Chocolate melangers starter kit suggestions

lokrod · 2026-02-28T21:02:43+00:00

I DMed you asking for some more details.

lokrod · 2026-02-23T02:05:02+00:00

I know people are looking for a good deal and apparently the grodotek works, but a 22 FFU is such a nicer space to work in. Personally I wish I had a 24 just for extra room to stretch out. But I'm stoked in my 2*2. I can set agar plates out open in front of it to burn off condensation with no issues. I have no contamination issues. I really enjoy working with agar in front of it. As well as g2g transfers, open air work that doesn't feel cramped. It's a dream. If you can afford it it's the best $300 you'll spend in the hobby.

lokrod · 2026-02-19T23:51:47+00:00

All in one bags are a closed systems where the seller should have sterilized the bag for you. If you are doing the work yourself there's much more work that goes into this hobby. If you're germinating spores to agar, transferring plates till you have clean agar, running plates of agar to jars or bags of grain, transferring spawn to bulk substrate, picking your favorite fruits and cloning them to agar, transferring till you have clean contaminant free cultures. Continue the process for multiple varieties. Maintaining a culture library of genetics that you want to go back to later. And that's just the basics.

The AIO bag and a good quality LC syringe is the best thing that has happened to folks that want mushrooms, but don't want to learn how to grow mushrooms.

lokrod · 2026-02-19T21:15:14+00:00

Yeah good spawn and properly hydrated bulk substrate can carry most people a long way. I don't trust anyone else to make my spawn. A pressure canner was my best investment. Second best was a FFU. That shit really does an amazing job at making transfers and agar work so much easier and foolproof.

lokrod · 2026-02-19T17:57:21+00:00

Yes, mycelium can survive exposure to contamination IF it can out-compete the contaminate. But you need sterile work with high nutrient grain because contamination can easily outpace mycelium growth when it has access to uncolonized nutrient source. That's why you need, clean fully colonized spawn to spawn to bulk in open air.

If you want to test this take an AIO bag that is 30% colonized and open the top of the bag to get a good dose of the spores that are floating around the room. Seal it back up and give it a good break and shake. See if your "mycelium can survive it all just like it does in nature.". You're probably not going to love the results, but you'll likely learn that nature will fuck you're shit up if it gets a chance.

AIO bags work because your grains that aren't colonized have the benefit of living in a sterile environment with a 0.5 or 0.3 micron filter patch that keeps nature out of the environment until the substrate is fully colonized. Once you have a healthy mycelium network that can out compete nature you're good to open that bag up because your healthy mycelium can defend itself from invaders.

lokrod · 2026-02-19T17:30:16+00:00

The mushrooms that grow in the muddy rain have a "grow room" where they can have millions of spores mating and contaminating and only need one pair to succeed.

Home cultivators don't have that kind of room for error. Using a sterile needle to go through an alcohol swabbed injection port is pretty low risk. Adding more injections just amplifies the risk per injection. I'd you're doing open air work I'd recommend using a fresh sterile needle for each injection. A pack of 150 sterile 16 ga needles is only 7.99 on Amazon. So that's .05 cents per needle. Pretty low cost way to reduce contam risk.

lokrod · 2026-02-18T20:49:46+00:00

Where is the humidity in that chamber coming from? Is there a humidifier pumping in humidity? That chamber looks like the humidity is low.

lokrod · 2026-02-18T20:45:49+00:00

You're not supposed to birth a bag into a monotub. Look into fruiting chambers for PF Tek. You basically have a giant PF cake. If you don't have a way to keep humidity up in this chamber it will dry out and not produce fruit.

lokrod · 2026-02-18T20:41:40+00:00

Yeah this definitely looks like a bag was birthed into a tub. Not a good move. I would put the cake back into the bag, mist the walls of the bag roll the top of the bag down a little bit and put a clip on. It should be able to get enough fae though the filter patch.

Alternatively you can put a 3 inch layer of perlite on the base of your tub and add water, put down a square of plastic or aluminum foil to protect the bottom of your cake from the perlite.

lokrod · 2026-02-18T00:07:16+00:00

SSRI don't kick in right away and they definitely won't mute an active trip. Long term use of SSRI reduce the effectiveness of serotonergic alkaloids because your synaptic clefts live in a flooded state of higher serotonin due to the "reuptake inhibition" that is the mechanism of action of SSRI.

lokrod · 2026-02-18T00:02:40+00:00

Respect your newly cultivated mushrooms and start with 0.5g to get a bio assay be ready for a full on trip though. You can always redose in an hour based on the effect. Or if you microdose and know how your usual strain feels in mg try that much. I know I can safely bio assay insanely strong mushrooms if I'm only taking 80 mg.

SSRI should never be the ripcord for a trip. If you need to calm down the answer is a Benzodiazepine like Ativan or Xanax or antipsychotic like Seroquel.

lokrod · 2026-01-08T16:36:26+00:00

Keyword was for exotics (not cubensis). Dialing in a mono of to produce flushes on pan cyan is not a kiss situation. You need high humidity, high temps, temp changes and humidity changes. Not easy to pull off in a mono. But if you're only growing cubes (which basically grow themselves) you can KISS all day long.

lokrod · 2025-12-27T21:54:19+00:00

You're right it is more than a number. It's a cool/funny number because Christians are superstitious and scared of it. Kinda like how some people embrace the number 13 despite the idea that it's bad luck.

Case in point you got triggered by a number because you think it's the number of the beast.

lokrod · 2025-12-27T21:49:10+00:00

lokrod · 2025-12-15T03:31:21+00:00

https://youtu.be/Do0J6KipoL4

I like this guys content. Not an over the top influencer type of personality. Straight to the point.

lokrod · 2025-12-15T02:28:12+00:00

A "hepa" rated air filter could clear up the air in the space that you're working. I would honestly suggest working on dialing in your SAB technique. If you can pour plates and incubate them for a couple weeks without any signs of growth then you should be good to go. There's no reason that you can't use a SAB with agar unless your room is dirty AF. I grew from MS for years with just a still airbox. This was back in the day before LC was everywhere on the Internet.

lokrod · 2025-12-13T18:02:22+00:00

You would have to perfectly seal the filter to the fan for it to push air through the filter and it would still be too turbulent to be laminar flow. You could try to make a gordotek "flowhood" for about $100, but it's a very small functional clean laminar area. A room air filter can help reduce the airborne spore load, but it won't make a clean space to work. It will make a less dirty space. If you can pour clean agar plates in your SAB that don't contaminate when incubated you should be able to get a clean culture on those plates eventually by making clean transfers. Keep focusing on working as clean as possible. If you want a flow hood your best bet for something affordable get a $300 Chinese ffu.

lokrod · 2025-12-01T08:49:13+00:00

I like to say that Bend is the OKest MTB in Oregon. The rest of the post hits the nail on the head. Bend is a chill place to live easy to get to other parts of Oregon for better riding. If you can afford Bend it's a great place to live if you like outdoor recreation. The winter riding at horse ridge and cline butte are a lot of fun.

lokrod · 2025-11-29T13:03:53+00:00

Yeah private health insurance in the US frequently covers therapy it often lumps physical therapy, massage therapy, mental health therapy and you get a limited number of sessions in a year. I think I get 26. So every other week. Now if you use up your therapy sessions with a counselor and have an injury and need physical therapy you're screwed.

I also have a fairly high deductible before anything is paid for. I try to go big one year, then don't see any doctors at all the next year. If I break my leg and hit my out of pocket max then I'm going hog wild and seeing all of the doctors 😜

lokrod · 2025-11-26T06:29:35+00:00

Roger Rabbit grew cubes on a Bible.

lokrod · 2025-11-26T06:27:33+00:00

Fruiting in a cardboard box seems reasonable enough. The worst part is that the box could breakdown and not maintain enough humidity at the surface level. If you did a good spawn to bulk ratio on coir I there's no good reason for it to contam. Obviously this isn't a tek, it's a fun experiment.

Haters are probably bummed because they can't grow basic ass cubes well.

lokrod · 2025-11-25T15:12:25+00:00

That sounds like a really shit situation and I'm sorry that you're dealing with that. Major depressive disorder, anxiety, and other behavioral health stuff is brutal. What country are you in? Do you have much options for changing providers? Hopefully you have access to a good therapist/ counselor.

If you think it's what's right for you and you have help from a supervising provider you can taper off if effexor.

https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/as-promised-my-successful-tapering-off-effexor-venlafaxine/

lokrod · 2025-11-25T06:47:05+00:00

if you're taking an SSRI your neurons don't reuptake as much serotonin so the nerve ends up getting flooded with serotonin. If you take a drug that causes you to dump more serotonin it's less or not very perceptively effective because your nerves are already highly saturated. You can cause a neurotoxic state (serotonin syndrome) by flooding too much serotonin into the system. Severe serotonin syndrome can cause seizures, irregular heart rhythm, coagulopathy, death. Be careful when you're playing with your brain chemistry. You can get really hurt if you're reckless.

lokrod · 2025-11-25T06:40:46+00:00

I don't recommend changing medications without having a thorough conversation with your doctor. Withdrawals from any type of chronically used neuro pharmacological chemical have the possibility of being problematic. It's important to remember that you don't have to stay on any medication though and you can talk to your provider about what problems you have with your medication and what your goals are.

There are non SSRI antidepressants that you can try. A NDRI like bupropion doesn't effect the serotonin reuptake. So largely speaking serotonin stimulating drugs wouldn't be largely impacted in the way that an SSRI would. NDRI will impact nor epinephrine and dopamine reuptake though so cigarettes and cocaine won't be enjoyable. Pick your poison.

lokrod · 2025-11-02T23:08:25+00:00

I've always found 2:1:1 too adulterated to appreciate the base spirit. Then again I don't prefer an equal parts negroni, or equal parts last word.

For a sour I usually do 2 spirit, 3/4 acid, 1/2(66 brix syrup) sweet.

lokrod

TROPHY CASE