oh wow - that is epic, very nice indeed
- I have just inoculated a big bag of grain, hopefully enough to get another 2 or 3 bags going, I want to let one just grow and until the substrate os all spent - I think they look so cool
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They look great, was the sawdust hard or softwood?
Your description of the effects of the tincture are similar to what I get from the Chaga I find in my woods. This is a third of the lump thats growing on a huge birch tree, it weighs nearly 4 pounds the old curry wok its in is 14 inches across and 6 inches deep for scale.
I grind it up and put it in my coffee, it expands when wet but gives a very energetic buzz like its increasing the caffeine effect of the coffee. Other Chaga users I talk to dont seem to get this effect.
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Holy flipā¦
When it rains it pours!
I understood that mushroom growth would accelerate but was pretty surprised when I woke up this morning to see that a number of mushrooms had popped their veils this morningā¦
Am I screwed for second and third flushesā¦or does there need to be a greater concentration of spores released?
Iād be interest to hear what the board has to say about how they time their mushrooms harvests to optimize the size of the harvestā¦Literally overnight I had to harvest 8 mushrooms
I realize Iām a total Nube, but is this typical or should I be more astitute as to when I harvestā¦Iāve talked to others who are talking about 50 to 100 gram mushroomsā¦Mine seem to be in the range of about 8-12 grams wetā¦
Any thoughts would be appreciatedā¦ 
@HappyTrees23s , @420noob
(Previous snaps I submitted give timeframe)
Cheers
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Nice dude 
!!
Things look pretty awesome in there.
I would pick all the ones with open veils, and I would pick the ones that have just started or are about to break their veils.
Donāt be rough with everything else. Try not to touch the others.
You will get more soon, spores wonāt mess up a flush.
Let the smaller ones mature a bit more.
Then pick em. Maybe a day or two really. Not long.
I think itās a pretty damn nice job for being a ānoobā haha
In the future youāll understand how to get a more even pin set all over to get a larger harvest, but you will get more out of that tub very soon.
If you want you can take some spore prints so youāll never run out of spores.
If interested in trying that let me know and Iāll tell you how. Itās really easy.
Nice job man, congrats !
ā 
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So you are good! What you yield from this point has nothing to do with spores your substrate is colonized. Spores dropping on your substrate isnāt a issue really you are fine for other flushes. I would harvest the ripe fruits and just keep doing that. Your first flush doesnāt look like a full flush but will keep popping pins once that stops then setting up for your second flush. You got it going good just keep surface conditions right and try not to spray caps directly sometimes all the water can cause issues.
Donāt get caught up in fruit sizes please. Lots of these are grown from isolates or clones of large fruits. You can always have a chance for a big one but people doing it consistantly are usually on another level. I have had half dozen fruits 60g plus but most were big blue meanies so genetics for bigger fruits.
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Beautiful! You have more than enough there for a good sized kitty party 
Good work MrToast! You might want to try a tiny freshie for testing porpoises 
Dropping spores is fine. Optimally you want to pull them just before their veil breaks because the spores are like pollen in that they are known to cause allergies and give some people headachesā¦ as well as making a dusty mess
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Excellentā¦
Thanks for the feedback!
Iām surprised how quickly they are opening after the first and noticeable larger mushroom popped ā¦my guess, Iāve noticed a couple of dry spots in the corners of the shoe box and have given a light mistā¦I suspect some of the mist has landed on the mushroomsā¦Is that possibly the reason some are dropping spores right away? The open veils seem to have accelerated even on the smaller mushroomsā¦
Iāve been harvesting by a combination of a slight wiggle and a twist of the base as well as sterilizing a scalpel and cutting larger mushrooms away from clusters with little oneā¦
Should I be doing anything with the substrate with slight divots after
Mushrooms are removed.? Iāve been giving them a light sprayā¦
And yes, Iāll have to give them a try soonā¦Iād like to weight them after the first flush, second flush etc, but growth is so
Sporadic I donāt know where one flush begins while the others endā¦chuckle
Cheers
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Thanks for encouragementā¦
Trust meā¦I am well aware of having no genetics if my projects went sideways so that was first priorityā¦I managed a decent spore print off the first mushroom alreadyā¦thick with spores on a mini Petri dishā¦just
Letting it dry under an inverted glass nowā¦
Weāll see how it goes ā¦
Cheers
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Thanks appreciate your contributionsā¦
Things seem to be moving alongā¦
Not sure exactly what I am doing, rather just winging it from the videos Iāve seenā¦
I open the lid of the shoebox from time to time to inspectā¦gotta love the sense of nurturing when the grow is working outš.
I also use the heat pad for time to time for a few hours here and there when the humidity seems to have diminishedā¦Then unplug so
Water is not dripping all over from the lidā¦
Every once an awhile I give a light mist when the substrate āappearsā dry, but not sure how much I should be misting as I try to avoid multiple droplets consolidating to create poolsā¦And if any pools appearā¦I tear of a paper towel and dip a small corner into a pool to soak up to avoid disturbing the myceliumā¦
Seem reasonable?
I heard Blue Meanies might be a decent strain to grow and might see if someone want to trade Cannabis beans for some spores to mix it up a bitā¦
Just looking for something more potent, reasonable to grow, and decent enough producer for some varietyā¦
Cheers
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Lol arenāt we all! Ya the heating pad still gets me I think that is slowing you down more than helping imho. You want to mist so there is just a few droplets on the surface. Also if you have fresh air exchange that will help with the extra moisture through evaporation which will help your pinset. I think the heating pad is creating to much humidity without proper fresh air exchange. Im not there so I canāt be sure but that is what my experience is telling me. If it is working for you stick with it but donāt be afraid to experiment a little on select tubs. Donāt want to be twerking everything then you wonāt know what that magic recipe was that worked out.lol. Doing good and let me check I have some BBM. The cubes not the pan.
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I used pure hardwood pellets for a smoker to make the sawdust logs.
The effects you get from chaga are so weird! Iāve been making chaga tincture for years, same as other dual extract mushroom tinctures, and I donāt get that from chaga at all! Crazy how this stuff affects us - when I first started growing my own Lionās Mane and turning it into tincture, it literally gave me mild visual hallucinations like psilocybin. It doesnāt do that anymore, thankfully! 
Thatās a good looking chunk of chaga! Do you think the effects youāre getting have something to do with your location? Iāve been getting my chaga chunks from Maineās now-defunct Chaga Mountain company, and more recently from Alaska via a different company. I hand grind them in a manual grain mill to a sandy consistency then soak in vodka for a month, filter, then soak them in a warm bath in a crockpot (below 180F) for 8-12hrs before filtering and mixing the two filtered products to get a ~20proof tincture.
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@MrToast
I have also seen people soak the entire sub in water overnight after they harvest their first flush. .if your sub looks dry this might be a good option for you.
After all are harvested, I would just fill it with water and make sure itās submerged overnight.
In the morning you can pour out all the water and set it up to fruit again.
And as a bonus, you can save that water and use it to inoculate jars/bags with a syringe.
The white mycelium water will inoculate your sub much more vigorously then spores. So you can get a fully colonized jar or bag much faster then you would with spores.
Just a suggestion if your up to it.
If you can find some PESA spores or possibly some Penis Envy. They will be stronger. Supposedly a cube is a cube, BUT a lot of people say otherwise, and I agree. Ive had 1.5 gram PESA give me a 3.5 gram trip. Surprised the heck out of me lol I didn not expect it at all.
Also, in the future, you can add horse or cow manure to your substrate. I have definitely noticed an increase in potency with side by side of the same variety. The ones grown with horse manure added definitely felt stronger then the one without out. Same spore print.
Keep up the awesome work brother, and keep us updated 
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I totally understand what you mean regarding the heating padā¦Here in Alberta we are getting down below 70 F at night, so if I give them a little bump of heat in the am for a couple hours the humidity from the substrate replenishes in the tubā¦If I leave it any longer Iām spending my time wiping the excess humidity off the lid and sidesā¦Iāll continue to tinker but it seems to be going wellā¦I still make sure Iām getting some airflowā¦even leaving the tube open a crack from time to time.
Cheers
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Thanks for the soak/innoculation tips with the waterā¦
I had a spare grain jar that I figured Iād experiment withā¦very ad hoc, and likely to get contamā¦
I set 4 fresh caps with open veils on top of the grain to release the sporesā¦I hoping that with all those spores they might be able to race against any contam as I didnt use alcohol on the caps to sterilizeā¦
Will keep you postedā¦
Interesting about adding manure to the substrateā¦once I figure out how to walkā¦I might have to get fancy, up my game, and give it a goā¦chuckle
Thanks again for the advice gents @420noob
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Wow SeaMonkeyā¦
Very cool!
Pardon my ignoranceā¦Is that a medicinal strainā¦or some obscure regular varietyā¦?
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Itās a gourmet and medicinal mushroom. Itās a tasty mushroom that is also proven to stimulate brain cells. I bought a piece from the local Whole Foods and cloned it.
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lovely looking Lions Mane there - It seems you guys have a lot more variety available to you over there at the grocery store
lovely mushroom to watch grow
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I think youāll want to leave lid slightly cracked always for fresh air exchange. What I found is I take a toothpick and place it between lid and tub so leaves a little crack for fae. You will notice more fruits by the cracked lid since fae helps with evaporation which also helps with pinning.
Also what @rustychem said works great also. Many people will colonize a grain jar add distilled water swirl really good and suck mycelium laden water out! Since itās established mycelium itāll colonize in a couple days. Just got to be careful really easy to contams though.
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