No pins after 15 days and maybe contam?

now 15 days after cutting the top off and still no pins( strain: PE )ive misted alot at first but have been toning it down to only misting if walls are dry and fanning air in twice a day, but ive also noticed the top of myc is blue and also getting these black/gray spots and was hoping to get some clarification as to whats going as because im a complete noob first time ever doing this so any help woukd be greatly appreciated thank you 8)

Blue spots with some black/gray tint is bruising, it's not a contamination. Most likely it's appeared due to heavy misting and/or fanning. For the future try to avoid misting the mycelium directly, water drops and water pools on mycelium, and hard fanning.

Check out more info and examples here: Mycelium bruising.

Is it all-in-one growkit/growbag? Or did you make this block yourself? I’d give it another week, since there are still some bald, uncolonized areas on the sides. I’d also skip misting for the first flush for this tek. We’ll see what to do next…

it is a all in one bag from magic bag the blue has gon away completly and some of the brusing too i was thinking it could be from me grabbing the bag maybe or i saw somehwhere that putting ice under the bag helped and shortly after i seen the blue awell as fanning to long. i will check back in a week hopfully sum pin action but thank you for the help i thought my block was cooked 0:

You're welcome!

Yes, bruises appear if you touch the bag or mycelium, due to hard fanning or misting.

Show me your cake on day 21-23 (top view + from the sides + bottom view of the bag) and I'll guide what to do next. Is it your very first grow?

yes first grow and next is the mono tub this is what im really scared for but actually im on my 21st day now so ill send the update pics, thank you for your help

last pic is day 1

Okay, let's give it another week (till day 28th). If zero pins (and most likely the bag won't fruit in this way), then we have a few options... let's do the next:

1. first of all, check out the paragraph "Making mushroom cake" in this guide: Making mushroom cake, spawn to bulk, and casing. We're going to do smth similar, but instead of small cakes in small boxes, we'll make one bigger cake in a monotub

2. prepare 1 plastic box/shoebox for using it as a monotub and the next ingredients: coco coir or coco brick (must have!), vermiculite (optional), gypsum (optional) and water (must have!) – this will be a pseudo casing layer

3. pausteurize (or sterilize) coco coir mix

4. open the bag and break it into small pieces in a monotub. BUT! remove some yellowish bald grains at the bottom (see attached photo below)
   

   Uncolonized grains to remove

5. cover the top layer with coco coir – the layer should be around 1/3-1/2 inch or 1-1.5 cm

6. mist the tub lightly, close it and just wait. Keep it closed, no need to open it for FAE, natural air flow through the air vents will be enough

7. let's check the cake in 3 days – please, send me a photo and I'll check the progress

The easier (but less effective) alternative method is simply adding the coco coir layer (pseudo casing layer) on the top of the current bag.

So you have time to make a choice, prepare everything and ask me all the questions :-)

update day 25

looks like pins might be forming im unsure

Not yet, but some areas of mycelium with blobs here may potentially turn into pins

That's good! Let's wait and see ;-)

Just an example for better understanding. Look, mycelium maybe very fluffy like here:

But over time, the mycelium becomes denser and forms small balls, which later turn into pins, like here:

Tiny balls here are pins (aka primordia)

dude holy shit you can draw good circles lol but that is good to hear ill keep you updated im very eager thank you for your help ;-)

Yeah, man! It's a special suprematism art for you lol

Glad to help and will be happy to draw more proper circles for you. Hope to see pins soon. Fingers crossed!

I GOT A PIN a single pin

Hooray! Yes, so nice baby-shroom. That’s exactly what we’ve been waiting for...

I think your bag is a lil bit slow, because it wasn't fully colonized when you provided fruiting conditions. Anyway, it's able to fruit!

Hope to see more updates (and more pins) soon 🤞

still just this guy but hes growing

How's it looking now? :-)

Hopefully, more pins will appear in the nearest days or within a week

If not, after harvesting this one shroom, I'd stimulate pinning with soaking the cake in cold water for 2-4 hrs OR by using pseudo/casing layer on the top of this bag (without breaking it). We'll see...

so im getting more pins now and sub looks good but now on the walls of my bag theres this pinkness on the walls i cleaned it up with paper towles and ico hope this doednt mean this bag is done for

Nothing bad on the cake, it's absolutely fine and looks good!

If any concerns don't hesitate to send the photo for quick check up ;-) And don't use any treatment (like iso or cutting the cake), because you either don't really need it or could make things worse.

For now, let's watch them grow. Later I'll guide on what to do next.

Btw, how old is this cake? Do you remember the inoculation date? Or how long have you had this block so far?

yes hello and thank you

i inoculated february 17th so a very long time

also just checked my cake and found more weird looking stuff

sorry accidently sent the preivious one without the pictures:(

the first picture i swabbed too see if anythink came off(nothing did) and then 2 and 3 i didnt touch

picture 5 is what i swabbed from 4

and 6 its the whole cake

thank you for your help;))))

This is so funny, dude!

What you swabbed from the bag wall (photo 4), and what you have on the paper towel (photo 5) is vermiculite :-)

It's one of the ingredients in your substrate. About 20% of the bag consists of it. The other 80% is grain and coco coir (maybe with some gypsum).

Black-blue spots you were concerned about (photos 1,2,3) is mycelium bruising. The same as you had some time ago. So, everything fine!

Relax, be patient, do not disturb the mycelium (especially with iso fumes) and let mushrooms do their job ;-)

I grow pe alot and it looks like a overlay pe do that alot without casing layer u can try fork tek but u should get alot of weight off that as a first flush like ounces forsure if I was you right know I would just spawn to bulk ur cake is 100 percent colonized with overlay on top and its probably not gonna pin alot with the overlay it means the mycelium is to thick for pins to come through u can try fork tek found on Google or shroomery but it looks dry and u spraying it directly trying to fruit it is what causes overlay u should have enough mositure when u go to fruit all u need is fae but looks like u tried to fruit before 100 percent colonized and your working with pe so ur trying to make it pin mist amd fae and all it wants is co2 and bag sealed up to finish colonizing i would soak it for about 4 hr with distilled water try fork tek or break it all down into a mono tub with lil coco coir and verm just a lil on top make sure it's we enough to wear u only get some drop by squeezing it and u will have a better grow when u see it cover the top with white put bubble wrap on top bubble wrap yex easy to find to and u will have a beautiful pinset and since it's pe and using bubble wrap u should have so many pins that some will abort which is what pe does but u should have 4 ounces dry on first flush you waited to much time for all that to colonize to not get it right and bear all the fruits

best to soak ur cake amd spawn to bulk cvg+ worm is what I like works very good pe gets big fruits i just ended a tub same way but pe works at it own pass so if u do spawn to bulk just leave it alone don't open unless u need more fae Crack the lid but u do more harm opening it up so best if u got a casing layer on it which I use bubble wrap tex instead casing my preference and I like the pin set better but maybe lil advance for a beginner but u can still get alot fruit out that. Just looks like overlay from misting lil to much

so i wasnt misting enough started misting daily and heres the result

lots of pins coming now

so my question is when to pick, ive heard do it when its marshmellow soft pe a bit hard to tell because theres not much of a veil

also bonus question: theres a mushroom i think growing at the top left side and it has no cap ? is this a baby blob?

any how so happy to see pins after months :0 thank you for the help on the journey:)

Once they stop growing they're ready to be harvested. Usually you see changes in their size every day. If not, go ahead and pick them. They shouldn't be marshmallow soft!

Your cake lost a lot of moisture during prolong colonization and tricky pinning period (almost 3 months!) There will be much more pins (see attached photo with my circles 😄), better quality shrooms and faster growth after rehydration. So, I'd wait for 3 days more and harvest them ALL. Yes, ALL! Big and small!

Then soak the cake in water. You can do it right in a bag or soak your block in a bucket for 2-4 hours in cold water.

Don't worry, it's easy! Read this guide Rehydration and ask me if smth unclear before doing anything

After rehydration, make sure the air filter in a bag is dry. It's important for proper natural FAE. If wet, make a few new small holes in a bag and cover them with any type of bactericidal tape or micropore tape.

You'll be impressed how shrooms will grow after soaking. They will blooming instead of suffering and surviving in a dry substrate. Believe me ;-)

@Nick Parker, Thank you very much for sharing your experience in this thread 👍(2 messages above)

I'm absolutely agree with your approach. Everything you said works!

But for newbies using a ready-made growbag/growkit, even preparing CVG or a casing substrate can sometimes be quite challenging. So IMHO in this case, rehydration is the easiest solution :-)