Subtopic	Posts	Updated	Creator
	9er Tek in html	-
	Casing Overview	-

9er Tek Casing and Fruiting:

Working with casing is the main art of mushroom cultivation. One good casing recipe is: equal parts of peat moss, Vermiculite, and crushed oyster shell with enough water to moisten. It seems that Pasteurizing at 160 - 170 deg F for an hour or so is the best treatment for casing. This can be done in a big bowl in the Pressure Cooker. Don't close the lid or put the jiggler on. Just lay the lid in place and turn the heat on low (or very low) and measure the temp of the casing with an appropriate thermometer occasionally. When the casing temp gets to 170 deg, turn off the heat and allow to cool slowly. Don't remove from the burner until cool.

Take an empty Distilled water jug (1 Gal.) and cut off the top to leave a container about 3 in. deep. Pull out enough Al foil to go from one top edge around the bottom and up the other side. Fold about 1/4 in. over the top edges of the container. If you must use tape to hold the Al foil in place, don't use masking tape and keep the tape outside of the container. Plastic based tape will not encourage mildew/mold/bacteria growth like the paper based masking tape. The idea here is to block the sides from the light so all the fruit grows on the top.


Put in enough casing to make a flat bottom, then you can put in 2 one pint cakes lying on their sides (or 3 or 4 1/2 pt. MMGG cakes.)

Spoon casing around the cakes. Shake gently to settle the casing. Pull out on the sides to work the casing in until the container is sort of rounded and the cakes are covered with about 1/2" of casing.


Up to 3 of these containers can be placed in a standard 10 gal. aquarium, but 2 allows for easy maneuvering and picking. Sometimes it's difficult to keep the Humidity up with only 2 containers/aquarium, so go for whatever seems to work best for you. The casing should be Misted 2 or 3 times per day. No further humidification is necessary (except in very dry climates.) In fact, when the pinheads appear, it is best to open the top some. About 1/4 in. wide and the length of the aquarium works well.

When the mycelium becomes visible at the top of the casing, it won't be long before pinning starts. At this point, one should stop misting the casing directly. Direct moisture will damage the pins. The pinning means you've done your job well and the mycelium has decided there is ample moisture for fruiting. If you do decide to mist the casing around the growing fruit, be careful. Too much water can cause the flush to Abhort.

Notice the Condensation on the walls in the picture below. That was with the lid open 1/4" and misting only for humidification.
It really helps to keep the temperature around 75 deg F in the fruiting chamber. It's much easier to keep the humidity up. The fruit will grow slower than at higher temperatures, but they'll be of higher quality.



It is very easy to over humidify a cropping chamber if you use perlite with cased cakes. The evaporation from the casing is important to the growth of the fruit. If the walls of the aquarium are totally covered in condensation, the humidity is too high for cased cakes (it's great for uncased cakes) and you may see bacterial blotch on the fruit. This causes slimy black lesions and pits on the fruit. If the humidity is not corrected, the fruit will be wiped out. Some of these bacteria are harmful to humans, so be careful to wash well after removing contaminated fruit. Lowering the humidity will almost always clear up the problem and allow proper growth to resume. The upper limit on humidity for cased substrate is 92% (per Stamets) (The picture above reflects a slightly too high humidity.)

Main Page : The Glove Box : Cloning : The Substrate : Spore Collection : Blender Usage : Tips

By nuecrew (Nue) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 09:37 pm:

This is after the first flush. The brown rice cake is about 6 weeks old. The casing about 4 weeks old.

By Brad (Raze) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 09:49 pm:

What is that stuff all over it?

By Lichen (Lichen) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 10:06 pm:

interesting...why did you do this?

By nuecrew (Nue) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 10:24 pm:

The "stuff" all over it is 50/50 Casing. Why did I do this? This is the first time I've seen a slice like this. To give infomation for others and although I don't know what might be said, I'd bet one of the more knowledgable of us has some instruction to go with it. I love this site and want to help build.

By Dr. Cubesis III (Newbieshroomer) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 10:26 pm:

looks like whole brown rice to me....

By Dr. Cubesis III (Newbieshroomer) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 10:31 pm:

" I love this site and want to help build. "

That does ditto for almost all of us here :0)

And, I meant the bottom looks like rice, what is the 50/50 comprised of may I ask ?

:D

By Kaijan (Kaijan) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 11:33 pm:

50/50 refers to 50% Peat and 50% Verm. Some people use 50/50+ which a buffer is added to control the PH levels.


kai.

By Lichen (Lichen) on Friday, December 07, 2001 - 01:14 am:

well, I suppose we've all cut cakes into halves or slices, but I have to say I've never done a cross-section just to show a cross section. It's cool, and it's groovy

By ggg (Ggg) on Friday, December 07, 2001 - 06:03 pm:

The magical myco-labs of NUE!

By quote: (Quote) on Friday, December 07, 2001 - 06:16 pm:

cool pics,
thx.

By nuecrew (Nue) on Friday, December 07, 2001 - 08:44 pm:

When I first took apart a 9er about, well in September I think I was...it was a new experience seeing the thick ropey strands between the cake and shrooms. I wanted to share this with others who may never case a cake and not see the..what are the ropes called? It was interesting how much strength the ropes had also. I could pull the casing up with the rope like a root in earth. Mycelia, hyphae?

By Nan (Nanook) on Friday, December 07, 2001 - 09:26 pm:

"Rhizome" come to mind.