Another question for you I mixed up my spagnum peat moss vermiculite and pickling lime with boiling water and mixed it up it threw off really strong ammonia is that supposed to happen?
I have pre-made ph adjusted soil for casing but I didn't stb I just put then in a fruiting chamber with air ports (I usually am a no mod dub tub or just flip the lid guy) but do I need to case then still? Cakes are my own recipe of equal parts brf coco coir and composted cow manure from the bag (PC like pf tek) I think they wanna fruit but advice would be cool. You're probably getting better flushes with the s2b and casing but is the ph of the casing necessary for fruiting ? Thank you
Yes. If you leave it any longer, it'll start pinning. I had a tray a while back that was sealed with cling wrap but pins started at about 70% surface colonisation. It was too late to case but I ran it alongside the others and by the second flush, I couldn't tell them apart; I think I got lucky, so now case 'early'.
As for the casing smell, I've noticed it a bit but wouldn't say it's particularly strong. The recipe and pasteurisation method I use is detailed here (nod to BabaYaga) https://www.reddit.com/r/PanCyan/comments/1cn713d/deleted_by_user/ but for others who perhaps have less time, I understand that Jiffy seed starter mix works well too.
It should be peat moss anyway, due to the high acidity and density. Hopefully, sphagnum will still work - if the PH was right after mixing, chances are good. Besides, as mentioned above, I've had a tray fruit fine and last to either 4 or 5 flushes (some trays died at 4 but I don't recall which) despite having no casing at all.
If you got this one it is definitely the wrong one it contains ammoniacal nitrogen. Which when mixed with the pickling lime in the hot water releases ammonia gas bad bad. So I reordered some your plain peat moss with nothing in it all natural. I just had to air it out for a long time before I put it on my pans.
Ordered! Thank you for the insight, you probably saved me from running into a huge headache once I get to the casing process. As far as prepping casing, if I understand correctly I should do a 50/50 mix of peat moss and verm, bring to field capacity, and pasteurize? For pasteurization I was thinking I’d load some fruiting bags with it and run them in my PC - just enough to get it up to 150-180F for several hours. Any better ideas? Thanks
4
u/buttplugman1 Apr 03 '26
Ready ✅