This thread is going to be totally dedicated to growing mushrooms on PF-Tek style
cakes. Everyone has their own spin on this Tek, but I wrote this up specifically to give good results to people with no experience. I hope this helps many of my friends here at AFN. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me. I will be adding more pictures later as some have disappeared from my original post for some reason. I will also be re-working some parts to make them more user friendly. Enjoy!
Okay, the first thing we need to do is find some suitable canning jars. I Use half pint jars for a couple of reasons. Jars any bigger tend to stall, or just not completely colonize. Reasons for this are that the bigger jars will take longer to colonize giving additional time for contamination to set in. It also lets your jars dry out to an extent. More on this later. We want to use "wide mouth jars". If you use "small mouth" jars you will not be able get your cakes out of the jar when you attempt to birth them.
This is a good jar. Notice how it is even slightly tapered from top to bottom? This will make it easier to slide out the fully colonized cake.
This is the wrong type. You will not be able to slide a cake out of it.
So, after you have your jars you will also need get a few more supplies.
You will Need:
-Brown Rice Flour
This is what I use.
*You can also make it by grinding Brown Rice in a blender or coffee grinder.
- Vermiculite
-Micro-pore tape (medical bandage tape)
*Masking tape will also work in a pinch.
- Aluminum Foil
- Pressure Cooker that reaches 15psi.
*It is possible to steam sterilize, but it is sketchy. For this Tek we will use a pc.
- Latex gloves
- 70% rubbing alcohol.
- Cotton balls
- Lighter
- One clear see through bin.
- Two dark medium sized storage totes.
- Submersible Aquarium heater.
The first thing we will do is set up out incubator.
Take one bin, and fill it with 4-5 inches of water.
Place your submersible aquarium heater in the water, and set it to 80 degrees.
Next place your second bin inside of the first bin with the water in it so that it is floating on the water.
Put a thermometer inside of the dry bin, (I use a digital with an external probe that I put inside of the tub)and then put the lid on.
Leave it sit for 24 hours, and then check the temperature inside the bin. Adjust the heater as necessary to achieve 80 degrees inside of the tub. It is important to get your incubator dialed in before putting your inoculated jars in it. Too cold, and it will take forever for your jars to colonize. Too hot (Above 86 degrees) and you will be inviting contamination. Most contaminants like mold, and bacteria grow at these higher temperatures. Above 100 degrees, and you will begin to kill your mycelium. Above 105, and you will kill your spores. The ideal temperature for your incubator is between 78-82 degrees.
The second thing we will need to do is prepare, and sterilize our sub-straight jars.
First lets make the lids. Take a nail and hammer, and punch four holes into the lids.
Now get out a large mixing bowl and put 5 cups of vermiculite in.
Mix 2 1/4 cups of water into the vermiculite.
Now mix 2 1/4 cups of brown rice flour into the moist vermiculite.
We now have our substraight. This will be enough for about 12 1/2 pint jars.
The next step is to load this into the jars. Fill each jar up to about a half an inch from the top.
[DO NOT PACK THE SUBSTRAIGHT. Light, and fluffy is the idea. LIGHTLY tap the jar to settle the substraight if necesarry.
Fill the last half inch with dry vermiculite. This will act as a barrier to any airborne contaminations that may land on your jar(there are over 6,000.000 per cubic ft of air). This is why sterile technique is so important. It only takes two mold spores to ruin your grow.
Now put the lids on followed by the rings.
cakes. Everyone has their own spin on this Tek, but I wrote this up specifically to give good results to people with no experience. I hope this helps many of my friends here at AFN. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me. I will be adding more pictures later as some have disappeared from my original post for some reason. I will also be re-working some parts to make them more user friendly. Enjoy!
Okay, the first thing we need to do is find some suitable canning jars. I Use half pint jars for a couple of reasons. Jars any bigger tend to stall, or just not completely colonize. Reasons for this are that the bigger jars will take longer to colonize giving additional time for contamination to set in. It also lets your jars dry out to an extent. More on this later. We want to use "wide mouth jars". If you use "small mouth" jars you will not be able get your cakes out of the jar when you attempt to birth them.
This is a good jar. Notice how it is even slightly tapered from top to bottom? This will make it easier to slide out the fully colonized cake.
This is the wrong type. You will not be able to slide a cake out of it.
So, after you have your jars you will also need get a few more supplies.
You will Need:
-Brown Rice Flour
This is what I use.
*You can also make it by grinding Brown Rice in a blender or coffee grinder.
- Vermiculite
-Micro-pore tape (medical bandage tape)
*Masking tape will also work in a pinch.
- Aluminum Foil
- Pressure Cooker that reaches 15psi.
*It is possible to steam sterilize, but it is sketchy. For this Tek we will use a pc.
- Latex gloves
- 70% rubbing alcohol.
- Cotton balls
- Lighter
- One clear see through bin.
- Two dark medium sized storage totes.
- Submersible Aquarium heater.
The first thing we will do is set up out incubator.
Take one bin, and fill it with 4-5 inches of water.
Place your submersible aquarium heater in the water, and set it to 80 degrees.
Next place your second bin inside of the first bin with the water in it so that it is floating on the water.
Put a thermometer inside of the dry bin, (I use a digital with an external probe that I put inside of the tub)and then put the lid on.
Leave it sit for 24 hours, and then check the temperature inside the bin. Adjust the heater as necessary to achieve 80 degrees inside of the tub. It is important to get your incubator dialed in before putting your inoculated jars in it. Too cold, and it will take forever for your jars to colonize. Too hot (Above 86 degrees) and you will be inviting contamination. Most contaminants like mold, and bacteria grow at these higher temperatures. Above 100 degrees, and you will begin to kill your mycelium. Above 105, and you will kill your spores. The ideal temperature for your incubator is between 78-82 degrees.
The second thing we will need to do is prepare, and sterilize our sub-straight jars.
First lets make the lids. Take a nail and hammer, and punch four holes into the lids.
Now get out a large mixing bowl and put 5 cups of vermiculite in.
Mix 2 1/4 cups of water into the vermiculite.
Now mix 2 1/4 cups of brown rice flour into the moist vermiculite.
We now have our substraight. This will be enough for about 12 1/2 pint jars.
The next step is to load this into the jars. Fill each jar up to about a half an inch from the top.
[DO NOT PACK THE SUBSTRAIGHT. Light, and fluffy is the idea. LIGHTLY tap the jar to settle the substraight if necesarry.
Fill the last half inch with dry vermiculite. This will act as a barrier to any airborne contaminations that may land on your jar(there are over 6,000.000 per cubic ft of air). This is why sterile technique is so important. It only takes two mold spores to ruin your grow.
Now put the lids on followed by the rings.
