Wienerwoods' Microscopy Adventure

[bubblekarma]

Nice bro! Really nice, in fact! Good job going for the dunk before fruiting! That will re moisten the mycelium and grab you better results. Actually if I recall you're doing the dunk and rollin in dry verm, yeah? Sweet! I'm not planning on dunking or rollin, though I still have 2 weeks or so til I'm ready for fruiting so I could change my mind.

That's way cool to think they are ready for fruiting as you got a few pins coming out. Were you keeping them in the dark? I kinda don't want to see pins until they are in the fruiting chamber, but if I suddenly see a pin or 2 I guess I'll know they are ready to go.

This is awesome, though! Great update!

 

[Wienerwoods]

Nice bro! Really nice, in fact! Good job going for the dunk before fruiting! That will re moisten the mycelium and grab you better results. Actually if I recall you're doing the dunk and rollin in dry verm, yeah? Sweet! I'm not planning on dunking or rollin, though I still have 2 weeks or so til I'm ready for fruiting so I could change my mind.

That's way cool to think they are ready for fruiting as you got a few pins coming out. Were you keeping them in the dark? I kinda don't want to see pins until they are in the fruiting chamber, but if I suddenly see a pin or 2 I guess I'll know they are ready to go.

This is awesome, though! Great update!

Thanks! I would have preferred to consolidate & move all of them in the FC before any of them start pinning but it is how it is and... make lemonade and stuff.

Is there any particular reason why you don't want to dunk & roll? From what I've understood it brings drastic results for just a little extra money and effort.

Anyway, I was just rinsing the perlite, ended up filling it up to 5.5". I had reserved enough perlite for over 6" but this way I can use the leftovers for growing weed. The stuff is pretty expensive around here, 1€/l and it still has what looks like mouse shit and all kinds of discolorations in it. I won't bother baking 20 liters in the oven either because, well, it would take forever and electricity costs a bunch too, so

I hope it's not mouse shit...

Gonna snap a few pics of the terrarium with the cakes in it later tonight.

Oh, and the cakes have been receiving some ambient light under a bed and surrounded by boxes and other stuff, but very little.

 

[Wienerwoods]

Some pics of the finished terrarium and cakes in their natural habitat. The flashlight is just there so the inside can be seen better.





I was trying to be super careful not to stunt the remaining pins so the vermiculite didn't stick very well at all. I'm hoping to make up for that some with the little piles of extra vermiculite on top if I spray the shit out of them every now and then.

 

[bubblekarma]

Is there any particular reason why you don't want to dunk & roll? From what I've understood it brings drastic results for just a little extra money and effort.

Well I've heard that it can increase your first flush, but also that is stalls pinning for several days. I'm not too concerned with getting a huge or heavy flush but I'd prefer to have them sooner rather than later - for my first grow. After this if I like what I get I will want to experiment and maximize. Call this a test run for new hands on experiments to come. However, I will be dunking after the first flush to see if I can get 1 or 2 more subsequent flushes out of the cakes.

The FC looks great man!

 

[Wienerwoods]

Player 3 has entered the game

Yet another cake started pinning last night. I spotted this one early so I think I can properly roll this time. I learned I shouldn't roll at all if there are pins because the sharp vermiculite easily causes aborts, but a lot of the pins on the first few cakes survived when I did it carefully. The rest had grown in the dry verm filter so tbh they had to go anyway.

The funny thing is, I didn't even consider this cake 100% colonized yet as there's still a tiny uncolonized speck on the bottom. It was so small I saw no point in even trying to remove it and I'll be damned if it becomes contaminated (if it isn't already). I'll have to observe it closely.

 

[Wienerwoods]

Mushroom porn time! These little guys are all over the oldest cake. Newer ones seem reluctant to pin which is kind of a dick move on their part...











Also, I found a pretty interesting way to dunk individual cakes. You take the pot filled with water and a transparent tupperware container small enough to flip over while submerged but big enough to accommodate the cake. When it's upside down and completely full of water, pop the cake under it and the whole thing floats to the surface. Even if you move the dunking container around, the cake will stay submerged and as a nice bonus you can observe the amount of water absorbed by the cake by looking at the air pocket that forms in the smaller container.

Here's a shitty illustration I whipped up using paint

 

[Wienerwoods]

So this just happened



EDIT: Picked the biggest one (that one on the left) and it weighed 4.2g... I'll pick the one that dropped spores when the whole cluster is more mature, tomorrow or the day after that.

EDIT 2: And they were picked this morning (four lowest ones on the right). Got another 10.5g fresh

 

[Wienerwoods]

Spotted my 4th cake to grow pins inside the glass... Don't these shrooms have any dignity?



I took my trusty scalpel and carefully carved out all the uncolonized stuff





Also, the two other cakes in the terrarium have started pinning. Good for them, good for me.

 

[bubblekarma]

Damn bro very nice indeed!

 

[Wienerwoods]

Harvested another 21 grams total this morning with the biggest shroom weighing 7.8g. I should now have enough for one experience, and that's just majority of the first flush off one of the smaller (2 dl) cakes.

EDIT: Another harvest tonight for 9.4g - the flush is pretty much over now, a few aborts and one pin that might grow remain.
Flush total yield 45 grams fresh. Not bad! I'll probably be erm... studying these mushrooms in a week or two.