how do you prepare and sterilize your grains for use as a substrate?
I think I might be missing a step, but as far as I can tell, this seems to be done by simply putting the grains in the jar before the boiling sterilization in the pressure cooker.
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It seems I have gained a bit of a following with my circle of peeps so teaching a few cats BRF Tek and helping them get their mycology careers started…so just some random pics I wanted to share.
Milking a 1/2 pint of Mazatapec to hit 7 qts of grain.
BRF Cakes at 3 and 5 weeks
Current live mycelium used for milking then let recover and milk again.
Burma on the 9th flush…just about done…slow and few these days…
PTSD Medicine
Penis Envy
Burma
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This mornings harvest…got the cake soaking for its 10th dunk, this is the farthest I have ever taken a cake…so pretty impressed it hasn’t contam’ed yet, lost two so far this week at 9 flushes…
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Love the jar storage. I use them for dried fruits too. I get mine cracker dry, then I jar 'em, drop in a silica canister, and vacuum seal it for long-term storage. With the high humidity environment here I needed to find a better way than plastic bags.
Also, I personally find KSSS best for PTSD. I haven’t had regular PE yet, but PE6 made me SUPER speedy, and if I was in a bad place when I took my dose it just magnified the mood I was in, making the problem worse and having an adverse affect.
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I got some KSSS going now, first time I have grown them…they are slowly colonizing grains as we speak. This old culture sure works well on my PTSD…fully 2X as strong as my strongest cubes…expanding it again for another tray.
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Yes, super slow IME, as well. Don’t be afraid to shake multiple times. It’s a hardy colonizer. In my first attempt with UFOs I harvested far too early. I took the broken veils as a sign they were mature, but I wasn’t getting any spores. Next flush I let the fruits mature another 2-3 days, and they tripled in size overall, plus developed a very nice wave around the cap edges, then they started to curl over the top. This, IME, is full maturation of UFOs 
The next barrier for printing I found was that they dry out FAST…so I used tiny tupperware containers to print in, and completely sealed it for 12 hours. This got me 3 prints per cap.
Hope that helps some…I was really pulling my hair out to solve these issues, myself 
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Cold front coming through…temps in the low 50’s down to the high 30’s for a few days…rain comes then the cold…so last nights rain brought another flush of much needed medicine.
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The final few cakes were ready to roll today so they all went into a 6qt notouchum’ [ I hate to mist / fan] lol…so I use set and forget teks to grow most of the time.
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Hi Kraven, Great thread!
I tried to access the other site as advised on this thread. Short of a long story is that that once I got the account set up I found out that the site in question dose not work with tor browser - kicks me right out after login.
I wanted to ask (double check) you about laminar flow hood
What would be acceptable filtration level to keep undesirables out ?
http://www.airpurifierguide.org/faq/merv-ratings …
Would indicate merv 17 as adequate and merv 14 (and lower) as not helping … 15 and 16 somewhat helping
Your unit dose look like solid commercial unit. Did you consider DIY route ? Are there any (re-washable) filters for vacume cleaners (or similar) that could work as efficient filter? (given an inline fan to push air through it to hood. Sites selling those here are not really forth coming regarding merv rating… they only state “hepa filter” … and there has been report of using misleading terminology to sell ‘not really hepa’ equipment as ‘hepa’ equipment.
finding large pressure cookers is a PITA here … sigh…
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HEPA and ULPA filters are a standard in many industries for work that requires an environment free of biological contaminants. Comprised of a dense mat of randomly-arranged fibers, both HEPA and ULPA filters work in the same way. HEPA filters are 99.99% efficient for trapping particulates down to 0.3 μm, and ULPA filters provide 99.999% efficiency for particle sizes between 0.1 to 0.3 μm.
I built my own flow hood.
try here for a filter, from there you can DIY yours like mine.
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Thank you very much! will look into similar products here. Shipping and import duties means I would have to travel to states to pick something up.
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on one site I found a recommendation regarding books
The Mushroom Cultivator: A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home
byPaul Stamets
many of the amazon 1 and 2 star reviews complained that it was too complicated and too heavy in science … which sound very very good (as title says practical so this should NOT be pure academic study 
… The book is bit old so I figured out to double check if there are any better publications on the subject?
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Paul Staments is good, his knowledge is vast, I have the book and refer to it from time to time. I believe a firm foundation is important in mycology…if your not sure what your doing you will grow things that can easily kill you or your family…so yes, get knowledgeable first 
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Any suggestions on where to ‘start’? Have a desire to start growing, but haven’t a clue as to what I’m doing. So if you could point me in the right direction, it would be very much appreciated
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Inoculated 4 jars and this is the surviving one. Been about three weeks and it’s really taking off now. I tried steaming my jars since I don’t have a pc. Next I’ll try a dry sterilize in the oven.
Variety is P. C. Golden Teacher.
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recommendations within this thread
mycotopia.net is a good place to start.
Shroomery.org also recommended by member in this thread.
bookwise paul staments book I asked about few days ago is good… please do note that this book is more than just quick howto grow mushrooms …
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