I have been growing some mushys and the guide i was using said it'll aroun 3 weeks in perfect conditions 6 weeks in not so perfect. I kept the mushrroms in the garadge were the temp ranged from 78-88* in darkness, they have clonized some but only 1/3 of the jars are done....did they all die or does it just take along time to get ready for fruiting? I check them 1-2 a week.
Not all of them will colonize at the same time. I assume you inoculated with spores, in which case, 3-6 weeks sounds pretty normal. 78-88 degrees should be fine. Patience is key, but if you see no visible signs of contamination and they stop altogether (maybe wait a week and see if there is no growth at all), then it is most likely bacterial contamination. However, it sounds like you're just anticipating mushrooms, which makes it seem like they've stopped when they really haven't. Wait and see; they'll probably be fine.
This always happens when you first grow, but 99% of the time, it's impatience. Don't feel bad, I was the same way my first time.
88 is too hot, i had some that hit 90F and they died at that temp. 86F is about as high as you want to go although Ive read keep it a tad cooler as the jars can heat up and make the Mycellium hotter than 86. I have jars that Ive been keeping at 80-86 and they take 2-3 weeks tops to colonize. I use whole brown rice in my jars.
i have 10 in the garage that range 78-88, and 2 inside the range 77-76. I took one of the jars and started fruiting it, it's not fully colonised but i wanted ot know if they might be dead or not...the parts that took are making pin heads, so they aren't dead...well time to play the waitting game some more then, not much i can do...oh i loosened the lids a bunch more cause i heard that freash air speed them up alot.
There is a 99% chance it's gonna get contaminated. During fruiting, yes. What you've done here is given contaminates more room to get in. I would expect your mushrooms not to survive. Sorry, I wish I could give better news. It sounds to me like you just read something like the PF tek and went from there. Try looking up more on the life cycle and needs of mushrooms instead of a step-by-step guide. You'll be amazed at what you find.
i'm growing golden teachers. oh i didn't mean taking the lids off lol, the tin foil is on ect and i just loosened them a half turn. The one i started fruiting early i have little to no hope for, but it showed pin heads and that is all i wanted to know. but i'm not going to throw it out till have i see/smell contamination. Although it seams the the growth speed up alot...might be mold, i'm going to wait see if i see pin hear out of the new growth or bruis it lightly and see how that goes. keep in mind i'm not expecting anything from this cake.
Dude, go tighten those lids back up. Seriously. It doesn't take much room for a spore to get in and that's all it takes. Colonization doesn't require air exchange. I would do the same, but don't get your hopes up too high. There's a very, very high chance that it'll mold.
