hope this helps! i'll try to get Erik to hop on and see if he has any extra insights

Right off the bat those very hard spots of mycelium where you are also seeing some discoloration is stroma forming and already formed. The not fully colonized blocks that are getting problems would be more likely due to some type of contamination that the mycelium is competing with. It appears on those not fully colonized blocks, that lots of overlay is happening on the edges of growth. This could be due to the lack of moisture and dryness with the pellets as well, causing damage to the mycelium. The more fully colonized block with large yellow spots is just a forsure sign of stroma which we are trying to find solutions for as well. Only real concern there is the flucuation of 55-75 as that is quite the gap for a mushroom to remain in a constant state of growth. Where on the lower end it can slow down growth and if persisting in that higher end could lead to heat damge and overlay. We have noticed that on blocks that develop stroma they rip a lot hotter than a normal healthy block. 

Since the strain is from the wild it might be important to identify the type of substrate on which it was growing on (oak, cedar, pine, the ground itself etc..) The wild strain fruited on that substrate in nature so it has most likely adapted to producing fruiting bodies on that specific substrate. This will just be wild strain to wild strain as some might be more adept at being cultivated with a normal masters mix and some might just be lacking in ability to produce fruiting bodies without that natural key, which caused it to fruit in nature. That's really my only insight on it, but I hope that helps. Pretty much just figuring out what that fruiting body trigger may be for the wild strain, and it's substrate in nature is always a good place to start.

Swain Just to clarify here, it's not a total runtime of 35 minutes, it is 35 minutes once all of the substrate has reached temp. People saying 2-3 hours is them saying it takes that first hour and a half or 2 hours for all the substrate to reach temp. and then they start the timer of 25-35 minutes depending on your preference. Standard practice is keep at sterilization temp. for 25 minutes but we recommend 35 minutes just to be safe. If you want to aim for lower times then you would need a data logger so you can track and see how the temp. is changing overtime and then you can dial in the exact time.

A cover will help to preserve the lifespan of your filter. This will just stop dust or any possible spores from getting into the filter and possibly propagating inside of the HEPA filter. I think that the setup is possible to work in, just making sure that all work is done in front of that HEPA filter. You don't have to run it all the time but before starting to work you will want the filter to be running for about 15-20 minutes to cycle through the air and "clean" the air in the room.

Swain I don't know if it's quite a big deal as the pasteurizer because that requires the steam to reach all around, while a pressure cooker makes the space inside hot and up to temp. In general though the more substrate in a space the longer it should take for the entirety of it to come up and reach temp as there is more heat transfer that has to take place.

Tyler I haven't seen any one marketing strains that are so to say higher or lower quality for tincture making. It's more analysis of which recipes or additives help to create more of the compound (cordycepin, mannitol, Adenosine etc..) you are interested in.

Awesome update and yeah it does seem the vessel can change total outcome of shape and size very differently. Only thing of significance for changing vessel types is that still try to have a nice mass of substrate instead of spreading it to thin so to say as some growers run into problems or lower yields. Excited to hear more of your Cordy journey!

Praise the mighty KONG!!

In this case you will want to run your own trials with a data logger of some sort in order to "optimize" for your setup.  We don't do any blocks by pressurized steam so our timings would be far off from your setup. a 6lb master mix block is considered "Large" for that setup so it is looking like you will want to be in that 2-3 hour range @ 15 psi. I tried looking online to see if someone has done a comprehensive look at this and haven't really found anything either. Mainly just anecdotal evidence that this 2-3 hour time frame works for pressure cooking substrate. P.S. I hope you mean psi not bar because that would be one crazy pressure cooker if so haha.