Nan's Tips & Teks

Nan's Nook : Archives : Honey/Dextrose Q&A : Nan's Tips & Teks
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Karo Syrup Tek  -    
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By Nanook of the North (Nanook) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 01:06 pm:

A general grow tip on Dextrose Jars... You need Dextrose (Corn Sugar), and a Glovebox. You want to mix up a 4% sugar solution by weight.

Dextrose, Karo, Maltose, Honey, or other Liquid Culture is the only way to go for producing inoculum. I never shoot jars with spores anymore, I shoot a jar with 75 cc of sterile dextrose solution (one level teaspoon dextrose powder in 75 cc RO Water) with 1-2 cc of Spores or Cloned Mycelia And in a few days I have more than enough inoculum, even plenty extra to experiment with. It blows the doors right off of Agar Culture.

That is: One Level Teaspoon Dextrose (or maltose) in 75cc's Water

_OR_

1-1/4 Level Teaspoons Dextrose (or maltose) in 100cc Water


You can use an empty syringe to measure out 100cc and both of these EZ measure formulas make very close to a 4% solution by weight when using powdered sugars.

I tried Polyfill Lids. This involves drilling a small hole in the dome jar lid, pulling polyester pillow stuffing (Wally Mart) up through the hole and trimming the excess. The jar is sterilized with a foil cap. To knock up the jar up you lift up the foil and insert the needle through the polyfill.

The problem with polyfill is that Cobweb and other Contams will grow through it if it gets wet, and it will get wet at some point. One contam and everything you shoot is screwed.

So I went out and got a box of brand new dome lids for a couple of bucks. I wrap up a few lids in foil and sterilize them along with some jars.

The dextrose (or honey) jar is made up and Sterilized with a solid dome lid, inverted so that the seal side is up (we don't want to can it) and the band screwed on loosely. Foil Cover of course. 20 min PC time

To shoot the jar I place it in the glovebox, remove foil, band, and lid, and shoot directly into the dextrose. I open a clean sterilized lid from the foil pack and place it on the jar mouth with the seal side _down_. Screw the band on tight and replace the foil cap.

To Clone you open the jar and drop in (or shoot with 9er Tek) a sample of macerated tissue. I use the same basic tek when working with Spore Prints: open the jar, tip the print up a bit and give it a flick and/or scrape with a sterile instrument... Plenty of spores drop, rehydrate, and germinate... In a week (you have to Incubate for speed) you are ready to shoot dozens of jars... And store the excess in the fridge, it keeps for a good long time.

Dextrose jars prepared in this fashion can be shaken vigorously without leaking or contam problems. Every time I open a dextrose jar in the glovebox I always replace the dome lid with a clean sterilized one, seal side down.

Also see: Clean Karo Tek : Karo Tek Story : Carmelized Karo : Liquid Culture Lids : Honey Tek : Pure Culture

Nan

By Pierno Fuller (Pierno) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 07:07 am:

Hello I read the Honey Tek and it sounds interesting...yet I am not sure I understand it completley.

If you have one spore print--is it for the purpose of making more usable syringes?

If so, doesnt this decrease the number of spores in each syringe?

I f I am completley wrong..please fill me in on this exactly. Thank you.

By Nanook of the North (Nanook) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 01:02 pm:

Honey/dextrose tek is a way to produce lots of storable inoculum. A single Spore Syringe can produce dozens and dozens of mycelial syringes for shooting jars. Properly done, one spore syringe will grow enough honey or dextrose inoculum to shoot hundreds and hundreds of jars in just a few days. It's worth the wait.

The tek is very easy. You take a pint or half pint jar, fill about halfway with Clean Water, add a bit of honey or dextrose. I prefer dextrose, AKA corn sugar, because the solution is crystal clear. Dextrose is cheap, and easy to get from any home brewing supply... Or www.Ebrew.com, Additives They also carry Lime & Gypsum on this page.

A quick recipe: one teaspoon dextrose in 75 ml purified water... or 1-1/4 teaspoons dextrose in 100 ml water

Anyway, you Sterilize the jar with the honey or dextrose solution, cool, then shoot with about 1 cc of spores. You can also scrape a tiny bit of a print directly into these jars to start spores, or inoculate them by dropping or injecting a sample of macerated tissue removed from a shroom to produce Clone Inoculum.

Once the jar is inoculated it is sealed, Incubate, just like a Jar for 5-7 days at 87*F... Wahlah... You have 75+ ccs of mycelial solution. Open the jar, draw up mycelial solution into a Sterile Syringe, shoot PF jars, shoot whatever else you want: rye, whole rice, birdseed...

It's cheap, easy, fast and I see no need to shoot jars with spores any more. I inoculate a dextrose jar, wait 7-10 days, and shoot with mycelial syringes. Do smaller batches, shoot more spores... they go faster.

Liquid cultures of mycelia is storable... Pop it in the fridge it is good for many months. Sugar solutions are designed to run fast... Not last long. All you want is a quick few days in the incubator, then fragment the mycelia and shoot it. We are just growing out enough to increase the inoculum volume by a factor of 75-100. Then divide and shoot it ASAP. The inoculum takes 24 hours to recover in PF jars, looking just like a spore inoculation does at 5-7 days...

It is even more pronounced shooting liquid culture into 9er Tek jars. 9er Tek jars do not soak up liquid like PF substrate does because that have no verm. The liquid inoculum runs all over the place, down the glass, percolating through rice grains like balls in a pachinko (spel?) machine.

And since I am rambling... Karna's Tek provides more nutrients for inoculum that is not quickly shot and stored. Pure sugars have no endurance. They will fire up a quick germination and "puff" of mycelial growth. They will stall with age...Giv'm the western show early. Draw & Shoot Buckeye

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