So after 6 days in the fruiting chamber my first ever mushroom cake started to show some green stuff on the bottom...



I took a knife, IPA wiped it and cut the bottom parts off where I noticed the green stuff and then covered it in verm powder...



Any suggestions, thoughts, scolding would be highly appreciated as to what is going on here and what I can do.

what are those brown balls being used for humidity?

It looks like you have no holes for FAE

is it a SGFC

The brown balls are Geolite, under the geolite there are 2 airstones and an aquarium heater which run 24/7. The heater is set to ensure a temp of 75-77F, the airstones are connected to an airpump which feeds in filtered air.

This is my first attempt at growing mushrooms so I read up about different kind of chambers and wanted to setup something which is semi autonomous.

Essentially this is what is under the geolite.

Im no expert in mycology but most of what ive read leads me to believe that a body of water is a contam risk, what is your fruiting temp[oops see you told me already]? should be just under colonization temp (temp drop to initiate pinning) as higher temps will encourage contams

You giving it light?

Filters in fresh air, does it filter out CO2?

If you wanted something more simple to maintain I think a monotub would have been better and larger yielding

Cakes and SGFC i think are the right combo to use

Altho maybe its something else, hard to tell as I dont know your procedure exactly

Shortly after I made the last post I realized that I do not have any way of sucking out the CO2 but for a small hole which the wire/tube feeds in near the top.

As for the water, I had read that adding a bit of bleach will prevent molds and unwanted bacteria in it.

There are lights which run for 16 hours and there are noticeable pins on the cake.

I followed PF Tek for these, BRF+Verm... took about a month for full colonization, then did a dunk for 24 hours in the fridge and attempted a roll, but my verm was too big and not a lot stuck on.

As for the SGFC goes, I might try it next time or the monotub you suggested. Thank you.

Hmm..

Did you allow your cakes to consolidate for at least a week after 100% colonization?

And also, when you dunked, did you use fresh unopened distilled water? Or perhaps bleached water?

I let this cake sit for a week after I saw it had fully colonized (my other cakes are still in their jars )

The pic below is my other jars from a couple of weeks ago, they are mostly all colonized now but I will wait until next week to birth them. (I also removed the tape from the tops based on another member's advice)



I used tap water for the dunk, which in my area has small amounts of chlorine and fluoride added.

This was really a newbie trial run which is why I only birthed one cake to see how it goes.

Hard to tell from the pics, but those cakes look dry and they definitely need more FAE. Aerial myc (the stuff reaching for the sky) is a dead giveaway.

As dry as they look, you may want to double check your humidity.

Dryness can cause bruising, so that might be what's going on there. Mist and fan - mist and fan. I know you're shooting for as much automation as possible here, but a little TLC goes a long way with shrooms (and A LOT of TLC goes a LONGER way, lol).

Evaporation of water from the surface of the substrate is also a big - if not the biggest factor in pinning.

I'd bet a bong and a blintz that if you start misting and fanning 3-4 times a day your plan will right itself.


As for the water - I can only speak to my experience, but I always just fresh cold tap water (from a well) for my dunk and the post dunk rinse and haven't had an issue with that as a vector of contamination. Fully colonized cakes are actually more contam resistant that a lot of folks realize.

id like to point out that you got some pretty severe overlay in the OP. theres probably not going to be any pinning on that overlay

also, the cakes should have shrinked slightly in the jar after consolidating.


live and learn
im sure the next grow will only be better

good luck

So I came home from a 4 day vacation and this is what I found...

Looking good!