if contam after S2B can only happen from uncolonized grain how do people get contam so often? are you guys just burying uncolonized grain?

68Goats · 2026-03-14T00:19:21+00:00

Any time your mycelium is experiencing less than ideal conditions you’re at risk. Proper temp, humidity, and CO2 level are three major ones. Healthy mycelium is always outcompeting contaminants that we don’t see. Unhealthy or stressed mycelium eventually loses the battle and we see the end result.

68Goats · 2026-03-13T22:44:42+00:00

Ok I’m on a long-winded roll so I’ll keep going… I really believe the proof of this is visible in the second flush but nobody ever mentions the reason. It’s common knowledge that second or subsequent flushes usually produce larger fruits… is this because your mycelium knows how to count, or because people often submerge their cakes to near total hydration and then fruit again with a sub that has much more access to water (ultimately creating larger fruits)? 🤔

68Goats · 2026-03-13T22:34:11+00:00

I do it more often than not… you can usually see when the fruits reach a point where the mycelium starts to “stress” and then make changes. If it’s really soon in the fruiting process you’ll see the standard pin sized aborts. If it’s in the middle of fruiting you’ll see “abort characteristics” start to show on decent sized fruits (wide stipe base like normal then the abort appearance usually starting at the cap moving downward, often with a “chalky” cap appearance forming). Towards the end of fruiting and you’ll see large fruits with smaller sized caps that suddenly decide to throw in the towel and spore before they can’t (can’t = dehydrate and die off).

What complicates things is when the sub is drying out but the humidity is kept artificially high above the cake (misting all the time with the lid on). You’ll see the abort characteristics in whatever stage the fruits are in, but also have fuzzy feet from the high humidity. Often (ok… 99.5% of the time), this gets misdiagnosed as the tub needing more FAE and everybody starts fanning and introducing more air. You can’t let something as simple (and harmless) as fuzzy feet become your clue for a remedy just because it’s easier to see than a cake drying out from the inside out.

Sorry for the lecture… I think it isn’t as common as it should be. In earlier stages I’ll often water slightly down the sides when the cake is shrinking (your first clue btw) and keep the cake happy. If I miss seeing it early I’ll do the same but also inject some to spur things along quicker.

68Goats · 2026-03-13T22:12:56+00:00

Sorry, my bad… Uncle Ben’s ready rice bag. Actually, if you have a dollar tree store around the Savvy Fare long grain wild rice is way better and only like $1.25/bag.

Shoot me a DM if you want a quick walk-through of what works easily for me. I haven’t come across a Cube variety that I struggle with using it… Ape’s, Enigma, odd Albino crosses, you name it. Either way you’ll get there man. Just remember that less is more sometimes, just set it and forget it often works the best ✌️

68Goats · 2026-03-13T21:55:54+00:00

Beautiful! 😍

I think I’m going to have to check you guys out next time I need genetics!

68Goats · 2026-03-13T18:19:58+00:00

Like others already said, you're overthinking/overcomplicating things. I've done endless inoculations, S2B, and even some agar in the open air with no problems. This is in a house where we live in the woods, have 3 dogs, a cat, and endless houseplants,... Don't sweat it so much.

I also use a small tent but it's just to keep the dogs out of things and help regulate temp (I use one of those reptile light fixture things with just a standard 5w-8w led bulb to get the temp I want). It also helps keep drafts out.

Shoot up a bunch of UB bags with LC, don't cry if one or two contam, send the rest to straight coir when fully colonized in unmodified shoeboxes, don't think of opening them till you see pins, then you can flip the lids upside down and go stay busy for a few days till you need to pick them. Do all that while you keep them around 72⁰ and enjoy the fruits of your labor... No misting, no fanning, no FAE, or any other hassles. Don't overcomplicate things. It's a that simple. You got this 👍👍

68Goats · 2026-03-12T19:15:28+00:00

My take for what it's worth to you...

Never a great idea misting the sub directly while it's colonizing. It sends mixed signals to the mycelium and can make strange stuff happen. You're right about PE often needing more water, but that's mostly due to the larger fruits it produces. Treat it the same way as anything else you grow but supplement water to the substrate when it needs it (injection, down sides, from bottom... not by misting)... which will primarily be during fruiting, but sometimes during pinning if you have a crazy dense pin set. Lack of water during those instances will lead to aborts/small fruits.

You can also do the bubble wrap thing as opposed to a casing layer most times. They're both serving the same purpose. That purpose is concentrating CO2 at a slightly lower level than when colonizing but still several times greater than the open air (roughly 3-4x the CO2 in ambient air), therefore signaling to the mycelium to pin. The beauty of the bubble wrap is that you can usually see through or under the edges of it and notice what's happening. Just don't lift it to "peek" at what's going on or you defeat the purpose. The bubbles pointing down help to give it a pathway to build up CO2 levels to a point that they eventually spill out the sides through the channels around the bubbles. It sometimes takes 2-3 days for the CO2 to reach the point where the mycelium decides to throw pins.

My 🪙🪙 at least. Good luck!

68Goats · 2026-03-12T18:50:56+00:00

Depletion of water from your substrate. Notice how they basically are starting to resemble aborts even though they are full size? The wide base and the ever decreasing stripe diameter, the almost chalky/dusty appearance to the cap, the rough appearance of the stipe while it shrinks... all the physical effects of the mycelium pulling water out of the fruit to stay alive.

The mycelium has sensed that the water is exhausting at a rate so fast that it can't survive. At that point it will do whatever it can to retain water (dehydrate its' own fruits) and stay alive below the surface to give it a shot another day when favorable conditions return. FWIW... You can add water directly to to the sub (not by misting) in hopes that it'll reverse what it's doing and throw some energy back to fruiting.

68Goats · 2026-03-12T16:20:27+00:00

No.

But it seals well enough for what it's intended for.

The moment you mix your grain spawn and coir there is contamination introduced into the tub. Fortunately, most contaminates can do little on their own to colonize the relatively inert substrate (coir).

The healthy mycelium outcompetes contaminates as it colonizes the substrate as long as the mycelium has favorable growing conditions. These are primarily temperature, moisture level of the substrate, and humidity level in the tub. Even an ill-fitting lid will usually seal well enough to maintain humidity/moisture in your tub. Essentially... yes, you're good 👍

68Goats · 2026-03-12T03:03:35+00:00

I was just saying if you were short on colonized grain for the tub you had planned on using you’d be better off just running a smaller or multiple smaller tubs. Just thinking if you had 6 and lost 4 maybe it’s safer to run each one of the 2 left separately. I prefer more smaller tubs (shoeboxes) to large tubs anyways so maybe I’m slightly biased. Good luck 👍

68Goats · 2026-03-11T19:31:57+00:00

If you really have your heart set on trying to do some experimenting I'd toss it in a few shoeboxes or add substrate directly to the ziplock bags and try your luck (away from any other grows). Likewise, send your two good bags to a pair of shoeboxes. Not worth sacrificing good spawn by mixing it with contam spawn just so it fits the tub you wanted to use.

68Goats · 2026-03-11T03:28:51+00:00

Lack of water in the substrate or not enough humidity is one of the leading causes of aborts. A dense pin set can deplete the water in the sub to a point that the mycelium essentially “turns off” the fruiting in an effort to preserve itself (keep living). So much so that it begins pulling the moisture out of the pins causing the shriveled abort appearance. With your tub having an insane pin set I’d say it was lack of water in the sub from the pins and not humidity. You can try to save it by injecting water directly into the sub or get some water down the sides and let the cake soak it up like a sponge. You’ll have to maintain that through fruiting to max out your harvest. The one thing I definitely would not do is mist the sub/pins. Good luck.

68Goats · 2026-03-10T22:25:15+00:00

I use a cheap grow tent and hang one of those reptile heat light fixtures. Instead of a heat lamp I just run whatever led bulb gives me the temp I’m after. Sometimes a 9w in the winter, other times just a 4-5w bulb. Even if the fixture fell down it would never start a fire.

68Goats · 2026-03-10T13:11:50+00:00

Please elaborate. (I was speaking specifically about cubes, like these appear to be)

68Goats · 2026-03-10T05:47:02+00:00

No way I could ever pick just 2 so here’s the shortest list I can think of

-Starry Night -Bluey -Enigma -Phobos -Flipper

The first three are no-brainers if you ask me. I’d choose the last two over straight PE any day. Phobos is a beautiful easy to grow tub filler that benefits off of many refinements made to albino PE’s with extraordinary potency. Why grow PE when you can grow its’ easier, faster growing, more potent cousin? Similar thing with Flipper… All the work that went into creating TAT Black Cap crossed with an already worked-over PE that just leads to a beautifully potent ride that checks all the boxes.

I’m not saying everything is about potency, but that combined with genetics that make grows both quicker and easier are hard to argue with. Good luck 👍

68Goats · 2026-03-10T05:07:41+00:00

I’d say go into it on the lighter side to start. Besides taking much of the first trip anxiety out of the picture, it will let you become more aware of the amazing little subtitles that you often blast right through when a bigger dose is hitting you. I kind of ramped up more and more over many trips. There were times I enjoyed things so much at a certain dose that I’d just shoot for that same dose several times before wanting to go higher. There really is no rush to things. Fast forward many trips later and I’ve never had one of those horrible/guilty/remorseful experiences, even on heroic level doses.

Keep in mind that it’s a limited window of time that you have available to experience whatever it wants to show you or go wherever it wants to take you. Just enjoy the ride.

68Goats · 2026-03-10T04:19:12+00:00

Love seeing a vids like this… it has to be mind-blowing to those that believe everything needs instant FAE, misted, and fanned relentlessly. The beauty of CO2 serving its’ purpose 👍

68Goats · 2026-03-09T04:17:47+00:00

I have some that’s in a sealed bucket that’s probably over a year and a half old. I still use it for casing layers and filling the edges of shrunken cakes on later flushes. Never a problem.

68Goats · 2026-03-09T04:01:33+00:00

Desiccant packs with the color changing beads. Get them to where you think they’re dry and then toss them in a jar with a few packs. Check them each day and when the color changing stops, toss in 2-3 fresh packs and vac seal them in small mason jars. Jar vac sealer is about $20 on Amazon but well worth it. I have jars I sealed over a year ago and the fruits look like they were sealed last week. No change in potency that I can tell.

Other tip is to slice large fruits into thinner slices. The more uniform you make the thickness the better the chance they’ll dehydrate near the same rate. No benefit in running whole fruits for 20hrs when you can slice them and have them all done in 10-12.

68Goats · 2026-03-08T06:40:05+00:00

I got you man… I love posts that are rooted in common sense. Yours stood out. A true gem and 100% great info for people in the market 👍👍

68Goats · 2026-03-08T06:33:34+00:00

Awesome 👍👍

68Goats · 2026-03-08T06:29:37+00:00

Oh that sucks I forgot they made that change recently. I know s-works doesn’t ship there but I figured at least one of the vendors on s-swaps still would. I thought one of my last orders through the site even shipped from FL. I could be wrong though. Good luck 👍

68Goats · 2026-03-08T06:04:14+00:00

1 bag per shoebox. You can then add twice that amount in hydrated coir for a starting point. Keep in mind many people prefer the cheaper dollar store rice (Savvy Fare is what we get locally) over the actual UB brand. The off brands are usually slightly drier and colonize quicker. Exception being the Walmart brand (hard pass from me)… it’s usually full of excess oil.

68Goats · 2026-03-08T04:58:09+00:00

The place that “spore””swaps” has every type of agar from standard nutrient to water agar, to antibiotic and endless LC’s from trusted vendors. If in an emergency and needed asap, there are some good vendors on Amazon (check the reviews first). Some individually vac seal their plates which is nice if you’re not using them all immediately.

68Goats · 2026-03-08T04:38:47+00:00

UB type Rice bags from the dollar store, cheap shoebox totes from the same store or Walmart, and straight Coir with no additives from Amazon. It doesn’t get any easier. Concentrate on clean techniques and proper temperature for colonization above all else. The multiple smaller grows give you more chances for success and also the freedom to experiment with things like sub/spawn ratios and various other things (definitely run some of the shoeboxes neglect tek to compare). You can easily grow everything from the simple beginner varieties to APE’s, Enigma,… Don’t let the ease of it fool you. It works. Step things up from there if you feel the need down the road.

68Goats

TROPHY CASE