inoculated with B+ about a week ago, first few days i kept them in a small room with the light on, temp was around 80-84. day 4 saw first sign of life with dime sized cloudy white spot. i then dropped the temps to 75-77 and they seem to be stretching out a bit quicker now with hair like features.

ive read a bit on cobweb mold and quite frankly i just dont know what im looking at. if its mold i want to 86 them asap. im only doubting this because when i used my PC it just leaked slowly for the full hour, the next day there was no water left but some moisture. however nothing looked burnt so i inoc'd anyways.

They look fine to me.

Looks good so far to me too! Definitely not cobweb.

Rhizos are looking pretty good fingering out like little ropes. If you keep the temp at a steady 80-84° it will colonize pretty quickly.

You'll know cobweb mold when you see it, its more of a gray color and very wispy like cobwebs. Notice how white the Rhizome's are in your jar, cobweb will not be this white, at least all the times I've had it. Its hard to get rid of which I've not been successful at doing so even trying all the little tricks out there. Usually by the time you see it, its already spread elsewhere. I just toss that batch out if I see any contams.

Other than that your jars look fine, just keep a close eye on them for contams, if you see anything other than white or myc "piss", toss it. Trich is a bummer too. If you see green don't open it, you'll spread trich spores everywhere.


Peace

I would remove that top layer of foil. Gas exchange is very important. Looks good.

i concur what spaced said... keep your ambient temp up and they will colonize faster... otherwise they look great...

You don't need light at this stage . Increase temps keep them in closed area or container.
They don't need air exchange at this stage either until they fully colonize or you want to induce fruiting .

Looks fine. Some of my best experiences were with the B+, good luck

go penis envy or go home... ;-)

appreciate the replies.

i have a new concern now. im on day 3 on fruiting and im smelling mildew now. im not sure if this is detrimental to my cakes or not. i did some quick googling and some say its okay some say to start over.

what do you guys think? here are a few pics

I don't see any mildew. What is causing you to think this odor is mildew? IME SGFCs have a slightly musty odor.

smells like damp towel that has been sitting around for a couple day or clothes that you leave in the washing machine. its not over powering but its there. perhaps its not mildew /shrug i wont mess with them for now. we'll see what happens.

Well, it has been about a week now...any progress? Mushrooms and the cakes tend to have a "funky" but not too unpleasant smell... an acquired smell, if you will...



If given enough time to consolidate before birthing most strains will show signs of pinning at about the 1 week mark. However, some strains are different. For instance, it took my penis envy about 15 days to pin after being placed in the FC...

anyway...

I'm curious to learn how this ends! Once the jar is fully colonized, it generally only takes about a week for the mycelium to consolidate. If you wait too long it can starve the mycelium of needed gas, light and volume.

I have never grown an active variety of mushroom, but most mushrooms have an unusual but rather pleasant scent; the smell of your mycelium cylinders shouldn't be sour or obviously foul (could mean bateria or something else attacking your poor fungus). Look closely at the jars for pools of metabolite or spots of an unusual color (green mold is the worst).

Here's hoping those cakes weren't birthed prematurely...

Penis Envy can be notoriously unpredictable. I used to start 36 jars all at time and some colonized in a matter of a couple weeks and some took months. Tends to really throw off your timeline. Same with pinning, I'd always have bags that just lagged and lagged and lagged then fruited uncontrollably for 3 weeks.

the smell went away, im still not sure what it was. but here's how it all went..
ended up stalling the cakes by letting them dry out. i wasnt spraying directly on them nor did i have enough perlite and i didnt have the sgfc elevated properly.

fixed all my mistakes and produced a flush. 8 grams dry from 3 cakes. dunked and recently harvested from a 2nd flush from one cake.

now im dealing with downward growth into the perlite, possibly aerial mycelium, and weak potency. im using a 5000k daylight bulb for now, i plan to upgrade that soon.

It doesn't look too bad to me. With a SGFC make sure to have a 2x2 grid pattern of holes on all sides and about 4-5inches of perlite. Mist and fan about 5 times a day and the temp somewhere between 74-80. Contamination loves warmer temps so you don't want them too hot when fruiting...

As for potency, it can vary quite literally from mushroom to mushroom especially when using a multispore syringe. Also, if you are drying them, make sure the mushrooms are completely "cracker" dry before you weigh and eat them otherwise you might end up underwhelmed.

It is worth trying them fresh too...there is something unique about fresh ones. Of course shrooms are roughly 90% water so take that into consideration if dosing fresh.

Anyway, hopefully they will keep fruiting for a while. Good luck and happy fruiting!



EDIT: and yes, sometimes the mushrooms will stick their heads into the perlite. I just get a piece of foil and stick it under the "divers" as I call them. They will either change direction or pop their veil...either way it is an easy fix. Sometimes you can even flip the cake over if possible ... anyway