| Make Holes in the Canning Lids Take the lids from the � pint jars and use the drill or hammer and nail to poke holes in them. One hole per lid is sufficient, however some people prefer to use 2 or 4 holes, so they can inoculate the cake in more than one spot. This has the advantage of faster colonization of the cake, since growth starts in several places. The disadvantage is that every time the syringe needle goes into the cake, there is a chance for contamination. Most guides suggest using 4 holes. Make sure that the holes are not too close to the edge of the lid. About �" (2 cm) in from the edge is sufficient Mix Up the Substrate Using the appropriate quantities as outlined in the table below, mix the vermiculite and brown rice flour together in the mixing bowl, using the large spoon. Add the water and mix thoroughly. This will take some patience and will probably wear out your arm a bit. If you are concerned about the purity of the tap water in your area, you may want to used distilled water rather than tap water. In most cases, though, tap water is fine. The recipe below often comes out just a bit more than what you need for the jars. Simply discard any extra substrate. Don't try to pack it into the jars, because you want the substrate to be airy and fluffy for optimal growth. Click Here for the mixing chart and mix calculator . Add Substrate to the Jars Using the mixing spoon, fill each jar to within �" (2 cm) of the top of the jar. It is very important that the substrate mix be open and airy, not packed into the jar. Dump it in, shake any excess back into the bowl, but don�t pack it down at all. Mycelium will grow best in all those little open spaces. Seal the Jars Carefully wipe clean the exposed inner wall of the jar and the rim. Fill to the top with clean dry vermiculite, screw on the lid and band tightly, and cover the lid with a large square of aluminum foil, to prevent water droplets from entering. Optionally, breathable tape such as cloth surgical tape, can be placed over the holes. Your jar is sealed and ready for sterilization. Sterilizing the Jars Place the finished jars in your pressure cooker or pressure canner, and cook them at 15psi for 45-60 minutes, according to the instructions for your pressure cooker/canner. Let the entire apparatus cool completely. Do not try to open the pressure cooker before it is cool to the touch, and do not try to speed the cooling process, as a quick change in temperature could crack the jars. Be sure to let the jars cool for several hours, because heat is often trapped in the center of the cake, even if the jar feels cool. This heat can kill your spores if you try to inoculate too soon after cooking. It�s best if you can let your jars cool overnight. The jars are now sealed containers of sterile substrate. If you have done everything correctly, they can be stored indefinitely until you are ready to use them. Steam [Semi-]Sterilization Since a pressure cooker can often be difficult to obtain, a common substitute used is simply boiling the jars in a pot of steaming water. The pot is filled until the water is about halfway up the side of the jars, and then a lid is put on the pot to hold the steam in. Boil for at least an hour. This method works to some degree, and I have heard of people having a 100% success rate using it. More common, however, is that some jars will get contaminated with bacteria, since many bacteria can withstand normal boiling temperatures. I have also heard of people getting 100% contamination using this method. Spore Injection Once you�re ready to inoculate, shake up the spore syringe to get as many spores as possible off the sides of the syringe and into the water. Carefully remove the cap over the syringe needle and slide the needle into one of the holes in the jar lid. Shove it all the way in, so that the needle goes into the cake itself. Gently squeeze out about .5-1.0 cc of spore solution into each jar, splitting up the amount if you inject through more than one hole. Some people suggest using an entire cc of solution per jar, however I have had great success with only .5cc each. Be careful that nothing but the jar and substrate touch the needle, and re-cap it immediately after using it to avoid contaminating the needle. Also be careful of using too much spore solution. With spore syringes it can be easy to accidentally push the plunger on the syringe too forcefully and dump out way too much solution. Once each jar is inoculated, it is ready for incubation. There is no need to put tape over the holes in the lid, because the dry vermiculite in the Ramsey Seal will keep out any contaminants. |
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