Containers: PF Tek, AIO bags and monotubs

A first grower can start with any of them. Forum regulars often suggest that once an AIO bag or set of grain jars is fully colonized, breaking it into a tub of coir gives better results than fruiting in the bag, because the surface is bigger and easier to manage.

A shotgun fruiting chamberShotgun fruiting chamberA clear tub drilled all over with small holes and floored with wet perlite, used to fruit PF Tek cakes. is a clear plastic tub, about 18 × 14 × 10 inches, drilled all over with quarter-inch holes about 2 inches apart in rows 2 inches apart, lid, sides and bottom (Bible, p. 53–55). A layer of rinsed, damp perlite on the floor keeps it humid; air moving through the holes carries away CO₂. Clear plastic matters because light triggers pins (Bible, p. 55).

1. 1.Drill slowly with light pressure. Pushing cracks the plastic (Bible, p. 54–56).
2. 2.Rinse perlite in a colander under cold water for a few minutes and let it drain until it stops dripping. Spread it at least two inches deep (Bible, p. 99–101).
3. 3.Raise the tub about an inch off the table so air can get under it (Bible, p. 111).
4. 4.BirthBirthingSliding a fully colonized PF Tek cake out of its jar so it can be fruited in a chamber. each cake, rinse it, then soak it in cold water in the fridge for 24 hours, held under with a plate (Bible, p. 104–106).
5. 5.Roll each damp cake in dry vermiculite and set it on a small square of foil so it does not grow into the perlite (Bible, p. 107–110).
6. 6.Mist the walls and fan two or three times a day. Keep it in indirect light (Bible, p. 111–112).

The book reports about six to eight weeks from inoculation to first harvest with this method (p. 119), and skipping the vermiculite roll gave smaller, slower, misshapen fruits (p. 110).

An all-in-one bag holds a layer of sterilized grain and a layer of substrate under a filter patch. You inject through a port, let the grain colonize, then mix or massage it into the substrate inside the closed bag. Fruiting happens either in the bag, opened or slit, or by moving the cake into a tub. The bag protects against airborne contamination but hides the grain at the bottom, so check through the plastic for grey, wet or stalled patches and smell when you open it.

• Any opaque or clear storage tub with a fitted lid; 30–70 quarts is common.
• Holes for fresh air a little above the substrate surface, covered with filter tape or micropore during colonization. The Bible's design uses four filtered holes at substrate level (p. 190).
• A liner (a heavy plastic bag) on the inside up to the substrate line helps stop side pins; some growers skip it with a casing.
• One experienced grower's layout uses small quarter-inch holes about 5 inches up the long sides and a few near the top of the short ends, left open after colonization.
• Fill to 2–4 inches of spawned substrate; level and press it.