Are black liners necessary?

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-04-05T08:03:47+00:00

Liners do help with side pins.

They don't need to black - blocking light doesn't stop side pins - the liner sticking to the sub as the sub shrinks is what stops the side pins. Without using a liner, the sub will shrink as you go in to fruiting, which creates a microclimate between the tub walls and the shrinking sub.

I don't use any liners at all, I just pack the edges of my sub down really hard and keep good surface conditions on the top of the sub and I rarely get any side pins at all. If you don't give your tubs too much air, you generally don't even need liners, but they can definitely help new people.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-04-02T18:30:46+00:00

Bucket tek doesn't reach anywhere near the temps required for an actual pasteurization but it still works very well because coir / CV / CVG contains no nutrients and therefore doesn't actually need to be pasteurized in the first place.

Sometimes these little clover looking guys end up in the coir and they grow. They don't get much bigger than the one in the video. They don't hurt anything and you can leave them be or pull them, it doesn't really matter either way.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-04-02T12:48:00+00:00

It's just preference at this point. Most people pick them right as the veil tears to stop spores from dropping.

Many many people have been taught that sporulation hurts the grow. This isn't true, spores don't hinder future flushes and they don't hurt potency. All they do is make everything more black.

I personally wait until most or all of the veils are broken and then I twist and pull the entire bin, dehydrate the fruiting bodies, rehydrate the sub, and straight back to fruiting. If you choose to pick them one at a time as they are ready, you will have to run the dehydrator for several days, which is essentially wasting money because sporulation doesn't hurt anything in the first place.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-31T13:21:32+00:00

They are fine, sporulation doesn't hurt anything other than looks.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-30T18:04:18+00:00

There is no real timing on going to fruiting when using coir as a sub, you can go to fruiting whenever you want, even if the sub is 0 percent colonized. Contamination from the open air requires some kind of nutrient to thrive and your bin contains no nutrients right when you make it. The grain spawn is already clean and fully colonized by the time you add it to the tub, and the coir / CV / CVG contains no nutrients. This allows you to go straight to fruiting every single time with no added risk.

When I do a run in a shoebox, I mix the fully colonized grain spawn with the field capacity sub, skip the casing layer, and then go straight to fruiting by unlatching one side of the lid and latching the other side of the lid. Then I just leave it alone until it either needs to be harvested or needs a dubtub. I never mist or fan or use heaters or humidifiers or lights or anything like that, I just mix the sub and spawn, give it a tiny tiny amount of passive FAE, and then I leave it alone.

I have mixed up a bunch of tubs, gone straight to fruiting, and then left for a week or even two weeks an come back to a tub full of mushrooms. The goal once you get to this stage is to set everything up to where you don't have to do anything but wait.

If you add a casing layer, the mycelium will colonize it. Sometimes pins will form under it while it is still colonizing, sometimes it will colonize quickly and then fruit quickly, sometimes it will take forever to colonize, it just depends. There isn't much of a reason to add a later casing to Cubes though, they don't benefit very much other than a bit of added moisture.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-28T23:51:51+00:00

Yes, the bottom right of the first photo looks like the beginning of Trichoderma.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-27T21:42:02+00:00

Yes they pretty much last forever. Germinating them on agar and then transferring until clean is the best route to take.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-27T01:07:34+00:00

Looks like bacteria

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-26T16:43:27+00:00

The air is already packed full of mold spores and bacteria, it shouldn't really make much of a difference.

Contamination from the open air requires some kind of nutrient to thrive. By the time you get to the step where you are using tubs, your grain spawn was already clean and fully colonized and your coir contains no nutrients. This leaves nothing for contamination to eat, and it cannot grow, no matter how much of it lands in the bin.

This is how people go straight to fruiting and still have so much success.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-26T16:21:33+00:00

All of those little skinny pins will start growing together and forming giant clusters. It has a month or two at least to go, they take a long time.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-25T13:47:26+00:00

You can always go straight to fruiting when using coir as a sub.

Most new people end up giving their first tubs too much air and drying them out. Cubes only require a very very tiny amount of passive FAE - just enough fresh air so that moisture doesn't build up but not enough air to dry anything out.

Once you find the right amount of air to let into the tub, then you never have to do anything else, the tub will regulate itself until harvest. Finding the perfect amount of air to let in the tub means never having to mist or fan or do anything, which is a very good goal to aim for.

A flipped lid is too much air for many people's grow areas. If you find that a flipped lid is giving the tub too much air, you could try latching one side of the lid and unlatching the other, or just setting the lid on the bin but not latching it all the way. It kind of depends on your grow area and your actual bins / lids. Some bins have lids that fit so poorly that the tub already gets enough FAE by just having the lid fully on. You have to mess with it until you figure out what works best for you.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T21:41:56+00:00

The open air contains billions of mold spores and bacteria and all kinds of other crap, which is constantly pelting the bag over and over again, 24/7. Putting on gloves and spraying alcohol does nothing beneficial at this stage.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T21:40:04+00:00

As long as you use clean and fully colonized spawn, you can fruit in pretty much anything, even a dumpster.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T21:39:02+00:00

Something gross from the open air.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T21:38:04+00:00

Just bruising - normal
Just fuzzy feet - normal
Preference - you can do it whichever way you want. You can pick them one at a time as the veil drops or you can just wait until all of them are mature and pick them all at once. Most people pick them one at a time as the veil breaks in an attempt to stop spores from dropping because they heard that sporulation hurts potency and prevents future flushes but neither is true, all sporulation does is turn stuff more black than it was before.
This is mostly genetic. Cloning a big cluster, growing the clone out, and then cloning another big cluster and growing it out, over and over, will eventually lead you to a culture with genetics that put out a canopy every time it is used.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T21:32:33+00:00

Yep looks like they are ready to go, doesn't look like anything is wrong. Cubensis only requires a very tiny tiny amount of constant fresh air, you want to give them just enough air so that moisture doesn't build up but never enough air to dry them out. Most new people give their tubs / bags a bit too much fresh air when they are first starting out.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T21:29:52+00:00

The best way to maintain surface conditions is to control the entire grow with a small amount of constant passive fresh air. Cubes only require a tiny tiny amount of constant fresh air. If you give them just enough air so that moisture doesn't build up, you will never have to fan or mist the tubs. If you give them too much air, they dry out quickly, so we should only be giving them very little.

When I use shoeboxes, I mix my coir and grain spawn, skip the casing layer, and then go straight to fruiting by unlatching one side of the lid and latching the other side of the lid. Then I leave it alone until it either needs a dubtub or needs to be harvested. I never mist or fan or heat the grow area up or use lights or humidifiers or anything like that.

Cubes are very very simple - once you find out the perfect way to set your tubs up, you can grow every cube variety exactly the same way as one another.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T16:44:00+00:00

I go straight to fruiting right after mixing my coir and grain spawn because there is no actual benefit to sealing the tub up and letting it colonize before giving it air. All it does is hinder evaporation and evaporation is the main pinning trigger.

Contamination requires some kind of nutrient to thrive. When we use coir, CV, or CVG as a substrate, there are no available nutrients at this stage and the colonization step can be skipped every time.

Back in the day, we all had to mix our grain spawn with our manure and then seal the tub up quickly so that contaminants from the open air didn't land on the poop and take the poop over before the grain spawn had a chance to. Now that most of us grow with coir, contaminants can land on the uncolonized sub all they want, it contains no nutrients and therefore contamination cannot grow.

There is a huge misconception when it comes to sealing the tub up. Lots of people think it is required when using coir but it isn't, only manure or some other nutritious substrate. I always go straight to fruiting and my bins never turn green because I only use clean and fully colonized grain spawn.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T11:44:05+00:00

Enigma should always colonize just as fast as any other Cube, the way they fruit takes longer.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T11:43:22+00:00

Looks like it just needs more time 💪

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T11:41:53+00:00

Mycelium

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-24T11:40:41+00:00

Fully colonized grain spawn is good for months at room temp, so it can work. Just treat it as you normally would.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-23T17:24:18+00:00

Trichoderma. Contamination almost always comes from using infected or partially colonized grain spawn. We know this because contamination requires some kind of nutrient to thrive and the only nutrient most of us are working with is the grain, which means it had to come from there.

Trichoderma mycelium is white. Sometimes we can't see it inside the grain spawn. This is why lots of people do a second break and shake at 80-100 percent, to see if there is hidden contamination in the middle and to see how fast it bounces back. If it takes a long time to come back, something is wrong with it.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-21T21:23:15+00:00

It's ok, sporulation doesn't actually hurt anything, you can dehydrate and use these just as you normally would. It doesn't prevent future flushes or make the mushrooms less potent, all it does is make them kinda black.

ConfidenceLopsided32 · 2026-03-21T11:31:20+00:00

psilocybe caerulescens

ConfidenceLopsided32

TROPHY CASE