First BRF cakes are fruiting!

[low_and_slow]

I lost track of the timeline, but I'd say I 'noc'ed these about 7 weeks ago, been in the SGFC for almost 2...slow to pin, but things are blowing UP! They're in that phase now where all I need to do is keep my SGFC above 80% RH and I think my first flush will be "robust". This is my first attempt at Cubes, really excited to have a stash for Halloween, that's the perfect time to bundle up in some comfy outdoor clothes, go find a spot in the state park, and just get well in peace

These are "ecuadorian" stock:

 

[MrMcbud]

awesome,my first attempt failed due to contam,but will be trying again soon

 

[low_and_slow]

Yeah, I'm still watching things like a hawk, disinfected my spray bottle this morning. I'm fully expecting to get contam on my 2nd flush, I'm being careful but don't really have a "clean room" to work in, so I'm sure mold spores are floating around everywhere. My glove box is super ghetto also...

 

[Mr Piggy]

awesome job LaS! That's a great pin set for your first run, bravo and rep sent!

Just make sure to mist and fan every time you remember!

 

[low_and_slow]

Appreciate it piggy, I think the pile of sterile wet verm on top helped a lot!

 

[low_and_slow]

Harvested 9 g, cracker dry, off 2 cakes...I saw just the tiniest blue mold on one cake so pulled the plug on the whole operation, scoured each fruit with my 30x loupe for contam, everything looked good, so I fan dried and then set her on a wire rack in an air-tight tupperware over a pile of dessicant. Worked great, 36 hours later and they're ready for a mason jar + silica packs.

I cleaned everything with bleach and birthed/dunked my other 2 cakes. We'll see how round 2 goes...would have like to get a second flush from the first cakes, but contam is an instant deal breaker, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

 

[Ratatoskr]

Harvested 9 g, cracker dry, off 2 cakes...I saw just the tiniest blue mold on one cake so pulled the plug on the whole operation, scoured each fruit with my 30x loupe for contam, everything looked good, so I fan dried and then set her on a wire rack in an air-tight tupperware over a pile of dessicant. Worked great, 36 hours later and they're ready for a mason jar + silica packs.

I cleaned everything with bleach and birthed/dunked my other 2 cakes. We'll see how round 2 goes...would have like to get a second flush from the first cakes, but contam is an instant deal breaker, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

Are you sure it was mold? Sometimes the cakes can bruise blue when handled rough or when harvested, but that's not mold, it's just a normal reacttion some mushrooms have to being handled. The most common contams for home mushrooms are trich, which is green, and spiderweb, which looks like quickly-spreading cotton balls and smells sour. There's also lipstick mold, but thats less common and looks like spreading red lipstick. There are many others, but you're not doing bulk in an outhouse so they're not likely to be much of a concern . Props for being so quick to take care of it regardless, you'll have lots of fun growing if you always pay that kind of attention.

 

[evol]

Nice!

 

[low_and_slow]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this was Trichoderma...looked like good old fashioned blue green bread mold. I have 2 more fresh, un-"rolled" cakes in the shotgun chamber right now...if I see some contam on these I'll probably try addressing those with some battle-powder (Baking Powder + Iodized salt crushed up in a coffee grinder). Apparently this can be a suitable stop-gap for minor contam, but again, contam is NEVER the goal, it's disgusting to eat, and will be a total show stopper if I see any growth on the fruiting parts of the mycelium. A little bit on some of the non-fruiting parts during the last day won't really worry me, but if it's there to a degree where it's visible, I have to assume it's everywhere but not showing the greenish spores yet (trich mycelium are white like PC's).

Either way, this recent crop was breaking veils anyway, so in the interest of taste/potency, I just cropped out and will probably have 6 very legit level 2 trips from this harvest. Hopefully I get somewhere near that on round two, maybe even a 2nd flush or two...this was a test run for me to figure out what the hell I need to do better next time, that's how it was with canna and I had no other expectations with PC's. I'll probably do an after-action report once I'm all done with this round and re-design my setup to maximize cleanliness and address any perceived shortcomings.

I'm also not looking to start a perpetual mushroom grow...I could probably make a fortune selling them to a small group of friends, but I LOOOOOOOVE mushrooms and having ounces around would lead me down a dangerous path. Getting a nice harvest once or twice a year is plenty since I believe they're best used once every 2-3 months in a serious, well planned out trip...chronic use is a big no-no with serious hallucinogens, at least in my book.

 

[Ratatoskr]

Good call, then. Do you grow MJ with coir? If so, you run the risk of having a much higher trich count in your environment already. I love seeing the results coir can give, but I love my mushrooms more, so I stay away. Is there a reason you didn't roll these cakes? It should still fruit fine, but without the extra source of water a casing provides it's just likely to be a smaller flush. Straight verm doesn't contam easily, FWIW. And good idea being cautious with the dosing, that's a lesson every tripper I know (including myself) had to learn the hard way.