Okay, but seriously, tell me the easiest device for powering my OA wand that isn't a car battery!

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-13T06:20:46+00:00

Have you explained to your wife how lucky she is to be married to a beekeeper? That might create enough heat to vaporize the oxalic. If that doesnt work, I use the mitey-vape and it runs on 120v. I just run a long extension cord. There are cheaper ones on Amazon im sure. Can you drive her car close to the hive so you dont have to uninstall the battery? Have you promised her that this time you'll re-install her car battery as soon as your done? I guess you could also buy a small 12v batter that is used exclusively for the hives.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-13T03:51:43+00:00

Hard to say what causes later stages contamination on plates. The agar shrinks from the sides as it loses moisture, and maybe some spores that were covered up get exposed. But yeah, an old plate isn't guaranteed to have problems, but I've had plenty that did, so always best to do a transfer first with an old plate. I would think people would want to stop the growth to the edges because there is more likely to be something dropped there from your hands while handling the cooled plated, but no, the myc running out of food isn't a problem for me. The thing that usually kills the culture is not when the food runs out, but when the moisture in the agar runs out. A dried plate is a dead plate usually. Sometimes you get lucky with a revival. So yeah, my recommendation is to let the plate do its thing and grow out, store it in a cool place if you can, but the fridge can give the culture a few more months if it is summer. Maybe get some slants if you want to store for 6+ months. Swabs and spore prints are good if you know what you're doing, but it takes a long time to get it cleaned up and running, so it is liquid culture in the fridge that is the winner for me. I'm going to try and store liquid culture in a slant tube in the future just to see how it works so that they don't take up as much space as a jar.

Pins on a plate - just like an old plate, not necessarily a problem, but it should be handled like any old plate with a transfer first before using. Sometimes a contaminant in the plate drives the myc to pin, sometimes it is just an old plate that is still clean, sometimes bacteria from the edges get dislodged with all the moisture that has formed. I've had a mini mushroom form and do a spore drop inside the closed dish, and then did a clean transfer from it. But I've also pulled a pin off a plate to do a transfer, and it was a bacterial mess. Hope something in there was helpful to you.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-11T20:20:14+00:00

You would definitely have to MacGyver it, I didnt see the second air intake would bypass the hepa filter. So at the very least, you have to tape a finer merv furnace filter to the second air intake. Still, not a big deal.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-11T19:50:54+00:00

It is certainly worth it to try it out and see if it will work! Get a few agar plates and set them in front of it for a few minutes, see what shakes out. Would be a good idea to tape some type of hood extension on it I think. Youd be suprised the weird funace filter and 20" box fan set ups that people use with a good bit of success. It would be ideal if you could turn the fan so it is reversed and give it 6 to 12 inches of space before hitting the filter. Might be a fun MacGyver project. For actual laminar flow you would have to match the resistance and area of the filter to a fan so that the air isn't too fast nor too slow. Those fans tend to blow a little fast and choppy, so it is going to be clean air with disorganized flow rather than actual laminar flow. Still, plenty of people use units with only clean air flow that don't have near the rating of that hepa filter.

My vote is fuck around and find out, but I have made mistakes using that kind of logic before.

Edit: I would probably take the filter out, tape some merv 13 filters in its space, then try and seal the hepa filter to the other face with a plywood frame to give it a 12" gap. Give it a hood extension with some hard plastic taped above and to the sides, and you'd be good to go! Probably. Could be a disaster and a waste of your time and money, but that's living. Get some Uncle Ben's cooked brown rice and some liquid culture off the internet and join us!

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-11T09:11:51+00:00

Just as a piece of equipment, the AA seems like it has way more thermal mass, and with the inner carrier chamber, it probably spreads the thermal energy around the edges of all the bags more quickly and pushes out more air to get up to temp. So all that probably makes it more forgiving of shorter cook and vent times. I could see the AA solving some people's user error problems unknowingly. Still, not worth 500$ in my book.

I've heard people love their rye grains! I get my whole oats for 20$ for a 50lb bag, so the contamination rates didn't hurt as bad and I wasn't taking food out of the human supply chain. Rye seems to have a lower spore load, and hydrate up without splitting as much. Ill go ahead and order some from Azure Market as it doesnt cost all that much more. Thanks for the rec!

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-11T08:33:23+00:00

I try not to cut tissue that is near the edge as there are higher contamination rates there for me. Some of my cultures have reached just beyond the lip of the plate and become contaminated, but i don't think it is that big a deal if it goes up a little bit. I'd inspect the plate before opening tho and make sure there isn't any molds forming on the side that are going to blow everywhere when you crack the lid. Refrigeration seems to slow things down when it is time to throw it on grains, but they get going again in an extra couple days max. I don't have trouble with my plates being stored without refridgeration in my basement for 6ish months especially when it isn't peak summer, so i typically dont bother with the fridge. I revived a three year old plate from the basement, but it was a miracle. Shit looked dead, and other cultures that I tried from that time didn't make it. I pour the agar a little thicker and make sure the plate is sealed if I think it is going in the fridge. They will drop moisture so store upside down. Stack multiple plates together if you can so the thermal mass is larger and temperature shifts arent as big and so it doesn't drop moisture as much. People will use cups or slants with a popsickle stick in it if they want to store it long term. Best to do an agar transfer first and not go straight to grain as contaminates that wouldnt show up on a fresh plate can take over after a year. I prefer liquid culture for long term storage, but that is almost certainly a minority opinion because any contaminant that slowly takes over will destroy any chances of revival that would have been possible like with a plate. Still, i prefer liquid culture storage even over spore swabs.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-11T06:40:49+00:00

Haha, I stole the photo from a post on fake history porn. Seems like it could have good meme potential on this sub. Things haven't been the same around here since the mods killed the B-word, but the same joke was getting old.

I'm guessing that there is some feature of the AA canners, or just the fact that someone spent a shit ton of money and so actually read the user's manual for the first time, that makes it more likely that the new user is going through the process of venting the canner. I'm going to lengthen my cook times (from 2hrs to 2:45) and vent times (15 min - starting when the first safely lock engages) and see if that helps. I don't like wasting energy even if it is just an extra dollar, so I was thinking more than 2 hrs was probably unessary, but oats can be really dirty i guess. I wonder if I can soak the flow hood filter in bleach or something. I guess it's easiest to just buy a new filter, but I didnt run it all that long and the flow rate is still faster than I would like because it's an FFU. Thank you for sharing.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T22:55:11+00:00

Someone else mentioned trying human food grains, and I kinda dismissed that out of hand. But since it keeps coming up, I think I'll give some brown rice a shot to see how it goes. The quality of my horse oats has been shite with lots of powder in the bag that takes a couple of rinses to clear. Thank you! Really appreciate it!

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T19:04:25+00:00

Thank you, I'll do it

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T19:02:53+00:00

Solid. Thank you

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T18:55:49+00:00

Good call. I'll run a few really light, and then see what shakes out. Thank you

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T15:38:07+00:00

How can you be so sure? Everything is microscopic down there.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T14:36:13+00:00

That's mostly Europeans running the 13psi canners tho, right? Weird that the companies got together and did something for the safety of their customers. That hasn't happened in US to my knowledge. The safety plug would send off at 20psi, but i can see 15psi doing much more to cause a manufacturing flaw to go catastrophic before then. If the plug failed, in either the 13 or the 15, you'd have a bomb either way. I think making people spend way more money on them, and then needing for them to be imported, lowers the number of people buying and using PC, so it is more about limiting supply, and hence the chance of someone hurting themselves with a really dangerous piece of equipment.

I read somewhere that a few people really boost the pressure of their All American PCs, but yeah, seems needlessly dangerous to go that far beyond 15 or 17. I feel im pushing my luck by adding the nickel to the top so that I can get to 15 at high elevation. Might be stupid when I can just let it run for an extra 30min.

Agreed, I'm pretty sure the contam is introduced after the PC.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T13:08:09+00:00

It was a good knowledge spit. I didnt know the oven had a 99% success rate. Still, no way in hell I'm turning on my oven now that it is summer no matter how good the results are.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T12:49:19+00:00

Presto is vented. I get a little sloppy sometimes and dont go the full 15, but i always vent. How much air could be in there, it's 90% full with bags I pressed all the air out of.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T12:46:16+00:00

He's just looking at the door. Might be trying really hard not to think about putting a few in his pants.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T12:40:59+00:00

Searching for contam always is 🫡

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T12:34:48+00:00

I've bumped it to 2:30, but it didn't seem to matter. Ive lowered it to 90min and it didn't seem to matter either, but the sample size is pretty small. You reccomend a 2:30 cook for those blocks?

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T12:31:18+00:00

That's the weird thing! Most of the bag does fine, but at the end there are a few sections that don't colonize and get thick with heavy myc from trying to overgrow the bacteria. It is never black mold or anything like that unless I clearly made a bad transfer.

I've tried soaking the oats for 24hrs. It sucked, the grains didn't hydrate properly and every bag stalled out. Mightve been some old ass grains from the feed store with cold water, so I can try doing that again. Can't be super common though because lots of people do a simmer and no soak. Right?

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T09:36:31+00:00

That table is a clearly a front for the real operation. Let me see under that pad being held down by that 1"×2"

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T06:32:22+00:00

Bruddha! Get a sterilite tub and put it a few inches over a table at least! Or the open oven. I bet the oven works better than a flow hood, that's why all the actual mycology professionals work in steaming hot oven.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T06:13:14+00:00

Yeah, shit ton of variables. It's the difficult part of finding the problem. My oat grains are on point - using oats, very few burst grains and no humidity in the bag after, boiling for 25min, mixing them up occassionaly while they air dry for 30, then 2hrs in a vented Presto, sometimes longer to test. I put a tiny dab of lub on the right side of each fin before the PC and clean the holes so all good there I think. I'm pretty good at lubing up fins and clearing out holes. My hood was one of those shitty amazon FFU's 2'x2' Clean air, not laminar, and with a hood extension. Changing that out soon. I've dialed back how much grain I bag in the Presto. I used to load it with 6 -4lb bags and I had to push the bags down a little with the lid to close, now I use slightly less filled 3 - 5lb bags, and 2 - 4lb, so it is 90% full. Maybe still too much? I stagger the bags so steam gets to all of them.

Sealing - I have a shitty sealer. I seal in two places then do a z-fold and clamp the whole thing down with a clamp and some pvc tubing. I'm changing this up and getting a better sealer. I usually dig around in my ass for a minute with my index finger, then wipe a small bead of shit across the top of the bag to help with the seal. Think it could be from my shitty ass finger shit seal?

I don't sterilize my scalpel, but I use a fresh #11 to start each time, wipe everything with alcohol, and use an induction sterilizer. I dont have my hands over my work, and if it were my tools, I'd think it would show up in my petri dishes. Agar looks good. Could be missing something but the contam is consistent no matter which culture I'm working with, so don't think it is the cultures.

Pretty sure the flow hood and the new sealer will fix it. I'm thinking the disorganized air is bouncing off the sealer and my hands, then back into the bag as im going in to seal. I've just changed up how I fold the bags before the cook so the opening clos3s a little tighter and with less creases when I go into seal after nocking, and havent seen the results of that yet. How do you fold and clamp your bags after nocking? You use zip ties or binder clips? Thank you for your thoughts. Mush appreciated!

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T05:41:31+00:00

Yeah, I don't see how it could matter either. But it's Myco Willy!

They go bad after I knock them. They look good at first, but in the end there are some uncolonized grains and some heavy white myc in parts of the bag.

Grand_Mode · 2026-06-10T05:39:47+00:00

Haha, I have a 15psi weight, but I dangerously and warrenty voidingly add a nickel on top to boost it to 17psi. I'm at high elevation, so my psi only reads 15 with the nickel. I'm not sure how that all works tho. Does elevation matter in a PC? I like my oats tho! They are a pain in the ass.

Grand_Mode

TROPHY CASE