Substrate Trials

Project manager Jawara with grain jars.

We began today by checking our substrate bags in the MPS. These have been incubating two days ago and we wanted to see if there was any visible progress. Upon inspection, the straw seemed very moist and had a tear in the bag but showed white mycelial growth at the top. The sawdust had some orangey growth by the mycelium, which is likely a sign of contamination. However, the sawdust itself is more reddish so we left the bag to incubate for a few more days to observe what happens.

After this, we boiled grains and laid them out to dry. Once the grains were dry, we had Jawara jar and pressure cook them. We want him to go through the steps of spawn cultivation on his own so he'll be prepared to do it after we leave Sierra Leone. While he did this, we worked on our grant proposal, spawn manual, substrate worksheet, and organizing our photos for all the different threads of the projects.

Finally, we purchased a hose in the market and glued it to our other drum. The glue will dry for tomorrow and we anticipate testing out the steaming system then. We have substrate rolled and placed on racks which is ready to be pasteurized. Some of it has fallen on the floor since we initially rolled them, but we still want to try inoculating what is left on the rack.