Cakes directly on perlite??

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By theodore genisis (Ntheo) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 02:55 am: The Nook

I finally figured out that my cakes were too dry. I let them go extra weeks in vitro waiting for pins to appear, but finally birthed them anyway. Iguess the extra time in the jar dried the cakes.

Result, very slow pinning and minimal fruiting.

After reading about Myco-tek grow chamber and cakes sitting direct on water source, I put cake right onto perlite, and vigorous growth is coming off the bottom where the cake meets perlite.

If perlite is sterile and cheap, why not just put cakes right onto it to keep water wicking up into cakes? (I never understood double end casing til I saw pic, and see that you keep bottom of cake on moist verm. Is this an improvement?)

I dunked a couple 24 hrs, but it may be too late for those.

By Nan (Nanook) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 03:27 am: The Nook

On a normally hydrated cake, Perlite delivers too much mositure when the cake is placed directly on it. Verm is the tried and true casing Tek so we stick with it.

Your cakes may be the exception because they were birthed so dry, but normally the approach you are taking would be discouraged. A good long dunk followed with a soaking wet verm casing is what I prescribe for excessivly dry cakes.

By Hatcher (Hatcher) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 05:11 am: The Nook

I had the exact same arguement theodore, and nan & co. convinced me I had better try it. I skip the lids and just pour a layer of verm over the perlite. I've so far used the fine stuff I use for my cakes(Hoffman's), but suspect a more course verm might be better. Results pending...

By Hatcher (Hatcher) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 05:19 am: The Nook

Also theo, give the cakes a week after complete colonization, then happy b-day. Invitro pinning IS NOT necessary. I use plenty of masking tape on my lids to put race and dates on. So much fun!

By jim brown (Shrhobbyist) on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 08:11 am: The Nook

Putting cakes directly on the perlite will get you a lot of shrooms growing right where the cake touches the perlite. However, these are soaking wet shrooms that are prone to rot, even while drying. And when they do dry they are only about 5% (or less) of there wet weight. The cakes also are more open to contams when on the perlite. It is not a good idea to leave cakes on perlite for more than a day, which is an okay way to hydrate a dry cake.

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