this ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPi6q5rWi6U )

grow guide said after colonization let them set for a week.. does that mean just leave them where there at for a week?
or do something different with them.

and when you are done and you harvest, what do you do with the cakes?

do they produce shrooms again or do you have to pitch them

let it set in the jar an extra week... what you think is 100% colonization usually isnt, so its good idea to let it go an extra week, or untill it starts pinning inside the jar. after that i take it out, remove any pins and rinse under cold water to get any loose verm off and just rehydrate it a little, then i dunk all the cakes in a thing of cool spring water with a splash of H202, for 24 hours.. that will replenish the water that was originally put into the cake that is now used up (youll notice the cake is smaller after colonization). after the dunk i roll it in fresh room temp, sterilized vermiculite (bake it in an oven at like 400, for a half hour) and then put the cakes into the fruiting chamber.. mist several times a day untill you see pins. stop misting once pins form, you dont want standing water on the caps, will cause rot.

after harvest, clean, dunk and roll again, can produce 3-5 times from one cake, dont handel too much or it will cause brusinging... (small round blue imprints, usually the size of your fingers

ok, thanks man. does bruising affect the quality of the shrooms or just the looks

i never really noticed it effecting the production too much, but i was always pretty careful. it normally just freaks out people new to growing, but if its BLUE then no worries, any shade of BLACK, GREEN, GREY or "cobwed" is bad! white "cotton " and "fluff/root" formations are good!

neat thing about bruising, one strain we played with for a while bruised REALLY easy, just from picking the whole stem would turn navy blue. once they dried we ended up with dark blue shrooms with golden caps, still had some of the dry verm stuck to the mushroom "foot"...
needless to say a blue and gold mushroom with gold verm flakes has a lot of bag appeal!

last tip.. when harvesting, gently twist dont cut! if they are growing in a cluster its best to harvest them all at once, even if some are smaller. its ok if it leaves a divot in the cake, it will heal itself. mushrooms are most potent when picked right before the veil breaks. after that the magic to weight ratio goes down. small msuhrooms that fail to grow all the way are called aborts, they are about twice as potent per g, they just dont hardly weigh anything.

BUMP

thanks again man

if i knew how to rep, i would haha

one more thing and then i think thats all


do you know of a credible site that ships within the US?

spores101 is the only one iv sent money too and can vouch for... they ship within the US so it doesnt have to go past customs... plus they apparently keep their customer server in canada so its even safer...
(spores arent illegal anyway.. but they do help prove intent to manufacture....)
probly spent $1000 with those guys, great service and fast shipping... id suggest cambodian or alakabenzi good luck man!