Temperature Controlled 
Water Incubator

Material needed: Vaseline or lubricant.

Notice the tub with the rubber o-ring affixed to it.  Get a small amount of Vaseline or lubricant and wipe the inside of the rubber o-ring with it.  Take your heating element and CAREFULLY slide the tube inward so the dial is poking out and the long 'heating tube' is within the chamber.  Clip the rubber suction cups onto the heating tube and carefully press down to the tub in order to assure the heating tub does not shift or come out of the tub.

Wipe off any extra lubricant that might by smeared on the class tube.

Pour water into the tub, regular house water is fine, unit it is about 2" above the heater.  Add only 2 caps full (NOT CUPS... CAPS) of bleach into the water (to insure no algae will grow within the water) and place the other plain matching tub, the one without the white filter, into the tub with the heater within.

Carefully push the tub downward until it can not got down any further (bottoms out).  Make sure you watch the water within the first tub...it will rise quickly between the tubs!  You do not want the water to be pushed out and over the top...spilling all over your floor!

Make sure the water rises to the top, or near the top, of the tubs.  If you need to add water to achieve this please do so.  Just set the dry tub on a towel that you would not mind getting a little bleach water onto. 

Once you have done these things you can place all of your inoculated jars within and place the lid onto it (AFTER THE INOCULATION PHASE...OF COURSE).

Plug in the heater and set the dial to 81F during the incubation period.

This design, if you have the old heating pads, will GREATLY LOWER the waiting time of colonization of your Substrate Jars (Inserts) in order to continue on quickly to the Birthing Of The Cakes!

Note:  You will need to place a weight on the lid to keep the container from rising to the surface of the water.  I have a radio on mine...but, anything will do.

You should check on the jars every day.  It usually takes about 10-20 days for the white mycelium to grow completely through the substrate jars.  As each jar becomes fully colonized you should it into a refrigerator for safe keeping.  This will slow the growth of the mycelium until you are ready to use it or the rest of the Inserts have caught up with the first.
Make sure you date each jar as it enters the refrigerator.  The oldest jars should be used first when it is time to grow out the mushrooms.	Jars no longer come with aluminum foil...SO DON'T FREAK OUT!

* Check on your jars once a day.  There are two reasons I would like you to do this:

To thoroughly inspect the jars for contamination.
To allow fresh air within the Incubation Chamber.

What are the optimum conditions under which to store the Insert jars?

PF jars, like other colonizing jars, should be kept in a warm (75 - 85°F), dark place that is not too dry (target RH from 50% - 70% rh). The dark allows for the mycelia to colonize the entire cake without being "told" to pin (mycelium pins when introduced to light, reduction of CO₂, temperature fluctuations and lack of non colonized substrate). You don't want the cake to pin before the entire cake is colonized, otherwise you may have to prematurely birth the cake and risk contamination of the non colonized substrate, or leave a growing fruit inside while the rest of the cake has not been completed yet. You don't want to store the jars in an extremely dry area, since the water in the jar can evaporate into the air through the small punch holes in the lid.
A too humid environment can cause molds growing on the outside of the jars and possibly spreading into the jars, so don't go with the humidity over 70%.