Mushrooms - DIY, spores, etc šŸ„ (Part 1)

Right on. Thatā€™s creepy, but also very cool!

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wtf :grimacing:lol

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Thou ergot ye be making?

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Gonna have to agree, if things are sprouting then they soaked too long, typically Iā€™d fill a tote with birdseed in the evening and let it soak in water with some fresh coffee grounds(poured in till thereā€™s a nice top layer of it to soak in and sink) and a handful of gypsum(pH buffer), next afternoon Iā€™d rinse the seed in a strainer in the sink, leave it to drip dry for about 15 min and ready for the jars or bags and into the pressure cooker

Your doing two things during that soak, your getting proper water content in the seeds and your letting heat resistant bacterial endospores germinate so u can kill em in the pressure cooker, big Ole tote should have a hint of rotting apples kinda smell if done right.

I canā€™t stress enough the importance of leaving seeds to drip dry for 15 before loading jars, skipping that step creates a mushy disaster with the seeds and skipping the overnight soak will risk bacterial contaminated jars, both def go hand in hand

Iā€™d personally just resoak some new seeds and try again cuz those sprouts are gonna make a mess of things once they hit the pressure cooker. Coffee is like Crack for the metabolic rate of mycelium, i was getting quart Mason jars colonized in 7-10 days on a regular basis so if ur not using it then get u a big can of it and put ur operation into overdrive from the typical 14-21 days it usually takes

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And hereā€™s the rest. This is from a single bag of 90 second rice, fwiw.

I like the shape of this cluster. It would look great on my desk :laughing:

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Actually left for 3 days n forgot bout them why asked never had that issue in my few years mushroom research for self.

Usually use whayebers around medium then sterile manure rye berry is new inoculate whatevers available but the rye methods fairly new and liked results last few x.

Great learning new things and to ask questions and not be excluded elsewhere is my way is diffrent and works with what I have.

Feeling very welcome here

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Thatā€™s a good cluster to clone!

@ColeLennon those are hornworm pupas I infected with Cordyceps militaris, a parasitic fungi of various moths/butterflies. Used as a medicinal mushroom, often called the athletes mushroom cause it boots energy and endurance. It doesnā€™t need to be grown in a bug, as itā€™s commercially grown on a fortified rice substrate.
Hereā€™s the jars of militaris I have going on the rice substrate, growing it as a shoebox/ tub is a bit time consuming to prepare and has a high rate of contamination.

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I missed my opportunity at the time, but Iā€™m thinking Iā€™ll have another opportunity here later today.

The cluster below looks like a good candidate to me.

[EDIT] I took clone samples from the biggest fruit in the cluster:

And I just thought this one from a different bag looked neat


Iā€™m loving these bags. It really doesnā€™t get much easier, basically set and forget until harvest time. The yield isnā€™t great, but that could be fixed with some tweaking and some culture work.

Iā€™m about to shut down for a while after the rest of these bags are harvested, but Iā€™ll have these cultures and a plan ready for when I start up again.


Someoneā€™s been eating well this morning, it seems :laughing:

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Hahah, thereā€™s some tripped out animal or bug walking around like ā€œbroooo, I think thereā€™s aliens out here and they gave me this mushroom to chomp on, and it made me see thiiinnngggsssss maaaaannnnn.ā€ :rofl:

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I got some Guinea pig poop and hay moistened and allowing to break down a bit in a jar. Iā€™m going sterilize it to give it a try. Going to mix it in with the coir to see if it helps or just another fuel for infection.

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I mixed pasteurized worm castings into my sub for my shoeboxes, and didnā€™t really notice any difference. Maybe faster colonization, but Iā€™d have to run more tests to be confident either way.

I look forward to seeing how that works out for you.

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I have 4 pints jars of brown rice with the same culture. though they may have a bacteria contamination, at least one jar does. I think im going to go with smaller tubs for these, keep them all separate instead of mixing any of them since thereā€™s bacteria likely involved.

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If this chart is correct, then there is no good reason for me to be adding vermiculite to my subs. I hate cleaning flecks of vermiculite off of the stipes, and it wouldnā€™t seem to be providing any benefit.

Iā€™m gonna be going with 100% coco in the future, to see if Iā€™m right. And if for some reason I do experience any negatives from omitting it, Iā€™ll try a pure coco top layer instead.

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What is the vermiculite for, exactly? mineral content? Iā€™ve always wondered. vermiculite is hard to source for cheap sometimes for me.

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For water retention I do believe

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correct, just helps keep the humidity up. Could accomplish the same thing with a humidifier or a spray bottle, but verm helps a bit

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Iā€™ve always done 100% coco and never had an issue. As long as itā€™s pasteurized and at field capacity when you mix in the grain youā€™ll be just fine

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Thatā€™s what Iā€™ve always read, which is why I was adding it myself, but according to that chart it doesnā€™t even hold as much water as coco.

Itā€™s actually counter productive to add it to a coco-based sub, if thatā€™s the reason for inclusion.

Unless Iā€™m missing something.

Cool, thatā€™s pretty much what I figured.

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I hadnā€™t read your post when I replied, but yeah, in coco itā€™s pretty useless. I thought it was in regards to PF Tek, it helps there for sure

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Well heck, that canā€™t be good :worried:

Both of my cyan transfers ended up this way, but the original still looks perfectly clean.

I guess Iā€™ll be making more transfers today.


At least I got to harvest another bag today, so itā€™s not all bad news :+1:

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