B+ using the pf tek, a newb grow

[Sidetracked]

Hey all

Decided to write up a grow diary on my first shroom growing experiment. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this is completely new to me. I'm also gonna put prices and places to get supplies so anyone who might be thinking of trying this will at least know whats involved from the beginning.

I got my spores from the free spore ring earth. I put R50 in an envelope and sent it off, and 4 weeks later I had a letter in the mail with my spore print in. The print sat in my drawer for a couple weeks before I got motivated to do anything with it and I've spent the last couple of weeks finding supplies for my grow.

I decided on the pf Tek cause it seems to be where all the newb growers start.

A short explanation for people who may not know.
The pf tek is a great way for people to start growing because it is easy, relatively cheap and has a pretty high success rate (or so i've read). The biggest challenge growin mushrooms seems to be contamination, which means throwing out your entire crop. The pf tek keeps this under control by creating a really sterile environment for the spores to colonize in. This is achieved by sealing substrate in glass jars and steam sterilizing it in a pressure cooker (or in my case a pot with a tight fitting lid). Once this is done and the jars have cooled, you can then inject spore solution into the jar through a hole in the lid. The hole needs to have some way of being sealed to prevent contamination coming in through it, and the easiest way i've read of seems to be poking a hole prior to steaming and placing a pea sized drop of high temp silicone over the hole. This keeps contams out and "self heals" after u have injected through it.

Once the jar has completely colonized, the substrate "cake" can be removed and placed in a fruiting chamber. As soon as the cake is completely colonized it is less susceptible to contamination. I'll get more into the later stages once i get there.

Ok, so far i've managed to get glass jars. The original pf tek calls for 1/2 pint tapered glass jars (the mouth must be the widest part so you can get the cake out in one piece later). I couldn't find any 1/2 pint jars so i bought 1 pint jars. The console type. They were pretty cheap, R15 each at a supermarket. The problem with the larger jars is that they take longer to colonize which gives contaminants a better chance of getting into my jars. Because of this i've decided to do a liquid culture first before i innoculate my jars. This involves allowing the spores to grow a bit in a liquid substrate first before i transfer them to my jars. Been looking for malt extract but can't find any, same thing for corn sugar. Honey seems to be the next option. Will go into detail when I get some honey

Something else which i'm doing for sanitations sake is building a glove box so that i can innoculate and make spore syringes in a clean environment. I got a clear plastic tub which cost R80 and some kitchen gloves. I'm going to cut holes in the side of the tub and put the gloves through the holes and make it airtight using silicon to prevent any air movement inside the tub while i'm working in it.

The mixture for the pf cake is made up of brown rice flour which i struggled to find, but found eventually at a large discount chemist in the health food section. That was about R50. Vermiculite was easy enough to find, R15 for a bag. Getting the needles and syringes was a bit of a mission, people look at you funny when you ask about that stuff. Hehe.

I still need to get surgical spirits (does anyone know if this is a sufficient substitute for isopropyl alcohol? Thats what is suggested but i can't find it anywhere) and the honey for my liquid culture. But other than that i'm ready. Gonna go next weekend after payday an pick up the rest of the stuff and i'll post pictures as soon as things are rolling!

Comments and suggestions much appreciated.

[oldbootzz]

friend has used this tek successfully a couple times, seems like you're spot on.

ob

[skunkish]

Nice one dude , surgical spirits is fine , don't use honey for the liquid culture , honey is crap and leaves lots of sediment in the lc making it difficult to see whether it's myc or contams growing , get some treacle sugar or raw sugar (the lighter brown sugar like coffee shops have) use this at about 1/2 a teaspoon per 250ml water (if you can find dextrose get it , it's prob the best sugar to use for an lc) , also only fill up your lc jars half way with water , this makes the lc grow much faster.oh and one more thing clean the gb using a strong bleach and water sollution and let it sit for 15mins before starting work.check on shroomery there is a tek for an "airport" filter syringe and lid setup that you can use for lc jars with great success.

[Sidetracked]

Hey guys, quick update

Went and picked up some surgical spirits today and got a bottle of hydrogen peroxide while i was there. The total was a little over R20. I read somewhere that adding a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to water which is used in the growing process can sterilize it without hurting the spores, can anyone confirm this?

Had a look around my local super market for treacle sugar and had no luck, same for raw sugar and dextrose. I saw yellow sugar, brown sugar, organic brown sugar. Will any of these work?

Also started with my glove box this afternoon (have taken pictures of the progress, will post when i have internet). I used a soldering iron to cut two holes in the side of my tub, which went quite smoothly, but during the attempt to attach my kitchen gloves to the holes, i ripped both gloves. So back to the shop tomorrow for new gloves and whatever sugar will work best

thanks for comments an suggestions! Keep em comin

[OscarMilde]

Use thicker gloves maybe? Rubber ones maybe. Interested to watch this

[skunkish]

treacle sugar is the dark brown sugar and raw sugar is the light brown sugar , both work equilly well but light brown sugar makes the lc a little clearer , hydrogen peroxide will kill spores...it's pretty much not needed for anything other than cloning contaminated flesh.see if you can download a dvd set called lets grow mushrooms , they have the whole pf tek in detail every single step using very good methods.get two of those pvc toilet fittings with the rubber seal and the ring from builders wharehouse as glovebox ports , it makes attaching the gloves very easy , if you have a farmers corporation near you try get some of those long vet gloves.

[Sidetracked]

Alrighty! Toilet fittings, rubber gloves and light brown sugar. Will have a look at the local hardware/grocery when I get home from work tomorrow.

Thanks for the input.

[OscarMilde]

Just googled it, here are some cool looking gloves, last ones on the list look great:
Gloves
Dunno if they do small sales or bulk or what though...

[Cerberus]

Nice one sidetracked! I am embarking on a similar mission too, so thanks for doing most of the leg work for me ;)
Looking forward to your progress!

[oldbootzz]

what spores did you get...

[Cerberus]

what spores did you get...

Hey oldbootzz; I dont want to speak where I shouldnt, but I am sure that B+ is what he has... Please feel free to give me a slap in the head if I am wrong

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showfla ... r/10560039
B+
The B+ origins have become a thing of legend. B+ is a classic cube and has been one of the most popular commercial cubes in history. It is very domesticated, and a good candidate, if you plan to use multispore.

[OscarMilde]

I think so too man, B+'s are decent shrooms, a big yielder too I rate..

[Sidetracked]

Hey guys, really glad to see some interest in my project

Lolz, i don mind doing the legwork, hope you find this helpful!

I got the B+ spores for two reasons, the first was the large fruits and huge spore drops(lotsa prints to keep me going). The second and most important (for me) is that I read it does well in a wide variety of temperatures it can grow in. I've seen it does well from 10 degrees up to 32 degrees. I was worried that my flat would get a bit cold due to the winter. I plan on keeping them in a cupboard so the temp stays constant, but it was just to be on the safe side.

On to my progress for today. I went and bought some industrial rubber gloves and also managed to find some treacle sugar for the liquid culture.

I read the airport for the liquid culture jar. It says to fill it with polyfill. Thats the stuff we use to fill holes in the wall right?

I finished making my glove box. I slid an empty 1lt yoghurt into each of the gloves and then slid the gloves into the holes i cut in the tub (pictures coming soon!). This kept them firm while i glued them in. I used a two part epoxy to glue them in, and i'm going to put silicon over it once the glue is dry just to make double sure the thing is airtight.

I also made my jars tonight. I've decided on putting 'self healing' innoc points onto it. This basically just silicon over the innoc holes so that once the syringe gets removed from the hole, the silicon will close again keeping contaminants out. I punched four holes in each lid of each jar, and put a bit more than a pea of marine silicon (withstands temperatures from -50 to +150, so it won't come off during sterilization) over each innoc hole. Note: Make sure to spread the silicon a bit so that its got alot of surface area to stick to

So now i'm just waiting for glue to dry and I think i'll make some spore syringes and my liquid culture when I get home tomorrow.

Also, I can't post links using the cellphone i'm posting from. My info on the b+ spores comes from the free spore ring earth site, and most of the other info I'm using comes from shroomery. They have alot of good guides.

[skunkish]

Nono the polyfill is pillow stuffing , the airport should also be sterilised in an empty jar when sterilising the brf cakes ,tip: instead of using smaller jars you can use large jars with two holes in the lid one with the injection port and another pencil thickness hole stuffed with polyfill , the top layer of verm can then be skipped since you have a filtered air exchange , this comes in handy with the larger jars because now you can fill the larger jars up 1/2 or/ 1/4 way with substrate allowing room for better gas exchange that the smaller jars with the verm layer doesn't have , B+ is a very stable strain that very often delivers isolate like pinsets very nice strain.Oh and one more thing I think thats worth mentioning, make sure when you make the self healing port that you silicon the hole on both sides of the jar lid , this will help stop leaks.

[Sidetracked]

Evening all

So today i'm thinking i'm going to make my substrate and the other things which involve my stove. I've been wondering about gas exchange in the liquid culture though. I agree with the airport method discussed earlier, but I don't have the required materials for it. I can only get them on the weekend, got ants in my pants and wanna get going, but also know that it might be better to wait. Would it work if i slid a piece of material between the lid an glass of the bottle, this will allow a little bit of air exchange and it'll be filtered by the material. Would that work? It'll get steam sterilized at the same time that i'm sterilizing the jar.

[Cerberus]

good question Sidetracked!

[skunkish]

The airport's main purpose is to equilise the pressure when a jar cools down without letting contams in , it's not for gas exchange , jars with no filter do fine for lc's when they are filled only half way.

[Sidetracked]

Alrighty...

So tonight i made my liquid culture, I put about half a teaspoon of treacle sugar into 260ml of water, dumped it into one of my 500ml console jars (with the self healing lids described previously) and put it in a pot. I also put a large square of tinfoil over the top and squeezed it tightly over the lid of the jar. I had water about a quarter way up my jar and let it boil lightly for about an hour and a half. Also, i tightened the lid of the jar and then loosened it a quarter turn so that it wouldn't explode in the pot.

Anyway, fast forward an hour and a half, i turned the stove off and decided to use the remaining water in the pot to use in my spore syringe. I filled three syringes up with boiling water and squirted it out into my sink. I repeated this a few times and then on the last time(when I was gonna keep the water inside) i quickly fitted the syringe cover which i had been soaking in surgical spirits. The syringes are now wrapped in a sandwich bag and are in the fridge cooking. The liquid culture jar is in a draft free cupboard cooking until innoculation tomorrow.

I have my glove box ready and waiting for the syringes to cool so that I can transfer my print to syringe. Gonna wait till about 10pm to do it, think it should be cool by then.

Anyone noticed anything I may have missed or stuffed up? Lol.

[skunkish]

that sounds fine and will probably work , one thing though lc's shouldn't be cooked for longer than 45 mins because the sugars will caramelise , if the lc is clear it should be fine , another thing is one can just open the lc carefully in the glovebox and scrape some spores off the print directly into the lc rather than making a syringe , try and disturb the air as little as possible when working in the glovebox and flame sterilise the tool that you are using to scrape the spores.

[Sidetracked]

Goodmorning all

Unfortunately, I didn't read the above post before continuing with my project so things have gone slightly sour. The purpose of this grow log was so that others could learn from my mistakes SO learn people and do not do as I do

After my previous post I got my equipment together and put it into the glove box. I wiped everything down inside the glove box with a strong bleach solution. All good up to this point. I wiped a shot glass down to use while transfering print to syringe. Things still good. Tried to remove print from ziplock bag... This is where things went wrong. The industrial gloves I got were very thick and clumsy, so the print got a little crumpled during the process. When I eventually got the print out i opened it up and struggled to get the spores off and I think perhaps i don't have enough spores in each of my syringes. And due to the clumsiness of the gloves, the remainder of my print is possibly a write off. There are still lots of spores, but i'm worried that bein exposed to the open air within the glove box for so long may have contaminated them.

I injected one of my syringes into liquid culture this morning and am hoping for the best.

I am doing my best to acquire another print, but hopefully my liquid culture colonizes without contamination. Although I'm not too sure it will. Probablly gonna send away another envelope to the free spore ring this weekend. But am hoping to get something from a friend locally as the spore ring will put my project on hold for 4 weeks.

I will not give up! Lol