John Allen Grow- Began Nov 24, 2023 - Contaminated Jan 26, 2024. RIP.
Nov 24, Day 1
Dec 10 - Making progress
Dec 15 - Almost time to break up the bag
Dec 25 - Time to break up the bag
This will accelerate colonization. Hopefully it's just another week until we move to the tun.
This is how the bags looked post break up
Jan 10 - Send It!
The bags looked like this....
So they went into the tubs. Should be about 4 weeks!
Jan 25, 2024
Everything was good, and we were just about to pin (hyphal knots and healthy mycelium) but I forgot to change the filters to fruiting conditions before I left on a trip. When I got back and started to change to filters, I saw this.....
I've never had a tub get contaminated before, but never say never. And this time, it was both tubs. So... what happened?
- Could have been a mistake from bag to bin. Seeks unlikely bc we were almost to pins before I left and I wasn't seeing contamination, but possible because I hadn't taken the tops off the bins and looked closely.
- Could have been that I left them too long with painter's tape. The bins fully showed that the mycelium were struggling (lots of pee) - and maybe that gave the mold enough of an advantage to win.
I mentioned before that contamination will break your heart. Mine is definitely broken. I thought I was coming home to pins. I came home to trash instead.
Note - if you ever have this - GET IT OUTSIDE IMMEDIATELY. Don't open it in the house and definitely don't smell it. This stuff is nasty .
I'll start a new batch this weekend.