big lump on contaminated goop. Absolutely nothing happening with any of the bags is the most confusing part to me.

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I myself am mind boggled right now. Things went so well for me for so long And haven't really changed anything recently And a ton of my tubs are turning green. About to tear everything down and start over from scratch. Going from killing it with 80% Of my tubs giving me full canopies and multiple flushes to barely breaking even now has Really stressed me out and. almost made me give up. But that early success Tells me that I can do it And it keeps me going trying to get back there. I feel like I was having much more success in shoeboxes Also at the time I was just buying l c and nocking jars instead of making my own. When I moved up to monotubs I also switched from just coco to cvg, don't know if that made a difference.

I modified the weight on my pressure Cooker so it reaches 16PSI just to be safe.

What do you guys think? Should I trust That these syringes are sterile or should I pressure? Cook them?

7L!fTeD24 said:

I myself am mind boggled right now. Things went so well for me for so long And haven't really changed anything recently And a ton of my tubs are turning green. About to tear everything down and start over from scratch. Going from killing it with 80% Of my tubs giving me full canopies and multiple flushes to barely breaking even now has Really stressed me out and. almost made me give up. But that early success Tells me that I can do it And it keeps me going trying to get back there. I feel like I was having much more success in shoeboxes Also at the time I was just buying l c and nocking jars instead of making my own. When I moved up to monotubs I also switched from just coco to cvg, don't know if that made a difference.

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I’m betting that once you sterilize the substrate you’ll be golden again. Is it the coco we are using? Maybe. Once i started sterilizing it i have figured it out.
And now i’m buying 5K bricks from my local grow shop. $10 bucks each.

7L!fTeD24 said:

What do you guys think? Should I trust That these syringes are sterile or should I pressure? Cook them?
View attachment 5348985

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I don’t ever doubt the insides of a new syringe. When filling them up, all of this in front of a flow hood, i line them up paper side up, including the needles and I spray it with iso. Makes it easier to bust through the paper instead of peeling open the wrapper.
i go through and attach all the needles and then i’m in fill them up mode. As long as my jars are clear i don’t lose shit. Or hardly any. Maybe one grain bag out of 50? 75? Some of them lag but once i break them up and mix them again they’re still good.

Aeroknow said:

I’m betting that once you sterilize the substrate you’ll be golden again. Is it the coco we are using? Maybe. Once i started sterilizing it i have figured it out.
And now i’m buying 5K bricks from my local grow shop. $10 bucks each.

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Ok. I really hope so. I've been doing bucket Tek then loading up a turkey bag with the sub, I fold over the top and tape it down. Then pressure, cook it at 15PSI for 2 hours I may start going a half an hour longer. I'm wondering how much is okay to pressure cook at a time Because i'm Pretty much loading up the whole bucket of substrate into the bag. Which is a 650 gram brick of coco, 8 cups of vermiculite, with a cup of gypsum. I have it raised up to where it's not touching any water and it doesn't touch the sides Or the top of the pressure Cooker. Now is it o k that I just fold the top flap down? I know I can't steal it or the bag will Inflate.

7L!fTeD24 said:

Ok. I really hope so. I've been doing bucket Tek then loading up a turkey bag with the sub, I fold over the top and tape it down. Then pressure, cook it at 15PSI for 2 hours I may start going a half an hour longer. I'm wondering how much is okay to pressure cook at a time Because i'm Pretty much loading up the whole bucket of substrate into the bag. Which is a 650 gram brick of coco, 8 cups of vermiculite, with a cup of gypsum. I have it raised up to where it's not touching any water and it doesn't touch the sides Or the top of the pressure Cooker. Now is it o k that I just fold the top flap down? I know I can't steal it or the bag will Inflate.

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I take that same load of cvg, same as yours, and I make 3 fruiting bags with the XLSa grow bags. I load 4 of those into each of the pressure cookers at a time doing 2.5hrs.
I’ve been experimenting lately and doing 4 bags out of one batch of cvg and I can fit 6 of those in each presto pressure cooker. So that is 1.5 cvg batches per load.

i was also loading up a whole batch of cvg and loading in one bag for a casing layer when I was growing PE and APE.

And yeah, get that trivet up to where minimum of 3qts of water in the cooker. And thats what i did when i would do one bag of substrate in there. Just tape the flap down with a piece of packing tape.

Aeroknow said:

I use 16ga needles.
They get worked because I heat the needle, wipe/cool with iso wipe and then quickly burn off the iso and then stab. Do that 20 times in a row(30cc syringes) The heat of the needle, because i’m always in a rush, fucks up the ports. I just cant allow myself to trust needles fresh out the wrappers.

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If they are in the sheath and rad sterilized they are just fine. I don't sterilize further, no flame, no antiseptic. It's all in technique. Rapidity, isolation and redundancy. One needle, one syringe, one jar or bag.

Fangthane said:

Been operating under the assumption that at least the new syringe should be good. It's nice and clear, and I can see the little black spore specks in it. Me fucking something up is always very possible, but can't think of anything stupid I may have done while inoculating. That part isn't exactly rocket surgery. Guess it all comes down to one of these 3 possibilities: I'm a fucking idiot; the syringes aren't viable; or the bags weren't viable. Just seems like 3 bags and 2 different syringes should have grown at least something, even if just a big lump on contaminated goop. Absolutely nothing happening with any of the bags is the most confusing part to me.

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Did you let your substrate cool?