Colonization Time and Temperature Question

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Incubation Info  -    
How long does it take to get fruit?  -    

By QuiDDity (Quiddity) on Monday, February 04, 2002 - 02:32 am:

First, i have 10 pf jars. They were inoculated a little over a month ago 2 are fully colonized and ready for birth but the remaining ones are really not even close some are only like 70-75% colonized. This seems like a long time for colonization. Seeing that i just innoculated some H's 6 days ago and some are ahead of the first pfs. Next how hot is too hot for incubation and for fruiting?

By Martaxus (Martaxus) on Monday, February 04, 2002 - 07:38 am:

The ideal temp for incubation is 85F, fruiting 75F.

By Ron (Clubbenguy) on Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 04:47 am:

There may be halted growth due to lack of oxygen. If you have a dry verm barrier on the top of your jars, you should go ahead and uncover the tape from some of your holes, and tip the jar over once or twice. The cake will push the CO2 out and suck fresh oxygen back in. (Make sure the air it sucks back in is sterile (you know the drill lysol, hands clean....etc. This gave my jars a boost when i started doing it.

By Brettiejams (Brettiejams) on Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 06:47 am:

I don't know if sloshing your cakes around in the jar is the greatest idea. It really isn't neccessary to do that to get some air exchange.

Just turn the jar over with the holes untaped. The heavier co2 will slowly seep out and be displaced by oxygen, as long as you keep your incubator fanned out.

By Ron (Clubbenguy) on Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 08:11 am:

The idea I was going for exactly brettie.

By Ren (Mushroomstu) on Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 10:13 pm:

I'm testing a theory. I have 2 hawaiian jars nearly fully colonized (the sides are fully covered but the bottom isn't). I am keeping them at 70 degrees with decent growth. I flipped them and lightly packed it down today, so now there is about 1/2 cm between the bottom of the jar and the uncolonized substrate. I'm thinking this increased air flow would help the mycelium to overtake the cake quicker and more completely. Any thoughts on this?

By plinkerdink420 (Plinkerdink420) on Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 11:21 pm:

might not be too good of an idea, because when the cake falls down in the jar... it could possibly be sucking in contaminants from the outside air... just flipping it will alow for excess carbon dioxide to bleed out

By jim brown (Shrhobbyist) on Thursday, February 07, 2002 - 08:14 am:

Ren, that is how many people do it. Well, the flipping part at least, not the packing down. The cake usually slides down a little on it's own. It does seem to get the mycellium going over the bottom with the added air exchange. If you have a good layer of vermiculite on top of the substrate you can avoid contams. I don't think I have ever gotten the bottom of a healthy jar contaminated after flipping it. And that's how I always do it.