First Time PF Tek - Ecuador (fruiting) GT (colonizing)

At first I was going to start this journal just for my recently inoculated Golden Teacher (GT) jars, but since there won't be much to see with them for the next few weeks, I thought I'd throw the Ecuadors in too since I just moved them to the terrarium a few days ago.

Just to get everyone attention, let's start with the Ecuadors. Knocked up 8 half pint jars following the standard PF Tek recipe on 11/25 after sterilizing the jars the night before. They colonized much faster than I had expected and by 12/13 most of the jars were ready to birth since they were completely white with mycelium for about a week. For anyone new to this (like I am), it is recommended that once the jars are completely colonized, wait one more week before birthing the jars, so for the most part that's what I did. After about a 12 hour dunk, they've been in the terrarium ever since and I'm eagerly awaiting my first fruit.

I'll get into more detail about the grow tomorrow. Pretty much following the standard PF Tek procedure concerning humidity, fanning, misting, etc.

The Golden Teacher jars were just inoculated on 12/15, so we'll get to them as soon as something starts happening. I checked them this morning and there isn't really much to see. Just a few fuzzy dots on a couple of the jars near the injection sites.

sonar said:

At first I was going to start this journal just for my recently inoculated Golden Teacher (GT) jars, but since there won't be much to see with them for the next few weeks, I thought I'd throw the Ecuadors in too since I just moved them to the terrarium a few days ago.

Just to get everyone attention, let's start with the Ecuadors. Knocked up 8 half pint jars following the standard PF Tek recipe on 11/25 after sterilizing the jars the night before. They colonized much faster than I had expected and by 12/13 most of the jars were ready to birth since they were completely white with mycelium for about a week. For anyone new to this (like I am), it is recommended that once the jars are completely colonized, wait one more week before birthing the jars, so for the most part that's what I did. After about a 12 hour dunk, they've been in the terrarium ever since and I'm eagerly awaiting my first fruit.

I'll get into more detail about the grow tomorrow. Pretty much following the standard PF Tek procedure concerning humidity, fanning, misting, etc.

The Golden Teacher jars were just inoculated on 12/15, so we'll get to them as soon as something starts happening. I checked them this morning and there isn't really much to see. Just a few fuzzy dots on a couple of the jars near the injection sites.

Click to expand...

Man bro, those look great! You've got the cleanest looking terrarium I have ever seen PF-cakes in! That's good.

I noticed that you didn't roll the cakes in wet vermiculite, or use a technique that works well called DECing (Double-End Casing)?

If you get bored, and wanna see some improved results for a test case, try mixing a water/vermiculite paste together, and cover the top and bottom of the cake(s) with the slurry.

Watch in a few days after that, you'll notice mycelium spreading, knotting, and eventually big-time pinning from both the tops and bottom.

I know it sounds a little messy, and it is, but just keep using those aluminum foil squares, and that'll keep things clean.

Vermiculite is a non-organic substance that won't bio-degrade or be a haven for molds/bacteria. That's a major reason why it works so well for psilocybes.

Boomers love that moisture....in a controlled manner like this at least.



Those bumps on the sides are the early signs pinning is near!!!!

Cool man thanks for stopping by! Yeah I was getting a little concerned that those bumps haven't really changed much in a few days. Well, not so much concerned, kinda just wondering what was going on really. Not sure how accurate this is, but I remember reading somewhere that in general, if they colonize fast that they tend to fruit a little slower.

I forgot to mention I washed the perlite before putting it in and let it drain well. I try not to mess with it much or even breath over it when I fan and mist.

Yeah I remember reading about rolling and doing the DEC. Not sure why I didn't roll. I think I was worried about contams. After the first flush when I dunk them again I'll definitely try it.
I still have a little verm left so maybe I'll try the DEC tek on at least a few of them tonight.

I'm going to throw up the Golden Teachers as soon as something significant starts to happen. I'm still a little mad at myself I was a little careless when I made the jars. I know it's not an exact science, but I think I made a few of the jars a little to wet and/or packed the mix in a little too tight. Oh well, hopefully I'm just overreacting.

Double end casing is a must! I'd highly suggest on the second flush you do so... you should see the difference. Can't wait to see those babies flush

OK guys quick update. It's pretty late so no pics, but I'll get some up first thing in the morning.

So I come home tonight and look in my terrarium and think "hmm, why the hell is that cake lopsided." I turn it around and see a brown cap sticking out the side on the very bottom. Decided to gently flip the cake over to see what was going on under there and there were at least a dozen primordia growing on the underside of the cake! When I birth the jars, I flipped them. So the top, where the dry verm layer was, became the bottom.

Not sure if this is good to do or not, but I ended up flipping all the cakes back over since a quick peek showed they all had mushrooms growing flat against the bottom. I guess they would have eventually grown out the side and up, but it's a little moist down there and I didn't want to risk losing them. Is that typical for them to grow out of the bottom like that where the dry verm layer was?

The pics.

Thought I'd post a quick update before I went out and did my thing for the night.

Things are progressing very rapidly. After almost a week and a half of nothing, BAM, mushies everywhere!

I can't believe how much they are throwing off. Like I said the other night, I saw one poking out from underneath, so I flipped all the cakes. Guess it really didn't matter because now they are growing out both ends. I'm now a firm believer in dunking and DEC. Out of 8 cakes I dunked 7 and double ended cased 2. The one I DIDN'T dunk and one that DID get dunked got the DEC. The one that got the dunk and case doesn't necessarily have the most, but it does have the biggest and most healthy looking fruits. It was also the first one to grow fruit on the top (bottom in the jar).

So by the way it looks now I'll probably have a few that are ready by tomorrow. This isn't about getting the most weight and making money, so I'm probably going to pick them right as the veil is tearing since I hear this is when they are most potent and cause the least amount of stomach irritation. Here's the whole terrarium and a few of the best cakes. You can't really see in the pics since they are more of a top view, but most of these cakes have mushrooms poking out the bottom too.

wow nice man how many ounces did you get when it was all done and how long did it take for them to be done

dude this is still in the process hahaha
he isnt done yet

hell yeah sir!
the double ending casing really helps huh?

i did the same thing as you and did both so i could see how much it helpps.
check out my grow log and see the brilliant pinset on what the double ended casing layer does...

Thanks for stopping in guys. Yup this is still the first flush. I have 3 separate batches going at the moment. The first Ecuadors, which are the ones fruiting. Second are 10 jars of Golden Teacher I started about a week and a half ago. I'll post an update about them soon. The GT started off a little slow, but have really picked up the pace over the last few days. Think I mentioned this before, but I may have packed a few too tight and/or made the mix a little too wet. We'll see what happens. I have a feeling a couple of them might not colonize completely. Third, is another batch of 10 Ecuadors I inoculated a few days ago. So far, I'm really happy with the syringes from spore works, especially the Ecuador. I kept the temp in the 80's and the first batch of Ecuadors were fully colonized in 16 days I think it was. Gave them another 5-7 days to consolidate and they've been in the FC for about a week and a half now. So, I went from spores to where I'm at now in exactly 30 days.

Yeah the double ended case (DEC) is the way to go I think. It's a little messy, but I don't think it's as messy as rolling. I'm not sure if ppl bake the verm before rolling or DEC, but I put water in the verm and microwaved it for about a minute to kill as much of the microorganisms as possible. It actually sucked up most of the water and expanded almost to the consistency of oatmeal. So from now on I'm probably going to do the 12 hr dunk, then DEC. I guess technically I only single ended cased this time, but I'm certain it helped. Seems like they follow the water. I think that's why they originally pinned at the bottom. It's a lot more moist down there. I have 20 more jars in the works, so I'll probably experiment a little. But for this first batch I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

I'm subbed. X-mas presents on the way from microtech. I can't wait!!

micro supply is the shit!!!!
=]

cept i wish their spores colonized faster...

im learning how to make my own syringes....its so easy once you get pass the sterilization.

cakes colonize 2-3 times faster if you make your own spore syringes from fresh spore prints.

im getting rid of my tall 1/2 pint jars...the wide mouth with no lip is what its all about.
thing is.....i have looked at ace hardware, walmart and kmart for these jars....no luck.

can anyone help me find these fuckers?

HeatlessBBQ said:

micro supply is the shit!!!!
=]

cept i wish their spores colonized faster...

im learning how to make my own syringes....its so easy once you get pass the sterilization.

cakes colonize 2-3 times faster if you make your own spore syringes from fresh spore prints.

im getting rid of my tall 1/2 pint jars...the wide mouth with no lip is what its all about.
thing is.....i have looked at ace hardware, walmart and kmart for these jars....no luck.

can anyone help me find these fuckers?

Click to expand...

Here are the ones I use. Kerr 8oz Wide Mouth
They are the short ones. They colonize fairly quickly and I had no problem at all getting the cakes out. I use the free shipping to the store and there are there in about a week.

thank you sir =]
+rep

HeatlessBBQ said:

thank you sir =]
+rep

Click to expand...

NP. I got the verm there too since it's hard to find around here this time of year.

Plantation Vermiculite

Thought I'd try out my new camera with some shots of my cakes. The first few are macros of some of my ecuadors. The bruising is due to picking some of the ones that were about ready. My friend and I each ate about 15-20g fresh last night. I know that's not a lot, but I just wanted to test the waters a little to get an idea of their potency. The experience was pretty mild, although enjoyable. She was pretty happy, although she said a little bit more would have done her better. For me, next time I think I'm going to want to eat at least 30-40g wet to reach the level I'm looking for. Usually I feel like complete crap the following day, but with a good nights rest I feel pretty good today.

The last couple are of my best Golden Teacher jars. Not too much to see really. They are 12 days old I believe and most are about 50% colonized. They are having somewhat of a hard time colonizing the bottoms where the mix is packed a little too tightly, but I think for the most part they will be ok. So far, no signs of contamination on any of the 28 cakes I made (8 fruiting, 20 colonizing). Only time will tell.

The 3rd batch is almost a week old and looking pretty good as well. I'd say 3/4 of the injections points show germination about the size of a quarter. I still have two syringes left, so after this is all said and done I might try a small bulk. I figure by then it's going to be about time to start my outdoor grow for the year, so mushies are probably going to have to go on hold for awhile. At some point, I think I'm going to make some spore prints of both the Ecuador and the Golden Teacher so in the future I don't have to keep buying syringes. They really aren't THAT expensive, but I like the idea of being self sufficient and being able to store prints a lot longer than premade syringes.

Awesome!! I can't believe how many mushroom lovers are finishing around now.

Ecuador!!!!!

Just got done with a 24 hr dunk and rolled last night. Already starting to see some pinning from a couple of the cakes. First flush was a little weak in both yield and potency, so looking for some better results with the longer dunk and the verm roll.

GT cakes have just about finished the sides and working on the bottoms. I think I cracked the first cakes a little too soon since they sat the the terrarium for over a week before seeing any pinning, so I'm going to be a little more patient with this run. The only problem is, I don't think I'll be done with the first round by the time the GT are ready. Don't really have much more room, so 'm going to have to figure something out by then.