CASING/FC/C02/HUMIDITY/CAKES/OUTDOOR/SOAKING/MISTING
*A casing should be a non-nutritious top layer that is placed over a colonized substrate to help induce pinning and to supply moisture to the substrate and the developing fruits. You can use others with nutrition but it's best not to as this will cause overlay if your not careful. A casing of 50% Peat Moss, 40% Vermiculite, 10% Coco Coir is something called CAC' which some commercial growers use. This is fine but once again you have to watch it or it can colonize the casing for being nutrition and what's the point of a casing if it fully colonizes?
With uncased substrate, wait for full colonization, and then place in the fruiting chamber. Try to keep humidity at 99%, since uncased substrates should be treated as cakes. Remember, when using a casing layer, we keep the humidity a bit lower to allow some evaporation from the casing, which is replaced by daily misting. A piece of wax paper layed loosely over the uncased substrate will help produce a micro-climate conducive to fruiting, but remember that even though it helps, wax paper is no substitute for a genuine casing layer. Incubate until you see mycelium coming up through about 20 to 30 percent of the casing layer. Sprinkle fresh casing material over that mycelium which is showing (That's what we call patching) and place in the FC. The best casing mix is 50%
Peat, 50% Vermiculite, 10% gypsum, Teaspoon per cup of peat of Hydrated Lime. Mix the dry ingredients very well, then slowly bring to field moisture level and pasteurize. Also you can use jiffy mix as all it is Peat/Vermiculite/Lime treated but I see it less valuable as just making your own buying a block of peat moss/vermiculite/hydrated lime/gypsum and not having to deal with other shit or pasteurize. Sunshine Mix #3 also works though. The reason we use lime is to raise the pH and to make the casing layer inhospitable to competitor fungi, which are less tolerant of a high pH than established mushroom mycelium. Gypsum is not used to change pH. Gypsum contains both calcium carbonate and sulfur, thus it tends to keep the pH near neutral, preventing swings as the metabolites try to push the pH down. Calcium carbonate or hydrated lime is not used to counter the effect of the metabolites. As said above, that's what the gypsum does. Use gypsum on substrates such as compost or horse manure, but don't use lime. Save the lime for the casing mix, where you should use gypsum and lime together. Gypsum is added to help keep the kernels separated after sterilization and to provide calcium and sulfur, basic elements promoting mushroom metabolism. Using both these will keep
contaminants at bay. What you want is a short term (Hydrated Lime) because the life of a casing is measured in weeks instead of months or years. Use hydrated lime to get the ph right at the start, and use gypsum at a rate of ten percent to the peat in your casing to prevent ph swings later. Pickling lime is hydrated lime. It's my favorite, and many commercial grow operations DO use it. Don't use limestone; limestone is for long-term use, such as in a garden. Casings, which flush for a month or so, do not need long-term ph adjustment. They need short term, therefore hydrated lime is what you would want to use. The most critical time for contaminants to enter a casing is during the initial colonization and first flush stages. Once the layer is fully colonized, it's very contaminant resistant. This is why we use Lime/Gypsum. A common contaminant that occurs in casings is the 'Cobweb Mold' which isn't toxic just very annoying that thrives in old stale air. You can melt this using 3%
peroxide over the casing. It will not hurt the casing one bit; it's just annoying because you have to keep on it.
Don't go easy spray as much as you can. Not in the one spot! Spray the entire casing. Bacteria in a bulk substrate are not a contaminant. Commercial mushroom farms toss out any fruits that have bacterial blotch growing on the fruits themselves. However, having bacteria present in the substrate is not a cause for concern, and in fact many agaricus species won't fruit at all from sterilized substrates. Casing layers are not pasteurized in commercial mushroom production in order for the casing to have a high microbe count. NEVER keep a terrarium or other grow tub sitting on the floor. Get a table or shelf to put it on. Over 90% of the contaminants in a room are within a foot (1/3 meter) of the floor. You can tell when your casing needs a mist by looking carefully at the cakes or casing layer. Allow them to dry slightly, then mist lightly. After a few grows, you'll be able to instantly tell when a project needs to be misted. You don't want them to dry completely out, or get waterlogged. Rhizos on top are a good sign. Let them grow. Knots form later. We using 'Perlite' in our casings because perlite works not by holding water, but by preventing clumping and providing lots of air pockets in the layer itself, which stimulates primordia. By mixing perlite with vermiculite, you get the best of both worlds . . .moisture retention in the vermiculite, and air retention in the perlite. Ph balancing isn't necessary unless you add peat, which isn't absolutely required for cubes. Just don't try to grow agaricus or other edibles without peat in the mix, because they won't pin. If you're going to case substrates, you want the humidity no more than 90%, with 80% being ideal. Too high a humidity is a major cause of weak or no pinsets on cased substrates. CASING
*You don't need alcohol, peroxide, heat treatment, bleach or anything else on the perlite. Just rinse, and then drain well. Leave no standing water. There is nothing sterile about a fruiting chamber. FC
*Having a slightly acidic casing layer PH will not cause side pinning. Sure, you can mist with a bit of baking soda or hydrated lime in the water if you failed to balance the casing layer PH first, but as I said, that isn't the problem. An acidic casing layer will favor trichoderma and other molds, while mushroom mycelium is more tolerant of basic PH. This is the reason we use lime. As the mycelium colonizes the substrate, the metabolic byproducts produced begin to swing the PH lower. By the time pinning starts, you have a near neutral substrate, which is what you want.
Casing layers pin on the sides for several reasons, but most important to remember, they pin there when that's the best environment for them to form primordia. The crease between substrate and tray is a perfect microclimate. It's nice and humid down there and there is plenty of moisture for the substrate to work with. It's also protected from the spray from the mister, which will damage developing primordia if they get sprayed and are allowed to remain wet. When the mycelium is actively reaching/colonizing the top of the casing layer, back off on misting. A sheet of wax paper can be layed on top to hold in the microclimate you're looking for. It helps to wrinkle it up into a ball, and then spread it out again before laying on top of the casing. These wrinkles will ensure there is plenty of air circulating under the wax paper, while at the same time holding a high humidity level in your mini-environment under the wax paper.
It's normal for the substrate to shrink. It's more than loss of water because the mycelium is actually eating the substrate; therefore it naturally gets smaller over time.
At this point, I do not recommend liming the casing layer. You're trying to make it pin, not suppress trichoderma or other molds. If it only pins on the sides, you can be assured they'll grow into monsters. I doubt your total yield will be very much less, although it doesn't look as cool as a wild flush that hides the entire casing layer beneath a forest of mushrooms. CASING
*Exactly. Peat based casing layers should be pasteurized, not sterilized. It does no good to say something doesn't perform well if you don't follow proper procedure in making it. As I've said many times, the commercial growers have invested millions of dollars into research on ways to maximize crops. We can learn a great deal from them, and then expand on that knowledge. Edible and medicinal mushrooms with few exceptions are exponentially harder to grow then cubensis, so learn from those who are already at the next level. Growing
cubes can be looked at as a way to learn mycology and then move on, or it can be looked at as a way to get some cheap drugs. Those who follow the latter are here today, freaked out by a trip and gone tomorrow. That's why there is such a huge turnover on this and other boards. Look at growing cubes as a way to 'learn the ropes' and then move to harder and more rewarding species. When you do that, the small things such as casing layer composition become much more important to get just right. Many species won't even fruit at all on a sterilized casing layer. Cubes will fruit, but poorly compared to how they fruit on a properly balanced, pasteurized casing layer, applied over a properly balanced, pasteurized bulk substrate. CASING
*I found no problems when using banrot, and the fruits came out normal. It seems I used 1 tablespoon of Banrot 40WP per five gallons of soak water, but that could probably be reduced. Banrot will prevent fungi spores from germinating, but doesn't affect mycelium. It also seems to prevent bacteria. I once left a freshly sterilized jar of rye berries exposed to the open air for half an hour or so, then closed it up and a month later, it was still contaminant free. However, good sterile procedure renders it unnecessary for grains, and while soaking casing material in it will prevent trich and cobweb, proper pasteurization and good air exchange will also prevent mold on casing layers. I prefer growing without chemicals and am generally an organic gardener. The Banrot experiments were simply experiments. Dried and crushed Rhododendron leaves will also help prevent trichoderma and cobweb in casing layers. FUNGICIDES FOR GRAINS/CASINGS
*You seriously need to read and study and not start a thread for every single question that pops into your head.
The members can help answer what you don't understand AFTER study, but this isn't a place to learn everything. Commercial growers use buffered peat and NO vermiculite as casing. Their income depends on growing as many mushrooms as they can for the money they spend to grow them. Do you really think a multi-billion dollar industry is just throwing money away? Read, search and study. ALL the questions you're starting these threads lately for are already answered in detail, and available by a simple search, which is faster than typing a question. Those who know these answers are sick and tired of typing the same stuff hundreds of times, over and over again, and aren't going to do it anymore. Those who don't know the answer will make something up just to take a wild guess, and the disinformation continues . . . PEAT MOSS CASING
*Thicker substrates cause a lot of problems. Layering will give faster colonization with less damage to your spawn than mixing. You'll have more success with thinner substrate layers. Don't even attempt a six or seven inch thick horse manure substrate. They will heat up, and also have the tendency to go anaerobic in the core, leading to contamination. You'll get far more bang for the buck with two trays of 3 inch substrate layers than one tray with 6 inches. Horse manure fruits very well uncased. A properly made peat/vermiculite casing layer will increase yields, but is by no means necessary. BULK SUBSTRATES CASING
*With uncased substrate, wait for full colonization, and then place in the fruiting chamber. Try to keep humidity at 99%, since uncased substrates should be treated as cakes. Remember, when using a casing layer, we keep the humidity a bit lower to allow some evaporation from the casing, which is replaced by daily mistings. A piece of wax paper layed loosely over the uncased substrate will help produce a micro-climate conducive to fruiting, but remember that even though it helps, wax paper is no substitute for a genuine casing layer. UNCASED/CASED FC
*Primordia form in 99% humidity, and rarely in less. A casing layer can help to keep humidity at the surface of the substrate at 99%, even though the air in the fruiting chamber might be lower, therefore they allow for more sloppy technique. However, with less than upper 90's percent humidity, the casing layer dries out fast at the recommended level of air exchanges, defeating the purpose unless you mist heavily a few times daily. That's why I recommend 99% humidity for all growing, regardless of whether one cases his substrate or not.
CASINGS
*I want to scream every time I hear that. It's wrong. Lysol doesn't cause mutations. I can only catch it so many times, and this Lysol/mutant myth is spreading like a damn virus. Your new homework assignment is to spray Lysol near (not on) one of your fruiting cakes and report the results. Lysol is mostly alcohol and isn't good for mushrooms, but using it in the room isn't going to cause mutations. I spray the face of my flow hood with Lysol prior to transfers, so it's always blowing on something. LYSOL MUTATIONS
*Mycelium needs light for much more than for the mushrooms to 'know which way is up'. Upon full colonization and a reduction in CO2 levels brought about by increased FAE, light becomes an important pinning trigger, and must be bright enough to penetrate the casing layer so that hyphal knots can form from deep within the casing instead of just on top. Dim light will produce 'some' pins, but if you want one of those wall-to-wall flushes, use bright light. I hope this helps clear up any confusion. CASING
*Agaricus farmers use peat without the vermiculite, while people growing cubes tend to mix peat and vermiculite. There's a reason for this. Agaricus fruits at ten to twenty degrees cooler than cubensis in very low light. There is far less evaporation of moisture from the casing layer at lower temperatures, thus the reservoir effect of vermiculite is not as necessary. For a given volume, vermiculite holds more moisture than peat, thus combining the two results in a compromise that favors fruiting in warmer conditions. CASING
*You pick the fruits that are ready to pick and leave the pins. The easiest way to re-hydrate a bulk substrate that is dry is to pour water around the edges of the tray so that the substrate floats a bit. Leave it overnight and pour off the excess water. Mist the casing layer well. Never pick the pins because it's common with many species to set pins for the first few flushes at the time of first flush. These pins remain dormant until their turn comes. If you pick them, you ruin future harvests. CASING/CAKES
*Perlite works not by holding water, but by preventing clumping and providing lots of air pockets in the layer itself, which stimulates primordia. By mixing perlite with vermiculite, you get the best of both worlds . . .moisture retention in the vermiculite, and air retention in the perlite. Ph balancing isn't necessary unless you add peat, which isn't absolutely required for cubes. Just don't try to grow agaricus or other edibles without peat in the mix, because they won't pin. CASING PERLITE
*A casing layer allows us to be a bit sloppier on conditions. For example, if you have to leave for work every day for 10 hours or more, a casing layer will protect your substrate while you can't be there to mist. If you can hang around and babysit your crop, it makes little to no difference. Note this applies to cubes only. Other species fruit poorly or not at all without a casing layer, and many edibles won't even fruit on a pasteurized casing, it must be untreated. CASING LAYER
*Heavy spore deposits do tend to hinder future flushes to some extent, but not to the point they describe. You don't need to leave them attached to the casing until you have a black mess everywhere in order to make prints.
Pick them as the caps flatten out, but before they go crazy dropping spores. I have several totally sporeless strains. They're the way to go. Culture slants last for years in the refrigerator, making prints unnecessary.
SPORE DEPOSITS ON CASING
*It seems to make sense that mixing would give faster colonization, but my experience is the opposite. By layering, the mycelium on the grains recovers and knits together, and then rapidly takes off and colonizes the rest of the substrate. In addition, since mixing 'can' damage the kernels, and a broken kernel is a prime site for contaminant spores to germinate, layering has the added benefit of less trauma to the spawn medium.
LAYERING VS MIXING CASING
*Bacteria in a bulk substrate is not a contaminant. Commercial mushroom farms toss out any fruits that have bacterial blotch growing on the fruits themselves. However, having bacteria present in the substrate is not a cause for concern, and in fact many agaricus species won't fruit at all from sterilized substrates. Casing layers are not pasteurized in commercial mushroom production in order for the casing to have a high microbe count.
CASING
*The most common contaminant during the fruiting stage is cobweb mold, but it's caused by lack of air circulation and exchange. The more you lift that lid and fan the better. There should be no dust. Wipe it off the top first, and of course, NEVER keep a terrarium or other grow tub sitting on the floor. Get a table or shelf to put it on. Over 90% of the contaminants in a room are within a foot (1/3 meter) of the floor. CASING CONTAMINANT COBWEB
*Mutants are pretty common. It wouldn't be from mixing B+ and TC. The mycelium only cares about A and B mating types, not the name somebody wrote on the syringe or print. You may end up with separate zones of
each 'strain' or you may end up with a cross, or somewhere in between, but it won't be a hybrid since they're the
each 'strain' or you may end up with a cross, or somewhere in between, but it won't be a hybrid since they're the