I have made pf-tek jars twice (regular pot with lid for 3 hours), and using spores from sporestore.com, my grows both failed. No contaminents, nor did I have colonization, and this was checking at 2 weeks. I did the same method both times, different orders of spores, same company. Well this time, I ordered a 5lb growbag from ebay lol.growbag link This time, I ordered a syringe from spores101.com I inoculated the growbag 1 week ago, and no growth is present, nor is mold present. WTF? Did my spores die in my mailbox, or on the way to me? They were only in there for 6 hours. Help me! I am tired of wasting my money on spores.
Spores dont die in the mail dude, I've used 2 year old syringes fine. may be a number of reasons, you may not have high enough moisture content in your cakes, or maybe they aint warm enough, where are you incubating them? if they aren't contamninated try putting them somewhere where you will forget, neglect often causes the mushrooms to grow more. also gotta be careful of the moon. you could also try a different source of spores.
I incubated the first batch in a garbage bag inside a box, with a hot blanket under it. Second batch, g-bag, inside box, inside blanket. Growbag, inside g-bag, inside box, on top shelf of closet. I thought the spores may have died in the mailbox since the summer heat blazing down onto a mailbox, causing the inside of the mailbox to be pretty warm.
I doubt it got hot enough to kill spores in your mailbox but who knows... maybe big brother is watching you, irradiating all your parcels. I'd get away from buying pre-prepared substrates, they're easy to make yourself, also spore to bag isn't that great, better to inoculate bags with an LC. keep trying with the pf tek, get a new supplier of spores and maybe wait till the weather cools off. get a thermometer and fiddle with your electric blanket to keep it 75 to 80 degrees, keep them in the dark and ignore them. a pressure cooker is a good investment. doing a streak test of your spores on an agar plate is a good way of seeing if your spores are viable.
I left a spore print in a hot car for about 2 or 3 days once. I successfully inoculated and colonized jars without a problem from this print several months later. Colonization seemed slower than normal, probably due to the heat... but it still worked. So, I doubt a few hours in a warm mailbox is going to do any harm... I agree with lostdazedintime, sometimes a little neglect does the trick. Also, 1 week on the growbag may not be enough time to show any visible growth, depending on several factors. Any idea what the temp is where this bag is sitting?
I thought I remembered that either or both of those places sold bunk spores (sporestore.com& spores101.com)? Are they both legit? I could be wrong...
Speaking of which, is the hawks eye a reputable place to get spores? Purely theoretical, of course. The Mushroom Man
1 of my 2 quart jars has growth!!!!!! It is only half-filled with vermiculite and brf. I see no contams, which is good since I don't have a pressure cooker. I am pretty fucking excited though. BTW, there is NO growth in my 5lb manure bag I ordered an Alacabenzi syringe, that I will use on the grow bag.
they can if you live in a very hot place like the southwest and they get shipped in the summer. happened to me once.
As far as your jars go: -I don't think you need to steralize them for 3hrs. 90 min should be just fine. -If you put a layer of dry verm at the top of your jars then you should take of the tape you placed over the innoculation holes when you steralized. This will allow for gas exchange which is a must! -Put the jars in open air, on a shelf or something, on top of the fridge,... -introducing heat for incubation will only invite contams. Myc wil colonize just fine in the 70's just may take a bit longer.
Try it using this exact method: http://www.fungifun.org/English/Pftek#a1 Tell me in a PM if you fail.
I did order and receive spores from them... They're still in the syringe I just kind of forgot about them. Legit but takes a while to ship.
