BRF Cakes -- Poor Pinset and Fruiting

[goneski]

Hi All,

I recently made some BRF cakes which were put into a fruiting chamber after dunking and rolling.

After putting 4 cakes into a fruiting chamber, after 3 weeks I only had harvested around 2 - 3 small to average mushrooms per cake.

I then waited a week thinking low temps would be screwing with fruiting. At this stage, the cakes weight 50 - 55g.. I compared this to a newly

birthed and dunked cake which weighed in at 86g.

I figured this was a bad first flush and as a result, I've re-dunked the 4 cakes for 24 hours to bring back up the moisture content and put them back into the shotgun fruiting chamber.

The shotgun fruiting chamber is made 'to spec'.. Holes on all six sides, 2 inches apart. 5 inches of wet perlite (i've experimented with the amount of perlite, from 3 - 5 inches).

I usually mist and fan the enclosure 3 times a day -- once in the morning, once after work, and once before bed time. Sometimes I'll mist 4 - 5 times a day.

I can confirm the humidity is usually 90%+, sometimes dropping to 85%, but not for long periods of time.

I have 2 x 20W 6500K CFLs above the fruiting chamber in an Exo-Terra (reptile) light fitting.

As I followed the PF tek to spec as well (correct ratio of verm, BRF and water), I'm not sure why the cakes have performed so badly. After seeing a lot of pics from other people's

grow logs, I don't understand why I don't even get a decent pin set.

I understand that fresh air exchange, water evaporation and lighting are all major pinning triggers -- I think I've accounted for these in the design of the fruiting chamber, the compact fluoros

running, and my daily misting/fanning routine.

I've also read some people say cakes can be temperamental at times.

Can anyone think of what I may have done wrong? I'm already looking forward to just inoculating some WBS-filled quart jars (wanting to confirm first the WBS I have is fungicide free if I'm going

from a spore print) and just spawning straight to a monotub.

I should also note that the 4 jars thus far (I have another 4 jars I'm waiting on) were left to colonise for 3 weeks. They were left to consolidate for another 7 days, at which point there was pinning

in the jars.

Cheers

[Distracted]

What temperature is the chamber usually?

Some advice for cakes, put a pile of verm directly on top of the cake, water directly into that so that it's dripping wet. As long as it doesn't have standing water for too long the cakes shouldn't mould.

The more attention you give them the better they will be, mist and fan 10 times, 20 times a day, as long as you're doing it right you cannot over baby these things, the more attention you give them the more they'll flourish.

[goneski]

Cheers for the advice.. Temperature was only 12 - 16 C or so.. I've been running an air conditioner in the adjacent room to keep temps around 16C or so for a bit over a week..

Or maybe I should be more patient with the lower temps and (hopefully) get more dense fruits (not sure how true that is) over a longer period of time?

As I re-dunked the cakes, most of the vermiculite fell off.. Do you think it would be okay if I piled vermiculite back on top of these cakes?

I've read you're not supposed to roll after the first flush as it provides a breeding ground for contams between the cake and new layer of moistened vermiculite.

On the 5th cake which was birthed, dunked & rolled last weekend and put into the chamber, I did put a bit of vermiculite on top and moistened it to help.. I figured this was okay for the first flush of a brand

new cake, as contaminants wouldn't be as much of an issue.

As I work 8 hours a day, I wonder if it's worth getting an ultrasonic humidifier to help out, or put a jar of water with a bubble wand and pump attached into the chamber to help out a little..

Sure, I can mist/fan 20 times a day if I wished, but this would only be in the mornings and late afternoon / night.. If I added a bit of automation to it, I could provide a little more consistency throughout the

entirety of the day.

Thanks again.

Edited August 8, 2012 by SYNeR

[Distracted]

drunk after every flush and don't reroll the cakes in verm.

14-16C is very low, they like to fruit round 20C

I put a little pile of verm on top after each dunk, it's simply there as a reservoir of water for the cakes to draw upon when needed. but if there is standing water for more than a hour more FAE is needed.

tbh I stopped doing my mushoom work during winter as it's too costly for power bills... i can stand living in a 15C house but i found growing mushrooms in that temp was unbearable.

[Sallubrious]

Maybe the temps were a bit low, but sometimes they do that in warmer weather too. So who knows, it could have been a contamination that went unnoticed or just a temperamental strain.

The light isn't really necessary, they can fruit in a room that only ever gets light when you are in there.

If you are doing jars, you don't really need to let them consolidate like a cake.

Just give them 1 day after they look 100% and then shake them to break the grains up, then let them recover for 12-24 hours for the myc. to recover so when you spawn to bulk the myc. isn't still shellshocked from the bashing it gets when you shake it.

I'd be tempted to spawn the 4 jars that are ready to a pie tin or suitable size container and do the same later when the others are ready.

Often slow jars are contaminated, quick is good. the others might never colonise so make the most of what you have. Mini bulks are excellent until you get it all sorted and if one goes bad you don't lose the whole tub.

[goneski]

Thanks very much again for the replies..

I'll bake some vermiculite and put a pile on my cakes to see if that helps.

And you're right about spawning to bulk -- at this stage i'm very tempted to break up the remaining jars into bulk substrate in either trays or a small monotub..

[OPP]

Hmmmmm, If you followed all the teks correctly you should have better results than that.

Just a few things that I've read....

Were the cakes 100% colonised?? Once they look 100% its a good idea to wait an extra week if you have the time to let it consolidate.

Pinning triggers include a combination drop in temperature, introduction of light and humidity at the same time for the best results.

Cakes can be put in the fridge after birthing and before fruiting to encourage pins.

Is your FC elevated off the shelf for airflow? Air needs to flow up through the perlite to create humidity. If the FC is sitting directly on the table it can restrict airflow. Try some blocks under each corner.

The more perlite the better. Minimum 4"

Edited August 8, 2012 by OPP

[Bigred]

i put the box ontop of my fridge it seems to like it there and i have a little airstone and a jug to supply humidity

when im away i have portabelos they dont mind the cool months but im in qld i would sugest finding a strain of

mushroom that enjoys the cooler weather and have your winter and summer crops as same as in your

garden im a noob and thats the fun of it the experiments i spend hours building litle gadgets for my garden

i started a thread tips for noobs so if anyone has any good tips please post them

cheers big red

[goneski]

I thought I'd provide an update..

I laid off the misting a little bit, but kept up the fanning.

It seems this combined with an increase in temps has given me fruits now.

My guess is that the cakes were water logged due to too much misting for such low Winter temps..

One cake especially produced this beautiful little cluster.

Now I'll be letting the cakes sit for a week to dry out.. If they don't fruit again, I know they'll be dry enough to dunk again ready

for the next flush (hopefully).

Thanks again for the help.

[BentoSpawn]

Glad to hear its looking up for you

What did you do to increase then heat ?

[goneski]

Well, initially I used an air conditioner in the same room, but realised how costly that is..

We've had naturally increasing temps here (including a 30 C day last week), so that's it really.

The slight increase in temps and not misting as much (but keeping up with the fanning) seems to have allowed enough water evaporation to trigger pinning.

Edited August 26, 2012 by SYNeR

[Zen Peddler]

BRF is also a pretty shit substrate with very little tryptophan. Its quite easy to swap it for millet.