Just started a violet tek 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. For the record, I started considering shrooms about 4 weeks ago, so my knowledge probably has big gaps, so forgive me. But instead of waiting to know everything, I thought I would try to learn from experience too.

I followed the tek as best I could, given my understanding. But I did fall off course. Here's what I did.


I bought a 15-15-15 fert, dry, for lawns. It's little balls didn't dissolve all the way. It's all I could get at the time. Boiled it with rye berries. Spread on a cookie sheet to dry, because I read that I should ... the rye was pretty wet so it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I just barely started reading about proper (Annie style) grain prep.

I think I over dried my stuff. I waited to pc, like 8 hours.
Did my best at pressure cooking.
Inoculated in a SAB with spore syringe. No sign of mycillium for 17 days.

Then I get a few wisps of white, and one that has a yellow wet spot. It looks like a dissolving berry.

What are your thoughts?

hmmmmm.........

gimme a day or so on this.....
extremely busy.

im reviewing this threads details,
and will expand on some things shortly.

I understand being busy and appreciate the insight you can give. Here is an updated photo.
Also, I've been reading up on "mycelium piss", but I'm a noob and am not sure if that's a thing, or if this is a contam. I heard that these waste product metabolytes are caused by stress, maybe a long incubation.

My tub is in my furnace room with a heater, trying to keep it 70-80 all the time, perhaps it has dropped into the 60's for part of the day, can't say for certain. Again, the rye seemed pretty dry, so maybe its a combination of the dryness, slow heat, long incubation times.

I've got 11 of these plastic twist jars, 7 of them all showing signs of white myc now. The one in the photo is the most colonized, and only one with the yellowing.

I don't know if it's your picture quality or what but it looks like your grain is awfully wet. The spawn looks like it's taking off though as opposed to your earlier pics. Should be good as long as the mycelium stays white. I'm sure Anne will have more details to offer

obvious bacteria.

hmmmmm.

first of all , i always offer brown rice as first choice.
availability, price, and power crop factor make it choice.
it also sterilizes very well and holds structure.

second, containers ideal 50% full.
half full, sterilizes better faster, less chance of structure loss.
( see pom pom teks for structure variations)

third, no shake.
shaking is asking for bacteria.
total sterile PP5 containers 1/2 full ,
arent gonna bolt white overnight if ya shake em anyway.
they grow out total in 2 weeks at 80, done right, so its kinda a unnecessary risk.

ive grown many ways, alot works.
but, i dont seriously have time to play.
i need to command and conjure that forest of shrooms and cactus yesterday.


the key here is rice, in plastics, and a good brisk PC cycle.
its more engineered than one would suspect.
im big on pics, cuz they explain better than i do.
its not complex, but as soon as you vary from the basic,
results can be anything.

in this case, its a bacteria thing.
use rice, pre boil it to fluff,
fill containers 50% , blast in PC for 35 min max.

oss and oeric, had the right idea, all should read it.
just detials / grains improved in violet teks, and better supply /equip options.
they did what they could at the time.
it was the age of books .

keep in mind , although me and violet are " here"
most of the fleet of massive " V-TEKS" ( and pics) is over at rogers place.
although im a famous "persona non grata' there ( documented #1)
i still endorse the place, based on the fact it has a huge violet tek collection.

i always watch my threads.
my wacky life really inhibits my response.

there will be pics and more details added.

^^^^^

If one post could find itself encapsulated in a spore, and blown towards future galaxies...

p. mexicana jalisco
violet tek style....

Ahhh, them look yummy.

I think I'm gonna go eat some shrooms now.

p. galindoi........

violet tek versatile with many types of fungi.

just another white cube,
but note the ring and spore load.

this tek tek operates fully hydrated and pours out the spores!
never underestimate the cloud.
to avoid the cloud, we almost always snag them before caps open.

i might expand on this thread ,
with several bonus v-tek related mini topics.

be sure and also see the " pom pom teks"
and also, "annies fert agar teks".

Hey Anne regarding fertilizers - I remember reading in one of Violet's posts on the shroomery that you need to do multiple PC runs and allow time for the grains to ferment or something in order to see good results with fertilizers. In your experience is this necessary?

what we do is boil the rice in fert water to hydrate,
pack in PP5 containers, load cooker.
let sit cold 24 hours........thats where ya get the bio boost.

then blast the PC 35-45 minits.
its only one short PC run.
count the rice, add 20 min microwave.

i actually PC in my AA 910s 30 minits flat.

the idea is to use min power, max effect of PC,
and as a bonus, a little pre digested biomass.

what i suspect some people dont get about the v teks is the ease and yield.

traditional methods require boiling cauldrons for days,
buckets of bovine, tubs of straw, bushels of corn in quart masons,
in automatic marthas , and arrays of 6500K tube lights..........
all to prduce a very photogenic dried 2.6 OZ of brownish twigs.

v tek isnt like that,
make fert rice, show some finesse in your bio handling,
and bury the sub with dry yield.
look back closely at the albinos in this thread, and look for the rulers.
think about what your seeing.

the idea is, do maximum less , get maxium more from less.
if ya need to do less for more, then ya have time to lots,......or lots more free time.

its shockingly easy.....thats the point.

Do them sit inside some kind of tub or container?

Looks awesome

containers not required, as they are bottom watered.

you could use any container for handling.
we have a preference for heavy duty plastic cargo containers.

but seriously, the yield is such, that you dont need alot of space.

the black thing is a ruler.
6 containers.
they flush 3x.

for the pic below,
its 20 minits boil fert rice to a fluff,
load in plastics in PC, let sit over night,
one 30 minit PC run, cool, innoc, and crack lids in 14 days.

even casing is optional.

people like to make it complex.
it isnt.

Dang that sounds so much easier than the way I did it, I will have to try that next time for sure. I had good success doing a bulk grow but it's a little work preparing everything and seems like such a waste of so much poo, brown rice sounds easier.

So your saying you leave them in cargo container while waiting for it to colonize the substrate?

hamamam ok I'll give it a shot. Boil the rice 20 minutes - so it's not cooked like you would eat it, just hydrated?

Yup yup, it really is as easy as Anne says. As long as you are sterile with your innoc technique and throughout the grow, you will have amazing results.

Plastic is where it is at. I didn't have a lot of success with my stone grow, but of course it was my first. However, I normally do GTs on BRF cakes in glass jars with wonderful results but ever since switching to plastic, I am quite impressed with the speed and efficiency. Less time in the PC is always a plus!



EDIT: I should mention that the stone grow was using rye grass seed in glass quart jars. I have not tried stones with plastic yet but plan to sometime in the future.

Awesome I am excited to try out these PP5 containers they are really sexy. Oh one last thing in terms of ferts - I have a ton of all purpose miracle gro. Will that work? It's 24 - 8 - 16 and makes the water blue which kind of freaks me out. But earlier in the thread Anne says most common fertilizers will work.

yes spaced we cook em and pack em into cargo containers.

rice is cooked to hydrated slewb, but not over puffed,
the steam of the PC will finish it fer sure without excess water.

that fert is kinda strong also slewb, try 10-10-10 or less first.

ive done stones this way .
it works, violet does alot of stones this way also.
we got quite a few.
oddly stones freak me out.
im into fruits.

pic is chicon nindo mexicana fruits,
they bruise brown.......