Yes I did. Iām wondering if it was just a bum vial, or there was degradation. Iām still hoping that itās just slow, but no signs after 2+weeks isnāt a good indication.
1 Like
Iāve heard of it taking a month for older spores. If it was on agar, they say to leave it and see, unless itās contaminated.
2 Likes
Itās overkill and most wonāt need it, but one of my hobbies is painting tabletop miniatures so I have this mixer to mix up the paint pots and it works great for spore syringes that have been sitting for a while.
3 Likes
My tubs finished flush #1 over the weekend. I had started to see some fuzzy feet so I upped the fanning for more FAE and it seemed to accelerate things faster than I was anticipating. Ideally I would have harvested before the caps opened so much, but on the bright side it made taking some spore prints very easy. Hereās some pics:
I grabbed one of the smallest specimens, basically an abort, and cut it up and put it into a pill. It was a minuscule amount, but I figured Iād be able to test potency with how the microdose felt.
Popped the pill, went to a bar next to the venue where we were going to a concert later that night. Started to feel the muscles in my back release their tension and words got a bit difficult to use 
. It was about 30 minutes before the headliner was supposed to go on so we went over to the venue. Godspeed You Black Emperor went on, and we ripped down a joint of the Forum Stomper F2s I grew last round. Godspeed proceeded to melt my face off. Theyāre so fucking good itās unbelievable. My head was tingling at this point and I had to sit down a few times just to keep things from spinning out of control 
I was going to borrow a dehydrator but we werenāt able to meet up so I had to rig something up last minute. I put the shrooms on some baking trays and blew an oscillating fan across them for a few hours. I set up our dehumidifier behind the fan to help the room out as it was raining outside and pretty moist. After the skins just started to wrinkle, I put them in my little Craigslist special mini fridge:
Dude sold me this for $20. It was covered in paint spatter and who knows what else but I spent a little time when I got it to clean it up. Works beautifully!
Hereās the inside:
I used this to dry the Forum Stomper from last round that I mentioned. Got a great dry and cure and Iāve been dreaming up ways to improve things. Last time I had the plants hanging but I think the trays will be much better for both putting more material inside but also for airflow.
For drying the mushrooms, Iāve got the dehumidifier running non-stop, a small tub of damp-rid (buy the tub once, then refill that with the bulk bag), a computer fan set to max or nearly max speed pointed up at the trays, and four hand warmer packets to absorb oxygen. The temperature controller is set with a 85F target and 5 degree differential. This means it wonāt turn on until it hits 90F and turns off when it hits 85F. As the dehumidifier runs inside, it heats up the space, then the fridge keeps that in check. I didnāt use the protection timer for the compressor as it wasnāt cycling that quickly.
This morning I checked a stem and it was cracker dry so I proceeded to the final processingā¦ blue honey and some capsules. My goal was 32oz (by volume) of honey with .75g/Tbsp. This worked out perfectly with the harvest as I got about 57g total from the first flush:
So I put 7g aside for the capsules and started grinding up the shrooms. It ended up taking about 1.5 of the honey bears.
The remaining 7g was used to make some capsules of varying strength for easy microdosing. I hate making them ahead of time but I was being lazy and didnāt want to move a bunch of boxes to get out the vacuum sealer. 
In case it helps maintain the potency of the powder, I stuck the capsules in the freezer 
Sorry for the wall of post- thatās all for now. Waiting for flush #2 to start.
23 Likes
Out of curiosity, whatās the longest anyone has seen a BRF jar (or any other medium for that matter) take to show signs of activity? Only ask because Iām still only seeing 1 out of 8 of my Costa Rican jars with activity, and they were inoculated on 10/11/22. The other three strains are showing 4 out of 8 and 5 out of 8.
2 Likes
They all look so good!
I need to get myself some prints so I can get started
5 Likes
. Inoculated with 4 mlās of Z Strain on 11/4.
Was that with spores or LC? That looks like itās colonizing awfully fast if it was from spores.
3 Likes
It was from spores and that is what I was thinking. I also have a Hue going that was injected the same day and it is just starting to show some white.
4 Likes
Uh oh, is this contamination?
First time Iāve ever seen a black-ish substance growing in a jar. Unfortunately it was my single Costa Rican that had actually seen growth. Iām guessing I need to junk it.
3 Likes
Definitely throw out 
3 Likes
Will do. Any idea what it is?
I plan to bleach the jar, lid and band so I can re-use. Should be no issue there, right?
1 Like
Better to not introduce the spores of whatever that is into your house by opening and cleaning it. Just throw it away, fully sealed, into an outdoor garbage can now. Donāt try to clean or recycle it. This step is best practice for mushroom growing, so get used to being a little more wasteful with this hobby than many others.
6 Likes
Open it underwater so the spores donāt go airborn
8 Likes
First time making LC. I might need to cut the batch size to 1/4 lol. Little bit over kill
I still have some left over. Iāll just put the left over in the fridge too I guess.
Will the syringes go bad or will they last a while?
12 Likes
They last several months or a year in the fridge. You should see my counter full of pint jars 
5 Likes
Holy smokest! thats a lotta syringes. I wish i was in that kinda position to have extra āsporesā where i didnt have to worry about running out per se. Money is tight at the moment so i was only able to grab 2 syringes. I just innoculated some rice grains with a golden teacher syringe.
its been a week since i did it, when should i start noticing mycelium growth?
also, what strain/variety are all of those syringes ya made? its looks awesome just having that many lol.
3 Likes
That came from one agar plate, took the mycelium from the agar and put it in a mason jar of LC solution and thatās what I got back, I bought the plate, solution and syringes for around $65. So itās definitely a cheaper option. Just takes a little bit of time 
Itās a clone from the tidal wave 2 mutant that won psilocybin cup. Apparently it has a 3.82% tryptamine content. I havenāt grow it yet tho.
Iāve never used rice before and Iām pretty new to this but I know some species can be slow to start and from spores are also slow to start
5 Likes