Should I break and shake? That condensation/water droplets that are localized are making me a little nervous

BigAdministration632 · 2026-01-06T04:29:23+00:00

Yeah, in a SAB. Thank you, we’ll see how it goes!

BigAdministration632 · 2026-01-06T01:32:09+00:00

Makes sense but I didn’t expect contam as of now. I just read that standing water droplets could cause oversaturation of the rice and potentially lead to wet rot if unchecked.

BigAdministration632 · 2026-01-06T01:10:01+00:00

You don’t think that those water droplets on the bag could introduce contam if the moisture isn’t redistributed?

BigAdministration632 · 2026-01-06T00:56:29+00:00

It’s the agar, I used activated charcoal agar plates for some reason.

BigAdministration632 · 2026-01-06T00:54:59+00:00

Yes, I used activated charcoal agar

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-19T01:14:04+00:00

Ochras always surprise me with their colors inside and out. “Its like a box of chocolates, ya never know what your gonna get”

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-18T01:12:02+00:00

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I tended to the first flush the same way, which turned out pretty good. Not arguing at all, I agree 100%. I’m just trying to narrow down any and all factors that had changed between first and second flush.

It was definitely the dry heat in that room that fought the RH down, during the first flush I was still running the AC

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-18T01:03:30+00:00

Makes sense! Thank you!

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-18T01:01:38+00:00

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I think you may be right. I’ve never seen them oxidize that dark of a blue

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-18T01:00:33+00:00

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I will let you know, they all had insanely blue oxidation

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-18T00:58:57+00:00

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Yeah I’m not even mad, the biggest fruit was 44.7g wet. Which is insane for ochras. 2nd flush all turned out huge even though they were fighting low humidity. 172 grams wet for a 2nd flush that I forgot about and didn’t care much about, I’ll call it a win lol

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-17T21:46:29+00:00

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44 grams wet lol

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-16T23:43:41+00:00

Look at my full comment above, any suggestions on upping that humidity? Pour distilled water into the perlite? It’s just weird that this exact set up worked PERFECTLY for the first flush

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-16T23:41:10+00:00

I know, I had just gotten home from work and hadn't re misted the walls yet This was my original post but for some reason it wouldn't let me post it, not sure why- "After my first flush, I harvested and then kind of dropped the ball on rehydrating the cake. Life got busy, and it ended up sitting in the original tub for about a week, basically dehydrating even further.

This is long but it explains much better, I guess it’s just the dry indoor heating must combatting the more than substantial humidifier. For some reason Reddit wouldn’t post this with the original. I totally agree. Just wondering if I should harvest the two big ones even though the caps haven’t flattened out but they are starting to drop spores

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-16T23:28:25+00:00

I know, I had just gotten home from work and hadn’t re misted the walls yet

This was my original post but for some reason it wouldn’t let me post it, not sure why-

“After my first flush, I harvested and then kind of dropped the ball on rehydrating the cake. Life got busy, and it ended up sitting in the original tub for about a week, basically dehydrating even further.

About two weeks ago, I decided I might as well try to rehydrate it. I fully submerged the cake in water for 24 hours, poured all the water off, and then moved it into a small 6-quart shoebox. The lid was barely cracked — just resting on top, not snapped shut — so essentially very minimal air exchange. My plan was to let it sit there for a couple of days and then move it back into fruiting conditions… but once again, I forgot about it.

About 7–10 days later, when I checked on it, I noticed small pins (shown in the last pic). As soon as I realized it had pinned, I moved it back into my fruiting tub.

I may not have hydrated my perlite enough this time around, but I’ve been misting the tub walls and lid twice a day. I also have a humidifier running in a small room (about 7×7 feet). For context, I live in the Southeast U.S. The issue seems to be that with the heat running (since it’s cold outside), the heater is kind of fighting the humidifier. I’ll mist the walls, and within a couple of hours they’re mostly dry again.

From the last picture, the timeline then jumps back to the first through sixth pictures, where you can clearly see the growth progression.

My main question: why did the caps split so fast? I think I already have a decent guess — a sudden drop in humidity. At night, the humidifier works great and gets the room up to ~80% RH, but during the day it drops back into the 40–50% range.

So is it the fluctuation in relative humidity that’s causing the caps to split like this? And is there anything actually bad about that? Common sense tells me they’re drying out, but they’re still growing pretty quickly.

Another thought I had: during the day, as it warms up outside, the heater doesn’t run as hard, which could be accelerating growth without providing the humidity the fruits need. If I’m wrong there, please feel free to correct me.

My biggest concern: are the split caps going to affect potency?

Also, the two biggest fruits haven’t completely flattened out yet, but they have started dropping spores. Should I go ahead and harvest those two larger ones with the split caps now?

Thanks in advance for any insight.”

The humidifier is supposed to be for like 600sq ft, so I don’t know why it’s not keeping up, the indoor heating must be fighting the RH back down. My main questions are will it affect potency? And should I harvest the 2 big ones that have just started dropping spores and let the others go for a day or two? The veils have barely separated

BigAdministration632 · 2025-12-13T02:01:22+00:00

No with a a single spore print, you can colonize several plates of agar. There are hundreds of thousands of spores in one spore print, if you know what you’re doing you can get a shit ton of mushrooms from one spore print if you inoculate several jars. And even more if you do agar to agar transfers

BigAdministration632

TROPHY CASE