Baking day!!!

[TeamZissou]

So here’s an update, never will I ever bake the substrate again!!! 24 hrs later I’m still trying to rid the smell from my oven, think I’ll put up with the springtails in future!

Weird, I've been baking some substrate the past couple days as well. I baked some, waited an hour and then baked some enchiladas for dinner. There was no residual smell in the oven. Maybe the temp is the problem? I bake it for 2.5 hours at 360 F, and the substrate itself reaches about 180 F, which I think/hope will be sufficient to kill some gnat eggs.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Weird, I've been baking some substrate the past couple days as well. I baked some, waited an hour and then baked some enchiladas for dinner. There was no residual smell in the oven. Maybe the temp is the problem? I bake it for 2.5 hours at 360 F, and the substrate itself reaches about 180 F, which I think/hope will be sufficient to kill some gnat eggs.

I did exactly that, but I was told 2.5hrs at 250f, hmmmmm it stinks ? took it out after 2hrs, the brick caught fire!! ????

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Lol I guessed this would amuse you Maggie, another lesson learned ???

 

[TeamZissou]

I did exactly that, but I was told 2.5hrs at 250f, hmmmmm it stinks ? took it out after 2hrs, the brick caught fire!! ????

Oh god, that sounds bad. Yes I suppose the main difference was that I only did bark, no coir.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Oh god, that sounds bad. Yes I suppose the main difference was that I only did bark, no coir.

Lol yep…. It was the coir ?

 

[Maggie3fan]

Lol I guessed this would amuse you Maggie, another lesson learned ???

Just always remember...I am laughing AT you, not with you....lolololol

 

[Sarah2020]

Waste of energy. No need and no point as mentioned earlier.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Just always remember...I am laughing AT you, not with you....lolololol

Yep I know lol

 

[ZenHerper]

I sterilize things I add to a viv, since I don't want any competing bacteria, fungi, etc. once a biome has been established. Pressure cookers are great tools for sterilizing all sorts of hard matter.

Leaves, sticks, bark, coir, soil, moss, compost...all will ignite when subjected to high, dry heat.

Always oven-sterilize ignitable stuff after it has been soaked thoroughly. And don't wander off.

'Cause the kids will try this at home...

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Thankyou for this advice, when i enquired as to how to bake the substrate, the advice was to bake it dry, maybe i'll try again some day but not for as long, or as high a heat, there is so much conflicting information on what to do, but all i care about is doing whats right for my little tort.

 

[Cathie G]

Thankyou for this advice, when i enquired as to how to bake the substrate, the advice was to bake it dry, maybe i'll try again some day but not for as long, or as high a heat, there is so much conflicting information on what to do, but all i care about is doing whats right for my little tort.

I've always read that to make sure there's no insects in pinecones and such to bake it at around 125° f for an hour or so. I've never heard of baking it at those high of temps. I used to do that for wildbird treats and crafts.? That doesn't mean I'm correct it's just following directions I read. It worked.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

I sterilize things I add to a viv, since I don't want any competing bacteria, fungi, etc. once a biome has been established. Pressure cookers are great tools for sterilizing all sorts of hard matter.

Leaves, sticks, bark, coir, soil, moss, compost...all will ignite when subjected to high, dry heat.

Always oven-sterilize ignitable stuff after it has been soaked thoroughly. And don't wander off.

'Cause the kids will try this at home...

please could you explain how you do this exactly?

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Oh god, that sounds bad. Yes I suppose the main difference was that I only did bark, no coir.

i've had to throw it away, it was burnt and stank, maybe the temps were too high, i have a fan assisted oven, maybe if i tried again but for less time?

 

[ZenHerper]

i've had to throw it away, it was burnt and stank, maybe the temps were too high, i have a fan assisted oven, maybe if i tried again but for less time?

please could you explain how you do this exactly?

Anything you put in the oven must be completely wet - if you can burn it in a fireplace, it will catch fire in an oven when it is dry. High heat will partially dry and ignite things that start wet = forest fire.

You can boil anything stove-top...or use a pressure cooker to save time/energy/water. This works best, obviously, for small batches. I use a pressure cooker to sterilize leaves, bark, and twigs. Stuff has to be small enough to fit in the pan with the lid secured. Same as pressure cooking anything else: use the amount of water that your pot requires to cook raw veggies.

If your pressure cooker has a gasket, it will take up some flavor - *oak* is nice and makes a fun change of pace for plain yogurt, but if you don't like cross-flavored foods have a dedicated Wood pot, or keep a separate Wood gasket. =DD

This will not work for whole bricks of coir - it will soak up the water and burn the pot dry.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Anything you put in the oven must be completely wet - if you can burn it in a fireplace, it will catch fire in an oven when it is dry. High heat will partially dry and ignite things that start wet = forest fire.

You can boil anything stove-top...or use a pressure cooker to save time/energy/water. This works best, obviously, for small batches. I use a pressure cooker to sterilize leaves, bark, and twigs. Stuff has to be small enough to fit in the pan with the lid secured. Same as pressure cooking anything else: use the amount of water that your pot requires to cook raw veggies.

If your pressure cooker has a gasket, it will take up some flavor - *oak* is nice and makes a fun change of pace for plain yogurt, but if you don't like cross-flavored foods have a dedicated Wood pot, or keep a separate Wood gasket. =DD

This will not work for whole bricks of coir - it will soak up the water and burn the pot dry.

I don’t own a pressure cooker ? if I soaked the coco fibre first would that work? And maybe lower the temp and bake for just 1 hr? At the moment I have a brick in the freezer? won’t be using for another week at least, I know springtails are beneficial, I just don’t like it. Thankyou so much for your reply

 

[TeamZissou]

i've had to throw it away, it was burnt and stank, maybe the temps were too high, i have a fan assisted oven, maybe if i tried again but for less time?

I think ZH's recommendation of wetting the substrate down is probably the best option to avoid a fire. I would be worried about heating an entire solid coir brick; it's probably better to wet it down and break it up first.

Regarding freezing, I do not think this would be a viable option for killing sprintails or fungus gnats. They can easily survive. One time, I put a large tub of dirt that was infested with fungus gnats outside when it was about 21 F, and they were still flying around the tub a few hours later.

Ultimately with baking, I think you'll want to monitor the temperature using a meat thermometer or something to get an idea of the temp at the middle of the substrate. For the bark I recently baked, it reached a temp of about 180 F for a couple of hours, though the the oven was set to 360 F.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

i'll be sure to give this a try, thankyou very much for your help

 

[ZenHerper]

What he said. =))

 

[Maggie3fan]

Stop worrying about dirt and bugs. There is no one in the wild who would bake soil for the tort. In my 20+ years with torts and my sister's 40 years experience...baking soil is simply stupid, not conflicting...I spot clean daily and have never baked dirt and the only bug I ever have are Springtails.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Stop worrying about dirt and bugs. There is no one in the wild who would bake soil for the tort. In my 20+ years with torts and my sister's 40 years experience...baking soil is simply stupid, not conflicting...I spot clean daily and have never baked dirt and the only bug I ever have are Springtails.

but maggie i've done all this and and i had hundreds of the bloomin things, i read how people don't change their substrate for months even years and yet i struggle to get through a month,