Ok so I have a couple grow bags set up but Iâm in the middle of the u.s. anyone know a good place for spores?
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@MushroomManMycology he is a sponsor and great dude! Iâve been using him for 3 years now. Also if you mention 420noob you get an extra freebie and I think if you say from overgrow you get something as well! @Tonyww93
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Ohh Kool kool!!! I checked at the local grow shop but all they have is the kits but no spores or prints đ¤ˇ
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If anyone wants to start growing their own mushrooms, I think I have the perfect recipe for success. Well, I say âperfectâ but nothing in this world is perfect. This is how I started. Since then I have moved on to drippy corn but everything else is the same.
Step 1: Grain
You can use damn near any type of grain you want but I started with brown rice. Not white rice, not brown rice flower, not the 90 second rice bags, not rice crispy cereal, but whole grain Uncle Bens dry brown rice. The 5lb bag will make 6-7 quarts of grain. The reason I use the uncle bens brand is because their rice is parboiled, which means itâs not that starchy and you donât have to soak it or risk the grain sticking together in the jars.
Step 2: Grain Prep
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and then turn the heat completely off. Pour your rice in immediately and start a timer for exactly 8 minutes. The goal here is to hydrate the rice, not to cook it. You want the water to be 2â above the rice. Stir once every minute until your 8 minute timer goes off. Youâll know your rice is ready when you break a grain open and it doesnât snap but it also doesnât bend like semi- hardened play dough. Immediately pour your rice into a fine mesh strainer and rinse with lukewarm water. Rinsing with cold water will shock the outside of the grain and cause it to shrink and burst. Hot water will cause your grain to stay hot longer which will cause it to cook and burst. Burst grain = not a good time. Allow to drain for 30 minutes.
Step 3: Grain Jar Prep
At this point itâs up to you if you wanna use unicorn bags or wide mouth mason jars. I like to use mason jars because you buy them once and use them for years. In this instructional Iâll be using mason jars. Take your cleaned and dried jars and fill them with rice leaving 1.5-2â of headroom. Before you put the lid on, make sure the lid seal is flipped upside down to where the white part is facing up. We do this to prevent the jars from being completely sealed and so the jars wonât be âcannedâ. Then, cut 5x5 or 6x6 aluminum foil squares and cover the top of the lids, pressing the edges around the lid. This prevents any moisture gain or loss from the pressure cooker. The last step is to make sure your lid is loosened 1/8th or 1/4 turn. This also aids in the jars not being âcannedâ because we need to open these lids twice later on.
Step 4: Pressure Cooking
Pressure cookers can be scary but theyâre built to withstand much more PSI than what weâll be using. Place your jars in your PC and make sure there isnât anything blocking the pressure valve. Most pressure cookers have these. It looks like a little metal button that pops up under pressure. Fill your pressure cooker with enough water to come up to the base of your jars on the trivet. The longer you pressure cook, the more water youâll need. When I PC I keep the weight off until thereâs a steady stream of steam coming from the valve before I put the weight on. Once your weight starts to tick, start a timer for 2.5 hours and lower the heat to medium. After your 2.5 hours, turn the heat completely off and allow it to depressurize naturally before you remove the weight or the lid. If not, youâll have catastrophic problems such as extreme steam burns. Itâs good practice to place your jars on a towel on your counter when theyâre hot. Hot jars+cold counter top = shattered jars. While the jars are hot, do whatâs called a âhot shakeâ. Which means tighten the lids down all the way and shake them once every 10 minutes for 30-40 minutes. This evenly distributed the moisture. Allow to sit for a couple days before use.
Step 5: Inoculation
If youâre completely new to growing mushrooms Iâd imagine youâre working in a SAB. If you donât know what a SAB is, itâs a Still Air Box. Basically a large clear plastic tub with a lid, flipped upside down, with two holes drilled into the side big enough for your arms and jars to fit. Be sure to sterilize everything beforehand to prevent contamination. Also, donât blow yourself up with alcohol fumes and open flames. Wear gloves and sterilize them and the SAB with isopropyl alcohol. If youâre using MSS (multi spore syringes) or LC (liquid culture) then you want to flame sterilize the needle before injecting and in between jars. Open your jar inside the SAB just enough to squirt your culture in there against the glass. Work fast but donât get ahead of yourself. You wanna use 1-2ml per jar. Then tighten your lid back on and loosen 1/8th to 1/4 turn once again and repeat with the rest of your jars. Pro tip, if youâre using LC, shake the jars after inoculation. If you kept the aluminum foil in your jars like I do, you can write the strain and date of inoculation on top of your lid. Then place your jars somewhere warm and let them do its thing.
Step 6: Making CVG
CVG is like the âsoilâ for your mushrooms. This is the easiest part to make. You need a sterilized 5 gallon bucket with a lid, one 650g brick of coco coir (preferably coco bliss brand, you donât want anything with trichaderma spores in it) vermiculite, and pure gypsum. Put your brick in the bucket with 2qts (8 cups) of vermiculite and 1/2 cup of gypsum. Boil 4.5qts of water and pour into the bucket. Put the lid on and let sit until cool. Shake well before use.
Step 7: Break & Shake
Once your mycelium has colonized 35% of your grain, you want to tighten the lids down all the way and shake the shit outta them to break up the mycelial mass. This distributes the mycelium through all the grain and speeds up colonization. Then loosen your jars back up and place it back into a warm place.
Step 8: Spawning Your Tub
Once your jars are 100% colonized then itâs time to spawn to bulk. Youâll need a sterilite tub (12qt tubs are really good) a black trash bag, gloves, alcohol, a spoon, and your CVG. Sterilize your gloves, tub, and spoon. If youâre using a modified tub, tape off your FAE holes with scotch tape or duct tape. Line your tub with your bag and spoon out your grain into your lined tub. Then break up any clumps. Next add your CVG. A good rule of thumb is 2 quarts CVG per 1 quart of grain. Mix thoroughly and evenly. You want the surface of the cake to be as level as possible so tamp your cake down firmly but not too hard until itâs level. Then sprinkle some of your CVG on top, about 1/8th to a quarter inch thick. This is called a pseudo casing. This prevents contaminants from falling on exposed grain. Tamp down again. Mist the surface with water using a fine mist spray bottle. The brand I use is called Flairosol. Cut away any excess trash bag getting as close to the cake as you can get. Then put the lid on and place somewhere warm and let colonize.
Step 9: Fruiting Conditions
Once the surface of your cake is completely white with mycelium, you wanna initiate fruiting conditions. In order to initiate fruiting conditions you need to give the tub 2 things. One being FAE (Fresh Air Exchange) and the other being proper surface conditions. If youâre using smaller tubs such as the 12 quart ones I use, all you have to do for FAE is flip the lid upside down. This is called âlid tekâ or you could take an identical tub and place it upside down on top of your mushroom tub creating a humidity dome. This is called a âdub tubâ. If youâre using modified tubs, replace your scotch tape or duct tape with filter patches or micropore tape. Next is surface conditions. You want millions of tiny water droplets on your surface without letting any pool up. If you have pools of water on your cake, you can take a paper towel and soak it up with that. At this point your cake is pretty resistant to contamination, but thatâs no excuse to slack on your sterile technique. Maintain those millions of water droplets my misting a couple times a day. Your cake will start to pin and grow mushrooms.
Step 10: Harvest
Every culture is different and thus so are the times to harvest. Rule of thumb is, harvest before the spores drop. If youâre growing something like PE or an albino culture that doesnât drop visible spores, you want to harvest when the stems feel like stale marshmallows. Once you harvest you want to dehydrate low and slow. I like 125f for 18 hours. You want your fruits to be cracker dry. Bigger fruits will take longer. Then store in a mason jar with silica packets and put them somewhere cool and dark. In order to get a second flush, maintain your FAE and surface conditions until it pins again.
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@GrowTheAtlas
This is exactly what I needed to read
Thank you for your time
Much appreciated 
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Some of what you said is spot on. Some of it I donât agree with â like using Uncle Benâs for absolutely anything â ever. Use oats, millet, or a few other options, rice as a last resort. Uncle Benâs please never.
There should also be more information on topics like properly venting your pressure cooker and how that works. 10-15min of solid steam coming out before the weight goes on or the stopcock gets flipped.
In the effort of keeping information current for anyone trying to grow mushrooms I canât recommend enough The Hitchhikers Guide here: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Shroomery - Mushroom Cultivation - Shroomery Message Board
Multispore should only be going on agar or being used for PFTEK. It should never be squirted on grain. Every single MSS syringe is dirty â and itâs a safe assumption youâll need to clean it up (agar).
Some things in this process do need to be sterile â your grain is one of them. Iâd rework lids as well, they should be closed down and have gas exchange through a filter. That way you donât have to worry about just flipping the lid and turning it just a little, etc.
A lot of what you said was correct or on the right track. There were a few bits though that I wouldnât want to find their way into the brain of someone who is new to mushroom growing. Hence linking the Hitchhikers guide â itâs up to date and maintained by a community of folks similar to here in ways that really care about their craft. Iâm one of them.
Thank you for sharing this info â please donât take this as an attack at all! Go team â I just want people growing the best mush they can (just like I want to grow the best weed I can with help from yâall here!).
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A side note on sterility. The only things sterile in mushroom growing should be agar media (which yâall should do!!! Itâs not that hard!), and your grain. These are actually sterile. Zero count of anything alive.
Most other work is clean. Still air boxes work on the premise of still air, not clean air. Slow movements (no glove box) in a still air box. Laminar flow hoods (no gordo tek or box fans â they really donât work) are an option for clean work but even then itâs not sterile.
Iâd obviously like to support our sponsors here for genetics and if anyone is in a pinch â and domestic to the USâ send me a PM if you need a start or post your questions here!
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Ack. The one bit I just read that must be different is dehydrating: NOT low and slow. Mushrooms are not that heat sensitive. Really. People deep fry them. Cook them on pizza, lol.
Run your dehydrator at its highest setting, mine is 165F, for 24hours. Every time. Iâve always done this and trust me, the mushrooms still work just fine and are nice and cracker dry. Especially when stored in glass with a dry and dry pack and vac sealed â people say theyâre the best mushrooms theyâve tasted!
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with Uncle Bens. All other grains require extra steps that a new grower might find off putting. No rinsing, soaking, simmering for long periods of time with rice and it has all you need.
Although I agree with this, I assume someone brand new to growing mushrooms would be intimidated by agar. If you can, start with LC.
I mention this briefly in the write up how I leave the weight off until thereâs a steady stream of steam but I donât mention for how long. I like 10 minutes.
Why worry about drilling and patching a lid when you can just flip the seal and turn it a little? Flipped lids are simple for new growers and require no effort. Just keep the aluminum foil on. Works like a charm every single time.
This is false, I use a box fan and HEPA filter and itâs worked just fine. Never once had a contaminated plate in all the years Iâve been using it.
I donât want you to take this as an attack either, but everything I wrote will help a new grower from start to finish. Adding things like modded lids, agar, flowhoodsâŚyou donât really need all of that for your first grow. Iâve never modded a lid and never owned a flowhood because you donât need it. Uncle Bens rice is very easy to get and very good for growing mushrooms. Just because one person has never tried it or have had bad experiences with it doesnât validate a claim that itâs factually bad. People try to gate-keep mushroom growing and try to pass it off as this super hard task when itâs absolutely not. I wouldnât misguide a brand new grower into doing something that will set them up for failure just as I wouldnât overcomplicate the process. I wrote a very simple guide that works just to get a potential growerâs foot in the door. All the extras and modified teks will come later with time.
@Osogreen261 stick to the guide man, it all works. I know this because I do it. If you have any questions, just message me and Iâll help you.
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If it works it works!
Laminar flow though is not something youâll get with a HEPA attached to a fan. It might be turbulent filtered flow but thatâs so very different from laminar flow. Even if it worked for you, some can work in open air and find success â it doesnât make it the right way. The tools you mentioned are correct! A Still Air Box is a fabulous way to work and it absolutely works. Iâd stick to that personally or go for a cheaper FFU until someone could afford a full laminar flow hood.
Donât forget to bring a towel.
As for Uncle Bens⌠even if it works â itâs incredibly expensive. Why spend that much money on grain??
I would recommend cleaning up or at least testing LC on agar as well. Especially for a new grower. Agar is a critical and not difficult step if you have access to a pressure cooker.
Like you, this is something I actively do. Iâve been growing mushrooms for quite awhile and want to help spread as accurate as information as possible.
Please stay away from Uncle Benâs â if for no reason other than your wallet. Thank you for sharing the info â Iâd personally stick with the Hitchhikers Guide as itâs up-to-date and vetted by several growers â not like the two of us talking here.
Iâve always just liked and felt more confident with a modified lid. Personal preference there for me.
Again though, you shared good info! I just had a few things I didnât and still donât agree with.
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I hope to get some spores or cultures sent your way my friend and please do take advantage of the OG discount code+ freebie and the extra freebie from 420noob for mentioning them!
You could really make out with your first order to have a few free extras to work with as you get more familiar with things.
Mush love <3
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I plan to give it a go for the first time âŚbookmarking this for the right timeâŚthanks 
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Agreed not doin this is a recipe for disaster over and over again. Great write up
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Any one want to trade some liquid culture. I have bunch if cannabis seeds to trade for some
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Are you looking for edible or psychoactive shrooms? Probably best to wait a couple of months cause of the heat.
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Growing (therapeutics) 
Hella fine work man love what ya got going on. Mushrooms are about to be legal for therapeutic work here in my state on the 28th of this month woot woot! Cant wait yo get a grow space setup and getting to Stewart some amazing meds for family friends and myself mushrooms have changed my outlook on life dramatically for the better.
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I use to be a sterile freak , now i barely even was my hands . Like another said the only time you need to be aware is making transfer to agar and your grain spawn. If you buy pre sterilized grain bags or uncle bens you cut out about 90% of your sterile tek. Agar isnât needed if you donât want to. I msinly use it to check new syringes. I have injected uncle bens with MSS and never have had a issue with contamination.
I just bought 3 syringes from SporesMD and was confused at first when i didnt see any black spores and though it got ripped off. Then I looked closer and saw they are actually liquid culture which was a pleasant surprise.
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Some of my best flushes have been from MSS . Sectioning and isolating a monoculture doesnât always mean great returns.
@Fullcircle and anyone else if you purchase from mushroommanmycology.com remember to mention 420noob for extra freebie and overgrow to get overgrow only discount.
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