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Fenris

Methode Champignon

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Here is a method I have been working on which is a kind of crossover between the standard jars and mycobags. Its really inexpensive and the only problem is what to do with all that spawn.

Firstly get a plastic container like the one shown. It needs to have the number 5 in the triangle on the bottom which indicates what type of plastic it is. The type 5 plastic is autoclave safe :)

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Cut the container in half or a bit less, all you really need is the lid and top of container which is pretty obvious from the pictures to follow.

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Get some large oven bags, a pack of 4 costs less than $5 from the local IGA and double bag them for strength. Put the top of the bags through the inside of the container and fold over the lip and attach lid and there you have the basics.

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and then

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Some holes will need to be made in the lid for breathing. The better gas exchange you get the better the colonisation towards the end will be. I had experimented with also adding an injection port on the lid but gave the idea up as it was easy enough to inoculate by unscrewing the lid for a few seconds in a clean kitchen.

I initially used tyvek and some super glue which works fine but the tyvek didn't give the gas exchange I wanted and the colonisation seemed to slow down a lot and almost stop. At that point I removed the lid altogether and colonisation took off again at a fast pace, fortunately the bag was colonised to the point that nothing else wanted to grow other than the mycelium.

The next trial is using micropore tape instead of tyvek however I think 2 layers of micropore might be needed to stop any ingress of bacteria.

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and finally the whole bag.

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When filling with grain or whatever, the lid and collar should be removed first and fitted after the substrate has been added to the bag.

A half full bag of hydrated substrate can weigh up to a couple of kg's. I recommend using liquid culture as the colonisation times are much faster, I use a minimum of 5ml per bag, 10 if I have a large syringe. The bag should be kneaded once colonisation has started to break up the clumps and spread the love throughout the whole bag. You can get colonisation times similar to other tek's that use 1/4 the substrate.

PB020045.jpg

With all that spawn it almost seems a waste not to bulk it up further :devil: so I recommend mixing it 50/50 with pasteurised horse manure.

Now with 3kg of spawn the only question is where to put it, I used a styrofoam eski like container which was just small enough to fit in my 80L fruiting chamber.

PB020046.jpg

Don't forget to case the substrate, it does make a difference.

Constructive criticisms will be gladly taken on board. If you think something will work better I would love to hear.

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Brilliant, my friend.

The collar is genius.

i agree with fenris that collar is great

would love to see ur fruiting chamber as well and its mechanisms.

thanks for sharing fenris.

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The fruiting chamber I used in that picture wasn't particularly inventive. I used an 80L storage container and filled the bottom 3 inches with perlite which I soaked with as much water as it would take without pooling. The lid comes off daily to check progress and the whole lot lives in the shed as it always stays pretty warm in there. Other friuting chambers consist of an eski or various buckets but with those I haven't used any perlite, just a bit of cling wrap to keep in the moisture.

Its all low maintenance, low budget.

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what do u use for gas exchange, just a fan once a day when u check progress?

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love it fenris. once i have enough myc in the LC, i will experiment with this one and report back with results, using micropore tape instead of tyvek. thanks for sharing.

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it is indeed gold fenris :wub:

im gonna use this tek for producing sclerotia instead of buying exy spawnbags!

what cant these westraliens do??

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I'm trying this with a take away food container collar - snap, instead of screw lid (number 5 plastic - thanks for that!). I'll let you know how it goes.

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Who has used this technique without contamination?

This tek looks to beat the shit outta standard pvc pipe collars with poly fill...

Foaf has just never seen them sucessfully colonise before contams set in.

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use more innoc

pc longer, largeramounts require longer time.

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Liquid culture works best. In a draft free, clean kitchen I was getting 80% success without going overboard on the cleanliness and sterile technique.

It worked best when I inoculated and left it until there was 10-20% mycelium then break up the contents to spread the love around in the bag.

3 layers of micropore seems to work well over the breather. I really should try the pollyfil some time to see how it goes.

This method is great for sclerota forming cultures, inoculate and forget.

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Update: I've been doing this with "take away food" containers. You know the round plastic ones you get from the local Chinese take away. The lids are snap on instead of screw on. I'm using micropore tape over the holes instead of polyfill (it's just easier for me).

I can report both clean spawn and infected spawn, but I don't attribute the infections to the tek. And I have to say for ease of use this tek shits all over jars. Yay! :wub:

(edit: typos)

Edited by cycle

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:)

I have been giving a few 1 on 1 tutorials to friends using this technique and one of them modified the tek with good results. I had been opening the lid to inoculate, my friend didn't want to do that so he inoculated through the micropore tape with great success.

He cleaned the breather hole with 70% alcohol and injected through that, covering the puncture mark with another layer of micropore tape and it worked well for him. And all without a glove box.

I will be trying that next, I think that could be best yet.

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Well done Fenris. Great thinkin' :wink:

Some things I learnt to be important with this tek I'd like to share as I learnt the hard way :slap:

 

  • definitely double the bags.

 

  • Put something between the bottom of the PC and the bags. I melted several bag slightly making a small hole in the bags. There was enough water in the PC but it must have been too hot. I don't have a rack so I use a tea towel folded over to buffer the heat

 

  • Seems common sense, but make sure that the edges of the fruit containers are smoothed. I was majorly pissed several times after PCing and then splitting the bags with a silly sharp edge :slap:

 

  • 3 layers of micropore tape was too much for me. Maybe my holes were too small ??? There wasn't enough breathing goin' on I went to one layer plus an alcohol wipe every day

 

Hope this helps someone :P

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Inoculating my first two bags tonight. Will try the three tape thing first up i guess.

How do you know there is not enough air transfer? Does the bag just swell up?

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Inoculating my first two bags tonight. Will try the three tape thing first up i guess.

How do you know there is not enough air transfer? Does the bag just swell up?

yes, and nothing grew for over 5-6 weeks so I threw it away.

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yo yo crew,

i used oven bag method in a small 'clean' space and innoculated through the micropore (three layers, with the punctured mircopore then being covered with another two layers). Awesome results. Bags are going nutso. The myc is spreading thick, firm and wild. Took some advice from a friend and tripled the culture added and i think this is helping keep the myc's momentum.

Having a bag from near on a month and a half ago, that a friend gave to me to start me off, my new bags are totally ahead of the old bag - mind you the old bag is now showing promising signs, i still hold hope for it. ( i really want to print that strain). Im totally thinking that the amount used to kick start the bags should be increased depending on the mass of the substrate, makes sense i guess.

fingers crossed i can nail the next stage and produce some decent fruit.

:lol:

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Well done Fenris. Great thinkin' :wink:

Some things I learnt to be important with this tek I'd like to share as I learnt the hard way :slap:

 

  • definitely double the bags.

     

 

  • Put something between the bottom of the PC and the bags. I melted several bag slightly making a small hole in the bags. There was enough water in the PC but it must have been too hot. I don't have a rack so I use a tea towel folded over to buffer the heat

     

 

  • Seems common sense, but make sure that the edges of the fruit containers are smoothed. I was majorly pissed several times after PCing and then splitting the bags with a silly sharp edge :slap:

     

 

  • 3 layers of micropore tape was too much for me. Maybe my holes were too small ??? There wasn't enough breathing goin' on I went to one layer plus an alcohol wipe every day

     

 

Hope this helps someone :P

Oh and thanks educate.

I should mention that i also made my breathing holes quite big, making the holes only about 4mm short in diameter of the width of the tape. giving about 2-3 mm of purchase for the tape on the closest edge of the tape at any point.

Good advice from all. thanks peeps. I guess this is why the forum exists.

:wink:

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So the standard 3M chemist micropore tape is PC safe then?

I tried this with coke bottle tops and polyfill...ah the polyfill got wet and that was that!

Top idea man B)

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So the standard 3M chemist micropore tape is PC safe then?

I tried this with coke bottle tops and polyfill...ah the polyfill got wet and that was that!

Top idea man B)

yah yah.. thats the one i used. Just make sure the tape doesn't get wet though. I had to re-cook a bag because the water level was too high in the PC and a bag i had at the bottom had tape peeling off - the condensation was a little too much that close to the water level i guess, or maybe the boiling water splashed onto it (more likely).

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. Sorry kids. please remove mods.

Edited by shruman

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