I'm glad that I could provide an idea that may be helpful for you! I'm curious to see if it works for you.


Update:

Been away awhile, but still about the boomers.

I unfortunately have let a few cakes dry out too much. I plan on soaking each for 24 hours and then placing back in their respective tubs to see if they bounce back and begin fruiting again. For a while I neglected misting the tops of the cakes after picking the fruits. Something I am doing every time now, and am noticing a big difference. The tubs that I've started doing this with are continuously fruiting and have yet to need to be soaked.

I'm confident that one cake is contaminated because it smells weird (a slight sweet smell) which makes me think that there is a bacterial invader. I'll be tossing that one out.

Nine bags of popcorn have been inoculated in my first time using the still-air-box, and as of now, each bag seems to be colonizing without any issue. I was sure to actually use more liquid culture per bag than in the past to hasten the colonizing of the mycelium, which may also be helping fight off any contaminants (if there are any).

There is currently soaked popcorn that needs to be bagged up and prepped for sterilization and plan on soaking more popcorn later tonight for a larger inoculation sometimes during the week.

I need more poop

During this next inoculation, I would like to play around with some agar as well as create more liquid cultures of some that I am running low on.

That's about it for now. Here's some pretty pictures.

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Always learning...

In an effort to prepare some fully colonized grain for some monotubs, I was going to empty the tubs in which the cakes were no longer fruiting anymore. Upon getting ready to do so, I saw all of this stuff that looked like dust all over the bins. I looked a little closer and realized that these flecks of dust were moving. They were mainly on one bin, but they were present on each of them. They also traveled from the bins to my plant rack (next to the small table that holds my mushroom bins), and to the opposite side, my drawer unit, even finding some on my TV which is next to that. I don't recall seeing anything like this a few days ago when I last checked the cakes that I have.

None of the cakes have been fruiting, so I was waiting for the aforementioned grain to colonize fully before playing around with the other cakes (I'm going to put all of the good ones in another larger bin, rehydrate and see what happens).

And there are a lot of these lil f*****s. There are spots that I've wiped down with Clorox wipes only to look over moments later to still see some meandering on my stuff. Will be doing some more cleaning to get rid of them this evening, but doubt that I'll get them all tonight.

My plan is to get a fruiting chamber; simply, a shelving rack with tarp on all sides. This will either stay in my closet in my room, or will be placed in the walk-in hall closet next to my room. Regardless, I'll be using a grow light as my light source since they will now be kept away from any natural light as a byproduct of this new preventative maintenance to prevent this from happening in the future.

I'm somewhat glad that I am used to having the sensation of my skin crawling because it's pretty prevalent right now

Have some work to do this weekend. It's good work though

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Here are some Albino Colorados. I find these one's luminous in their beauty

The bin that is not fruiting is one of many that seem to be taking their time to start pinning. I thought that maybe they were dried out so went ahead and gave them a good mist since I was already picking these others.

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Those albinos are some beauties

I appreciate the pics Void, seeing some real-time harvest activity is soothing. For me I find it can be a little bit of a chore, like just for a moment knowing you 'have' to take care of this task and it's going to take X minutes to take care of said task, but then I'll transition to a happy place immediately upon commencing the harvest - so much mystery and beauty right there, in your hands.

I see that you're lining the tubs with black plastic, I assume to prevent bottom pins? Seems to be working for you well. What's your method for rehydrating between flushes?

I used to use black plastic and it was a little bit of a pain but it seemed effective, then I tried Bodhisatta's unmodified tub tek which uses no black plastic. For him it seems bottom pins didn't happen nearly as much as they did for me - yields were high but those bottom pins were always annoying to me, so I'm entertaining different method this time.

At what point are you using that tape? What kind of tape? I find it amazing that the tape is keeping stuck to the clear bin, with the stretching and moisture etc.

Thank you very much my friend.

I understand that mental experience well. I deal with it with most things, including things that I enjoy. Work in progress to change. Harvest time does happen to be a very soothing time for me. I enjoy picking the fruits, delicately, and the cleaning them up before placing them to dry. Meditative.



Yep, I would like to force all of the fruiting power upwards, because the ones on the side and underneath are a pain to deal with through and through.

In between instances when I pick fruits I spray the tops pretty well. I don't always pick all fruits as some are still forming and growing very often when I harvest. When a cake stops fruiting I soak the whole cake for a few hours and then place back in the tub.



It's just regular scotch tape. I tend to cut my bags a little big so there can be some slack for the tape and aid in keeping it stuck to the bag and bin.



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Aaaannndddd... a lot more Albino Colorados

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OMG - they look amazing!

You got over the mite blight alright?

Heck yeah Void!

Thank you both very much Made for a very nice mid-afternoon activity.

And yes, I am rid of those pesky little tyrants!

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Well, some sad news, and I spoke too soon...

Those damn mites are back. Had to toss everything out. I got a decent amount out of what I had though.

Out of curiosity, I checked the plant shelves that I have in my room, that is next to where I had my initial bins that they were first found on. And they are still on those shelves as well.

Clearly, I have a lot to figure out.

That said, I am out of commission for a while.

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Tiny mobile contaminants like that are a major challenge. It seems like you'll be needing some serious kind of set up to keep them away because I can imagine they'll have gotten into the fabric of your living area quite extensively.

Do you have any specific thoughts about how you might be proceeding after this point? Can you get microscopic images of a single specimen or two for a more accurate ID? The distinction between insect and arachnid may or may not have some bearing on how to tackle these things.

Fortunately, I think I can get away with scaling back and also redirecting more energy towards working with agar and LC so that when I feel I have a clean enough space I'm ready to go.

I'm trying to find more information on them right now, but am having a hard time finding anything technical that's providing a taxonomic name for me to get more specific information. A friend shared a thread from mycotopia with me where the OP had the same problem. One individual in said thread that appears familiar with them referred to them as "fungus mites," but in searching this term I have yet to find anything of value or pertinence.

And I am assuming that there are in places like my carpet and such, though I'm not sure how much nutritional density is to be found there for them. They definitely like mushrooms through. When the mushroom bins were next to my plant shelves, there were vastly higher concentrations of them on and near the mushroom bins that the plants.

The same friend who sent me the link suggested that I alcohol spray all fabrics, use concentrated peroxide in areas where there was heavier concentrations of them, repotting all plants outside, to use an industrial vacuum on carpets and use a carpet cleaner. However, they also told me that I may not be 100% rid of the problem. The eggs are apparently microscopic, and can lay dormant for long periods. So clean clean clean.

He also thinks I picked them up from our job (we work in the same facility)...

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Well, I haven't gotten to clean out my grow closet as well as I'd like yet, and I'm stubborn and don't like not having mushrooms going, so got this little grow tent. I think it's cute.

You'll also notice that I changed my bins. I also moved away from manure as my substrate and am trying coir, vermiculite, and gypsum instead. We'll see how it goes.

The plan is to regularly disinfect the inside of the tend with an alcohol spray to keep those little buggers away (as well as to prevent them from noticing the mushrooms in the first place.

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Gypsum really doesn't do anything in substrate, it's been debunked by a lot of people at this point. But, it does work pretty great in grain jars as it makes breaking them up WAY easier after they colonize.

I totally feel you on the "I hate not having my setup rolling," part. Lol!

Brother, you have no idea how much I hear that "x is unnecessary" or "x is obsolete" etc. The cat who turned me on to the CVG says that people are realizing manure is unnecessary for psilocybe mushrooms.

I think I will try adding it to my next batch of grain to be inoculated and leave it out of the substrate and see what kinds of differences I notice.

Definitely learning to carve my own path with this. Thank you for the feedback!

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Melmac

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Judging by those blue stains, those albino's must be quite potent.

Btw, why is the other one named melmac? Do you feel like eating cats when you've taken some?

Those White Teachers are really potent, but with a unique gentleness.

a quick search told me that they are named after Alf's home planet apparently.

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I'm not usually one to get giddy... I'm pretty giddy right now...

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Some massive Melmac.

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