My cakes aren't pinning....Help

[Brewmaster]

I'm on my third go around with growing now and until this point I've had nothing but success.
The problem right now is that I've got six cakes ( I had 4cc left in a syringe ) and they just won't start fruiting. They were heavily colonized when I took them out of the jars. Before that, I cold shocked them in the fridge over night then I put 'em in the fruiting chamber with about 90-95% humidity at 85 degrees F. ( I dont know what that is in C. ). Everything is the same as my last experiments; well two of the cakes became casings and one I threw away last night due to contamination ( first time that's happened ). So I've got 3 cakes actually that are just exploding with mycelium but no pins. They've been in there for 5 days and all I'm getting is huge tufts and knots.
Help me out guys, what gives?

 

[HeartCore]

I'm on my third go around with growing now and until this point I've had nothing but success.
The problem right now is that I've got six cakes ( I had 4cc left in a syringe ) and they just won't start fruiting. They were heavily colonized when I took them out of the jars. Before that, I cold shocked them in the fridge over night then I put 'em in the fruiting chamber with about 90-95% humidity at 85 degrees F. ( I dont know what that is in C. ). Everything is the same as my last experiments; well two of the cakes became casings and one I threw away last night due to contamination ( first time that's happened ). So I've got 3 cakes actually that are just exploding with mycelium but no pins. They've been in there for 5 days and all I'm getting is huge tufts and knots.
Help me out guys, what gives?

I've experienced the same. Some cakes, never fruited, some did after two weeks of stalled growth. I suspect it has to do with multispores and that you came across a poor fruiting substrain. It happened with Ecuadors and Amazonians. Three batches just fine and than one batch that gave problems.

One thing you could try and what I did with reasonable succes on some jars that didnt want to fruit, is to dunk them before the first flush. Keep in mind though that this increases the chance on contams and its possible you'll only get two or three flushes.

 

[Brewmaster]

yeah, I thought about dunking them but I didn't know if it would destroy all the fluffy, white myc. that's pouring out of the cakes. I didn't dunk any of the previous 24 jars and all went well and so I never thought it was necessary. I think when I get home tonight, I'll take one more and try crumbling and casing and see if I can get pins that way.

Do you think the humidity could have been too high? I turned the heater off this morning so now I've just got the fish pump on blowing bubbles and keeping it ventilated. I'll see if that makes any diff. I'm still working with Creepers btw.

 

[MzFly]

85 degrees is way too high.
Keep the internal temperature of the fruiting chamber between 70 and 75.
Make sure they're getting enough oxygen - in addition to the pump setup, I'd try fanning the chamber several times a day as well.
You don't mention how much light they're getting (sorry ... can't see your post now ... you might have). They should be getting several hours of indirect light per day - I have mine near a north-facing window, and they get the indirect sunlight for somewhere between 10 and 12 hours per day. Barring that, you could place them in a room with a light on for most of the day.

 

[HeartCore]

I've been fruiting with 85 degrees. Its not perfect but also not way to high (is my experience)

 

[MzFly]

85 degrees is way too high according to "experts" ... so much for expert advice ... I happen to be a complete novice!

Lowering the temperature is worth a try though, non? How long has it usually taken for pinning to begin? What strain are you using?

 

[HeartCore]

85 degrees is way too high according to "experts" ... so much for expert advice ... I happen to be a complete novice!

Lowering the temperature is worth a try though, non? How long has it usually taken for pinning to begin? What strain are you using?

Dont worry Temps are usually ideal temps meaning you can get away if you are off by a few. I grew in France in a season where it was 30C+ for many weeks. Colonisation was a bit slower than normal but eventually, I had great yields.

I'm trying to remember though, the fluffy mic, I have had it as well and at some point, pins just started to happen. SOmetimes it just takes longer it seems.

 

[MzFly]

re. fluffy myc ... I've read many posts on similar sites, where a grower has written in to ask advice about fluffy mycelium growth. The pros (?) who responded felt that fluffy myc growth could be attributed to excessive humidity.

I've been using B+ strain, by the way ... very forgiving little strain ... thrives despite all of my fumbling :wink:

The danger in letting the cakes sit, and holding out for pinning to begin for an extended period of time, is that they myc might consume all of the nutrition contained in the cake during the wait ... rendering them incapable of thriving long enough to pin.

So, Brewmaster ... what's happening with your cakes??

 

[Brewmaster]

Hey guys, thanks for all the advice. Mz Fly my cakes are being little bitches.
The two original casings are coming right along and are 75% covered. I did cut the heater off so the temperature is about 75 degrees now but when I got home yesterday 2 of the remaining 3 cakes had green spots on the bottom. I don't know why this run has been so bad, I wasn't particularly careless. Although I probably should have cleaned the FC before starting this spur of the moment batch.

Anyway, I cut the bottom half off all three cakes and put the tops in the bottom of a few plastic cups and cased them with coco coir ( being very careful. Everything going into the FC cleaned w/ alcohol.) I'm not expecting much out of these buggers but I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks again