Picture was from the 6th and just harvested a pound or so from the first flush. I was really hoping for a good canopy, but scaling up from shoebox grows has some differences that I am getting used to.
The pins stalled longer than they should have as this strain doesn’t seem to be a fan of lower temperatures and higher humidity. Once I bumped the humidity down, reduced the light and increased the temperatures, it finally exploded!
Note for admins and mods: The focus of this post is not on the species being grown here. It just so happens these strains are resilient enough for me to focus on grow methods and techniques while also getting fast results. This is 100% legal in my jurisdiction.
This particular tub failed, for the most part. While I did get a few mushrooms out of this, it was not a very good harvest.
The problem was that the substrate block shrunk faster than I expected and it started pinning hard on the sides and even in the bottom! That threw off the rest of the grow and the mycelium seemed to be wasting energy on fruits that were never going to form properly. (I made a note in the original post that pinning had stalled, and this was the actual reason for that.)
Since this tub, I have done about 5-6 other monotub grows using a plastic liner that will stay attached to the substrate as it shrinks which eliminates pins forming on the sides.
Here is an example of a similar grow with much better results (it developed trich after the second flush, but shit happens):
Since that grow, I have been working on getting better consistency in substrate thickness for a more even canopy. Here is my latest smaller scale test for canopy development that I am trying to replicate in monotubs:
For my next shoebox grow, I am going to try slow, selective pruning to encourage larger fruit development. My fear is that any “shock” from pruning may trigger early sporulation. Dunno. If it works in a shoebox, it may work for a monotub.