Light Sterilization in Glovebox (UV/LED)

[Remedy]

Well first off, I'm new to the community. I was originally a member at a cannabis grow forum until my girlfriend got us an 8th of cubes which we split and I instantly fell in love with and can't wait until my next experience, a full 8th trip which I hope to be Golden Teachers if all goes well.

That being said, I'm looking to make a glove box as a laminar flow hood is a bit out of my price range at the moment. My question is if I were to take say a clear plastic storage tub of sorts, drill the arm holes, put in the big aqua gloves and what not, if I could then use either an inline 300+ CFM fan as an exhaust and either pull new air in through a filter on the opposite side (flow hood glove box combo) ORRR if i could mount one of those sanitizing UV lights or mini wands on the top or at the very least, disinfect the glove box with said light and then do my work.

Another question is if i could keep it on constantly while working or if it would kill the spores.

 

[GOD]

A glove box is easy to make , its eficiency depends on the amount of work / money you invest . What do you want to do in / with it ? Make spore prints , syrynges , inoculate and / or store your inoculated glasses in it ? A fan isnt nesecery but if you do have one it MUST have a filter , be directly attached to the box and blow filtered air into the box . A food grade (?) shop UV light is good for a little sterilisation of the empty box and cleaning up spore prints . It isnt a total steriliser . I`ve never used one for more than that and wouldnt leave it turned on when i had mycelium in the box . Overkill isnt nesecery , just be carefull , sterilise the box and the substrate properly , and keep yourself and your room clean and draft free . Contaminents either fall off you or are blown into your sterile area by draughts or come of unclean gloves . Sterile gloves are very cheep so you dont realy need to attach permanent ones to the box .

And welcome to the forum .

 

[Remedy]

I was going to use it mainly to inoculate the jars, most likely use a separate box for the incubation. If a couple of holes and me wearing latex gloves and just sticking my arms in is ok then I'll just do that I think. I'll probably skip the lights too and just go the lysol or bleach route.

also, thanks for the welcome.

 

[GOD]

Get some good books and read them and that should help you . If you look for books here there are loads of downloads . You could use the site search function and search for rapidshare .

Forget useing flames to sterilise , they suck air , contaminated air to them . Just use isopropyl alcohol . Spray it and stand the ends of blades and syrynge needles that you are useing in it .

 

[Remedy]

thanks for the tip! i was going to use flame sterilization but it makes sense that it would contaminate the air. i tend to over think things and lose common sense in the process.

currently in construction of a wardrobe to house several fruiting chambers, meanwhile I'll be doing some more reading mainly on psilocybe cubensis but I eventually want to try my hand at psilocybe cyanescens. they really intrigue me but it seems like there is little or at least disputed information on their indoor growth and until i move, outdoor isn't an option.

 

[GOD]

"i tend to over think things and lose common sense in the process. "

No , you sound healthy and sensible to me . The shit with useing a flame to sterilise with is in very many books and all over the internet .

Growing Psilocybe Cyanescens indoors is HARD . I`ve done it but growing the myceleum indoors and inoculating substrate outdoors is very easy . I`ve even grown the substrate indoors and put some in an empty plant pot on the balkony and it fruited for 2 or 3 years . Once it grows outdoors it is hard to kill and one has masses for years . Some of the patches i inoculated outdoors more than 20 years ago are still produceing mushrooms .

 

[Remedy]

well now what kind of environment are we talkin here. if this zone map is right, and i'd like to think it is, then i'm between 5 and 6 and possibley moving between 6 and 7.

http://resourcecenter.pnl.gov/cocoon/mo ... ll/973.jpg

would cyans grow properly outdoors in these climates? would the sometimes harsh winters effect these or since they love cold climate would they be unaffected?

 

[GOD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_cyanescens

This shows where they do grow , not where they can grow . If you find the same conditions they will grow there .

Look at the downloads that are available here and read the books . They will tell you all you need to know .

Where i live they were at least very rare and nobody i had heard of had ever found any . I put about 2 tons of myceleum on wood chips out in the wild and now more than 20 years later they are very common and very easy to find in the whole area .

 

[Remedy]

holy shit! ... just out of curiosity, how did you go about making that much?

not gonna lie, that's pretty damn impressive, not to mention generous to the region.

 

[GOD]

44 bread baskets full of wood chips twice , plus 1 and 1.5 liter jars , plus dustbin bags with wood chips in them . It wasnt all at once it was in two big attacks . It took AGES to distribute . I used to go out on my bycycle with a ruck sack full and inoculate every pile of wood chips i could find . I found one from the local government gardens department that was as big as a three storey house and inoculated that to . The nice gardners then distributed it all over the area .

 

[Remedy]

well god i took your advice and went down to the library for the first time in about 3-4 years and checked out "The Mushroom Cultivator" and "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms" both by Paul Stamets.

I was flipping through some of it and they both seem like pretty good reads. The second one had a section devoted to just cyans too which sealed the deal for me.

I also got a book on soups for good measure. Probably unnecessary but I wasn't entirely sure if the shroom books would raise any flags... better safe than sorry I suppose :wink:

 

[GOD]

Good for you , the library and good books are your friend and the two you have borrowed are VERY good . That realy pleased me because most people are either to stupid or to lazy to go to the library and to read books , they would rather get confused by stupid beginners on dumb forums . If you have any questions ask us here instead .

 

[Remedy]

I plan too. I mean if somethings worth doing it's worth doing right. I'm going to burn through those while my girlfriend reads Twilight, little quality reading time haha and then finish construction of the wardrobe and glove box, get some cubes underway and after I'm comfortable with that... on with cyans!

Those books should take me a bit to go through I think though, especially since I'll be taking side notes while doing it. You raise a good point though, people would rather go through the forums (after a couple days of reading and about 20 different methods of doing the same thing I just got the books) rather than the library and check out a couple books published on the matter.

Ah well, at least I know I'll get these growing right 8)

 

[GOD]

Just start by looking at the chapters 1 - 4 , 8 - 10 and pages 196 - 200......... a few times in "The mushroom cultivator" and youll know all you need to know for Cubensis . After that the rest is worth a read to . The PF tek is also worth takeing a look at if you can find it on the net . If not let me know and i`ll probably be able to point you at it .

 

[Alan_Rockefeller]

well god i took your advice and went down to the library for the first time in about 3-4 years and checked out "The Mushroom Cultivator" and "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms" both by Paul Stamets.

Those are both great books, probably the best out there on the subject.

I also got a book on soups for good measure. Probably unnecessary but I wasn't entirely sure if the shroom books would raise any flags... better safe than sorry I suppose :wink:

They aren't going to investigate you because you get drug books from the library. Still, soups awesome to cook, easy and they last awhile in the fridge/freezer. There aren't many foods better than a home made soup.

Here is the most recent one I made:

http://forums.mycotopia.net/wild-mushro ... ecipe.html

About the topic of this thread, the UV kind of works but its more of a gimmick. If you have serious contamination no UV light in the world will save you, so I think its better to spend your time and resources on some solid lab technique and reducing sources of contamination. If you do everything properly there won't be any need for UV, and if you mess up the UV is unlikely to save you. Isopropanol works better.

 

[Remedy]

thanks alan I'm going to be using a combo of Isopropanol and Lysol wipes in a plexiglass glove box. is there anyway i could throw in some cubensis into some soup after its cooked and eat them immediately or would even that heat kill some active compounds?



also, God, got through the first 4 chapters you recommended last night along with the sections on Cubensis and Cyans in the cultivator and then read the section on cyans and a couple of the first chapters with basic info in the growing gourmet book . very detailed, good books. I do have one question though, does the depth of the tray or bed effect much? for instance, if i were to be growing in a tray that is shelved in a wardrobe, should i have say..2 inches substrate and maybe an inch or so of casing? in outdoor grows i noticed they dig about a foot deep, is there a reason for this?

 

[GOD]

When i grew Psilocybe Cyanescens indoors i had it about 20 - 30 cms deep , with Cubensis the same . I dont think if you go much deeper it will do any good . In the wild when i`ve inoculated big compost / wood chip piles it made very little diference in the harvest how deep the myceleum grew . With wild growing Psilocybe Cyanescens i`ve never seen it growing more than a few inches deep , about the with of a hand .

I`ve never used a caseing more than a few centemeters deep . Its only there to keep the gases right and protect the myceleum . Thats why i dont think that light or UV is going to do anyone any good when they use it with growing myceleum . It normaly grows in darkness and hasnt got any direct comntact to air . It is usualy bathed / surounded in the gasses that come from humus and or rotting material .

Before you build anything you should check if the things / spray you use to sterilise with does any damage to the material you want to use . I think that 70 - 75 % isopropy alcohol is the best strength .

Makeing a soup will kill somew of the content . It shouldnt be over 70° C as far as i`ve learned . Thats the maximum temperature that all the lab extraction methods i`ve ever seen recomend . Higher temperatures might extract more or quicker but they will also kill more . If your woried about it I would make a soup and either throw chopped fresh mushrooms in it when its ready or powdered dryed ones . Remember the more bulk to drug ratio the longer it will take to come on and the weeker the trip will be .

Lets wait and see what Alan says , he seems to have a lot of knowledge .

 

[Remedy]

well with the plexiglass in the glove box i doubt any of the disinfectants will do any harm although the wardrobe i have is made of melamine i believe which usually cant get wet though there is a nice finish around it which should help block out moisture and i was going to line the whole thing with some thick plastic or tarp (cutting holes for ventilation of course) although I want to support the frame with more boards and get a thicker back for it first. Anyone familiar with self assembled furniture from a "big box store" knows the backs of book cases and wardrobes are often paper thin and make it un-sturdy.

I'm debating between stapling or using some epoxy to mount the plastic inside but I'm not sure if that would raise the chance of contamination unless of course i use a LOT of epoxy and make it air tight and smooth. Laminate the walls in a sense.

I suppose I could also just open another thread and post some pictures of things I plan to use as this thread has strayed off its original topic.



Meanwhile my crap job and unrelenting bills continue to hinder the projects growth

 

[GOD]

Its your thread , if you think the direction needs changeing do it . I think its a very good thread and i like the way its going .

 

[Mr.Smith]

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