I like the flat cake tek

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By Ashenms (Ashenms) on Tuesday, September 18, 2001 - 09:47 am:

I have tired about 3 difrent casings the casing for dummys 50/50 ver and lime, and a small straw tek. With no luck. The flat cake tek worked great for me. It started pinning right after i put it in the tank. Thought i was going to have humidity problems. its doing great i just thought i would boost the credibillity of this tek i will have some pics for you as soon as the shrooms get a little biger. Oh im using B+.
 
Ashe

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Friday, September 21, 2001 - 02:28 am:

awesome, after the first flush clear all primordia and dunk for 6 hours then add a toplayer of damp verm. the 2nd flush will be even better.

By mr. mista (Mistabud) on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 02:32 am:

I just finished birthing my first flat cake.

Should I put a wet layer of verm on top? Or just leave as it is?

Peace.

By Ron (Clubbenguy) on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 06:43 am:

I would put a wet 50/50 layer (peat and verm) on top so that the cake will stay moist..

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 07:06 am:

leave it as is. dunk between flushes for 6 hours then add verm layer. let it pin naturally the first flush then add a casing after that. don't listen to ron.

By mr. mista (Mistabud) on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 07:26 am:

Cool, thanks eatyualive, I was hoping you'd see this since it's your tek.

After the first flush...Do you put a layer of verm under the cake as well? That's what it looks like in your pics, but I'm not sure.

Peace.

By Mr. Tambourine Man (Tambourine_Man) on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 06:49 pm:

Eatyualive-

Have you tried dunking before the first flush?

By Ron (Clubbenguy) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 06:28 am:

Sheesh, sorry eatyualive, but my colonizd cake didnt show any signs of life until I put that verm layer on top. i didnt dunk before first flush, but the myc seems to love this..

sorry if I gave bad info.

By Hatcher (Hatcher) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 07:06 am:

I'm sure alot of you would disagree w/me, but my gut feeling is a little casing does more just to trick the little bastards when alternate forms of hydration are used, e.g. IR tek, straws, dunking...haven't tried flat cake tho!:)

By quote: (Quote) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 02:34 pm:

i tend to agree that the verm. does trigger more pins, but the drawback is more contams, so it's a trade-off.

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 05:22 am:

Ron, i wasn't trying to offend you sorry. I just kinda meant to let it go for a while and see what happens. let it pin. if nothing then add some verm. \
also after the 1st flush yes i do add a top and bottom verm layer i.e. double ended casing tek.
also in response to quotes comment. yes, i have found that a very thin maybe 1/8" think verm layer added does help quite a bit if the pins do not form for some reason. but i keep the verm layer lightly damp and very thin. this seems to cause less infection.
yes i have dunked before the 1st flush and i don't like it. i think it pins better if i don't dunk 1st flush. i tend to get larger mushies but less pins when i dunk before 1st flush. if need be and you feel that the cake may be a little too dry then i would say go for the dunk.

Hey Ron, what strain is it that you are using. if it is tc or hawaiian. try this. when you birth add a top thin layer of verm. slightly damp and let it colonize while the cake is pinning. this works well for tc's and hawaiians, plantasia, puertos, and tazmanian strains.

By nuecrew (Nue) on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 09:18 am:

I've been experimenting with using vermiculite exclusively for casing. I sterilize it for an hour or two in the oven and add lime and water. I get pins faster through the verm. than with the 50/50 mix. It's also one hell of alot faster. Thanks for the tip Quote.

By ion ewe (Ion) on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 10:05 am:

Eat, what are your present feelings about coir? I know you were rather happy with it, before... why haven't you mentioned it?
Has anyone even tried or considered a mixture of coir and verm? If so, how has it worked out for you?
Seems flats act a tad different than spawned beds, so I'm trying to get a cohesive thread going on those little nuances regarding their respective treatments.

-ion

By Mr. Tambourine Man (Tambourine_Man) on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 07:03 pm:

A couple questions-

1. Will the PF or Equadorian race colonize through a thin vermiculite layer on top of a flat cake to make it a single cohesive layer?

2. Is it necessary to sterilize vermiculite before casing a flat cake with it?

By kobayashi (Impalerzz) on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 08:05 pm:

I birthed,dunked,and added small amount of verm to top.Pins showed up real real fast.
Nice healthy shrooms. My onlregret was not making cakes bigger.

-d

By quote: (Quote) on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 03:38 pm:

people say it's not needed to sterilize the verm., but i recommend it anyway. better safe than sorry.
as for coir, it seems in my experiments to be quite similar to peat moss, only already ph adjusted. i have been battling trich on roughly 20% of my coir casings, but i didn't use lime or pre-sterilize.
so next time i will.
never mixed it with verm. though.

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 10:28 pm:

well ion you,
i haven't done any coir casings lately. i do like it. personally it is better than peat bc sometimes you get a bag of peat that has many wood chunks. then you have to clean the wood chunks and it is a pain. but i make my 50/50 mix with coir instead of peat. either one should work fine though.
but my only issue with coir is that i have problems getting later flushes with it. for some reason i deep scratch or even reapply a coir layer and it won't go to pin for the next set. oh well. i had one ks coir casing that made it to 6 flushes and i didn't touch it for the 2 months that i had it.
mr. tambourine,
1.i just birthed an eq cake with a thin layer of verm on top. yes it will or should colonize the verm layer as long as you apply it right when you birth. as for the pf race you do not need the verm layer. the pf race does excellently off the mycelia. i would suggest leaving the verm layer off the pf race.
2. you don't have to sterilize verm but i always do. i use the microwave for about 2 minutes usually or put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or so.

By Mr. Tambourine Man (Tambourine_Man) on Friday, January 18, 2002 - 12:56 am:

Eatyu-

Do you think the EQs will colonize all over the casing or favor the edges?

By Ron (Clubbenguy) on Saturday, January 19, 2002 - 01:33 am:

Hey Eat, I have been using both TC and hawaiian. Your right though, i put a little verm on the top as i birth them and the mycellium just eats it up like air.

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Tuesday, January 22, 2002 - 03:20 pm:

i say the eq's might like edges more. also they do well on top with a light verm layer as shown above.

By Mr. Tambourine Man (Tambourine_Man) on Tuesday, January 22, 2002 - 06:31 pm:

[Sliced Flat Cakes]

Which strains have you guys found fruit all over the surface of a flatcake, and which ones would you say tend to favor the edges?

By Maliki vision seaker (Maliki) on Tuesday, January 22, 2002 - 07:03 pm:

I cant say wich one's would tend to do wich. But i can say i have spoted this same thing . Thru most of the pics I have seen at the Nook there doesnt seem to be a trend. It looks as most just prefer to grow from a broken edge . I was thinking of putting some kind of divder that will give a complete cake but give me good break ups on top. I was thinking abought using an ice tray incert. The old aluminum ones that fit into the tray. It came to mind the other week or so when i came acrost the pictues of the tall 1/2 pints cut lengthwise laid into a bakeing dish . All the mushies grew from the edges of the cakes. Most of the double ended casing teks pics the mushies grow from the bottom casing layer. Just my obseravations there . But I to have seen snoppys cake pics awesome i must say . The one that did that huge pin set . Took forever to fruit and on the second flush put out almost nothing. But it realy does seem like i have experiments to do . or not to do thats the question.

By nuecrew (Nue) on Tuesday, January 22, 2002 - 07:53 pm:

Put a heavy oven sterilized/moistened layer of vermiculite on the bottom(3/8-1/2"). On top put just enough so you can't see the cake. Don't let the top layer dry out, spray if you must until they're about an inch high. It's about the mycelia seeing the light that makes them grow in the bottom.

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 - 03:08 am:

interesting Maliki,
well the hawaiian like edges. the puertos, pf, tex, palenque, gt,tc mostly grow from the top but you have to take note that nature takes its course. sometimes they grow on the sides, sometimes on the top, and even sometimes on bottom. i have this strange idea that somehow elevating the entire cake in the air and allowing all surfaces of the flatcake to fruit bc sometimes i have kick ass flushes on both sides of the cake. this seems that it would increase yield to me. try it. but if you want easy results, try pf strain, hawaiian, tc, tazmanian... and uhhhh brain fart i will post more when i can think about it later.