how to grow mushrooms the easy way

canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
Please remember that this is not a popcorn tek either but a system for new growers that was intended to replace pf tek. Considering that I detest the tekid, it is a not really a beginners approach and it teaches little about the organism. I needed to do more than scoff, I needed to offer an alternative.

I know of people who attempted to use pf tekid for shaggy manes thinking if it works for one mushroom it must work for all.


This tekid will, on the other hand, grow snagged, not well, not in abundance, but if you tend to temperatures you will se

Shaggy mane mycelium smells like fresh cashews
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
Huh. I Didn't know that about that kind. And honestly I tried and tried with the PF TEK for my cubes and had horrible luck with MS Syringes to PF TEK. The only ones I've gotten to work were WBS/Verm nocced with ms Agar and a few BRF cakes nocced up by grain have started and are almost ready. And I got a few more behind them I just did.

But honestly if you feel it may work for my situation then I'm going to try this TEK I mean I was going to eventually anyways but I will sooner now since I need an alternative that works
 
Pankace

Pankace

Member
I always found the PF tek kinda hit and miss. WBS spawned to horse dung/ or wheat straw in rubbermaid totes is a great way to go once you get it down. As long as you keep things clean and sterile, the yields and extra waiting time are well worth it.
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
Ok so I'm really wanting to give up. My WBS/Verm Cakes are not doing anything. The first two are still sitting in SGFC and nothing happening. A few lumps of Mycellium pop out but that's it. I'm going to try re dunking. Rolling and cold shock them and see. My second larger cake is now contammed with Trich all over it. And the other two small ones I rolled with Coco coir and nothing is happening at all with them. I have two or three agar dishes pinning and kne dish even grew a few mini mushies. So I tried transferring to agar and no luck. Bacteria takes over. What can I do to use the agar dishes that are pinning to inoculate something with them. The best way to do it without Contams or risk of failure. I'm doing my best and I thought everything was growing great. But when I fruited them. Nothing happened. I'm not being greedy and wanting tons of mushies. I just want a few to grow to keep me motivated to keep growing. My health is bad and I could use small amounts for now until I get bulk going. Btw I also had a mini mono tub or DUBTUB going. But it is Contammed too Ill put it Outside somewhere and maybe it will have a chance but doubt it

Anyways. What's the best thing you recomend to do with the fruiting agar ?
 
Pankace

Pankace

Member
Sounds like your only option is transferring agar pieces to new substrate jars and starting over. I hate to say it cuz I've definitely been there more more times than I like to admit. Chin up. You will hone your craft. If you have the coin I suggest buying a HEPA flow hood or making one of your own for inoculations and transfers. You will see your success rate vastly improve.
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
I'm actually about to order SPORES to start growing sclerotia instead. I can grow Mycellium in the jars just fine. Got that down pat pretty well. But it's the fruiting mushrooms I think for the first two small cakes it was non fruiting Mycellium It happens. But the others were MS so something should have happened. Hell honestly it should have started pinning before the Trich took over it. It sat for 2 weeks before Trich started The first two are still just sitting there in chamber. I won't give up on them. I was thinking of trying to dunk. Roll and cold shock. Give them a week or two and see what happens then. If nothing still I may crumble them up into a container and put outside somewhere and let nature take its course. But I live in a Motorhome so space is an issue. And discretion as well. So sclerotia just seems to be the best route for me. Takes little space to grow Much more discreet than tubs of mushrooms And I don't have the stress of fruiting mushrooms. Just let them colonize and wait.....wait....wait. Lol.
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
And yeah flow hood would be nice. I just don't have money to put one together right now. I use a SAB Tho and was doing good. I just moved tho so waiting for things to settle a bit before doing anything yet.

Sclerotia sounds like it will work better for me tho too.

But I'm not giving up. I will still try to grow mushrooms too. I have plenty of SPORES left in syringes and have a bunch of Mycellium on agar yet.
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
Shotgun fruiting chamber style. More specific. One was a square tub with two cakes sitting on foil and 2.5in of Wet Perlite with 1/4 holes every few inches under the perlite. Then one 1.5jnch hole in each end. And 2 1.5inch holes on each side of tub. All stuffed with medium polyfil. I would also open about twice a day and most and fan the inside
(Just incase)

The others were a homeade 2 liter type deal but was actually doing really well at first and plan on trying it again sometime. I took a round Tupperware container. Like the ones RESTURAUNTS put soup in Like 6inches tall. I filled it almost full with wet perlite and 1/4 holes all around it. I left about an inch or two at the top for the Cale to sit down into the container a little and drilled 4 of the 1/2in holes for Co2 to escape and then cut a 2liter in half and put it on top with 4 of 1/2 holes in it for fresh air to come in. So again it was kind of like a Mini SGFC They actually were doing very well but never fruited or even pinned at all.

They did grow big lumps and balls of mycellium tho at first. But t turned yellow and died off and that's the last thing it did
 
Mr. Bongwater

Mr. Bongwater

Well-Known Member
“Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.”
― Terence McKenna

couldn't of said it better myself
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
I wish they were just legal for medical use at the very least. I do understand why they should be used with caution. Many people easily lose touch with reality when taking them. I know I did the other night. First time one years. Plus it was first time with penis envy. AND first time using lemon juice TEK. The combo of those Lol. Let's just say we took just a little too much Lmao. Started with only 1g for my BF and 1.5 for me. Soaked in lemon juice for only 5min and took them. Nothing happened for 45min so we said mix another batch and let it soak. If nothing happens in another 15min we will take them. So I mixed and let soak in lemon juice for 15min and still nothing so we took the second dosage and about 20min later we were starting to trip nicely and it was ok. My partner got panicky and I convinced him to calm down and let it flow. Told him to relax and ride the wave and he listened and had a great time. But at the end we lost touch with reality and was very scary when it wore off. He got sick and was falling asleep and I was still tripping a little and thought he and everyone in the world was dead and I was all alone Everything was black and white and then it slowly ended and I was very confused on what was real and what was the trip. So I understand why they could be potentially dangerous in the wrong environment. But I use them more medically and the next day I felt amazing. Didn't have to take any medications for two days and the third day barely any too. I'm still not near as depressed and feeling better than I have in 2 years. So they have amazing medical value. Too bad they are illegal and have to worry about charges of caught. Ima be crushing mine and filling store bough capsules so your never know whats inside. Lol
 
Mr. Bongwater

Mr. Bongwater

Well-Known Member
don't u hate how the government try to treat the world like a bunch of fucking babies, guess they capitalize on stupid brainwashed sheep huh
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
Ya know. I'm fine with them taxing everything because We all know the government has to get something out of it That's fine by me. We pay taxes for them regulating it and protecting our rights. But they don't. They take our rights away from us instead and charge us anyways. Like even with this trump and Clinton shit. I always thought that were elected the canidates too. Why in the hell are we being forced to vote for the lesser of two evils So many of us want them out of the campaign then why don't the people stand up and do something about it. Nope. The people will wait until it's too late and we end up with WW3 Anyways.
 
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Skillzd

Active Member
Lol. Sorry. Probaly more my fault. I hate politics but this presidential campaign has me ticked off. Let's vote the best of the worst two people we could have in office. Lol. But we need to see what their views are for using mushrooms and cannabis for medicines. That's who I want in office. Haha. I know there many bigger issues but think of how freindly the world would be if everyone smokes or ate cannabis or uses mushrooms There would be peace everywhere. Lmao.
 
nicemarmot

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
Hoping to stay on focus and revitalize this thread a bit...

I've been working w/ this tek for almost a year now. I had a rough start but I kept at it and learned a lot through trial and error. Thanks Canndo for your work on this and sharing the knowledge. It's in that spirit that I offer up a few things I've learned while sticking to the prescribed plan:

1) having a not too soggy substrate AFTER pressure cooking has as much to do w/ the water in the cooked popcorn as the water level in the pressure cooker. You want the water in the pressure cooker to be almost completely evaporated when the time is up for sterilization. This seems to ensure (correlation) that there is minimal water in the jar as well. I think it's an equalization thing but I've noticed over and over that if there's too much water left in the pressure cooker, there's also too much water left in the jars. Extra liquid slows mycellium growth and ensures contaminates.

2) a glove box GREATLY increases your chance of success. I call it a glove box so you know what I'm talking about but my box doesn't actually have gloves attached to it. I wear vinyl food service gloves, wipe out the box, the table, my gloves and outside of the jars w/ isopropol alcohol. The box is a clear plastic tote w/ two holes cut into it side for my hands. It took 5 minutes to make and negates the need for all steps related to air flow in the house and spraying down the room w/ disinfectant. You're essentially creating a sanitized, tiny work area that is no larger than it needs to be. When I'm finished, the tote doubles as a storage container for all my supplies.

3) after injecting the substrate w/ spores I replace the lid and immediately tumble the popcorn kernels. In doing so, the spores are dispersed evenly throughout the substrate. About a week later w/o any shaking of the jars, I have a half colonized AND evenly colonized jar. I then break out my "glove box" again, open the jars, pour out the CO2 and the next day they explode w/ growth. 4 days later they're ready for casing.

I'm still learning about optimal misting and humidity in order to get dense pin sets... Lots MORE to learn here...

Thanks.
 
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canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
nicemarmot said:
Hoping to stay on focus and revitalize this thread a bit...

I've been working w/ this tek for almost a year now. I had a rough start but I kept at it and learned a lot through trial and error. Thanks Canndo for your work on this and sharing the knowledge. It's in that spirit that I offer up a few things I've learned while sticking to the prescribed plan:

1) having a not too soggy substrate AFTER pressure cooking has as much to do w/ the water in the cooked popcorn as the water level in the pressure cooker. You want the water in the pressure cooker to be almost completely evaporated when the time is up for sterilization. This seems to ensure (correlation) that there is minimal water in the jar as well. I think it's an equalization thing but I've noticed over and over that if there's too much water left in the pressure cooker, there's also too much water left in the jars. Extra liquid slows mycellium growth and ensures contaminates.

2) a glove box GREATLY increases your chance of success. I call it a glove box so you know what I'm talking about but my box doesn't actually have gloves attached to it. I wear vinyl food service gloves, wipe out the box, the table, my gloves and outside of the jars w/ isopropol alcohol. The box is a clear plastic tote w/ two holes cut into it side for my hands. It took 5 minutes to make and negates the need for all steps related to air flow in the house and spraying down the room w/ disinfectant. You're essentially creating a sanitized, tiny work area that is no larger than it needs to be. When I'm finished, the tote doubles as a storage container for all my supplies.

3) after injecting the substrate w/ spores I replace the lid and immediately tumble the popcorn kernels. In doing so, the spores are dispersed evenly throughout the substrate. About a week later w/o any shaking of the jars, I have a half colonized AND evenly colonized jar. I then break out my "glove box" again, open the jars, pour out the CO2 and the next day they explode w/ growth. 4 days later they're ready for casing.

I'm still learning about optimal misting and humidity in order to get dense pin sets... Lots MORE to learn here...

Thanks.
Click to expand...


Thank you.

I'm unsure of the pressure cooker mechanics. I don't understand how that might work. Yes an initial shake would help, I figured it would inhibit the ability to see white.


It is great that you perfected this process, really . Now please move on. Go to spawning, other species, new substrates.


But before you do, doesn't it seem more reasonable than pf ? Full colonization in nine days?


You failed to mention casing. I'd live to hear you experiences there.
 
nicemarmot

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
The above referenced photo is a variation on the oven baked casing method. I did not have any luck retaining moisture in the coir/verm mix while cooking to temp and for the allotted time in an oven. It always came out dry.

My solution was to prepare the casing to moisture level and microwave in a sealed container on high for 3 minutes. The lid popped off a touch but it retained most of the moisture. I snap the lid back shut and let the casing cool to room temp (about 5 hours but can be hurried along in the refrigerator).

I then cased w/ a spoon that has been wiped w/ isopropyl alcohol - not sterilized (wrapped in foil and pressure cooked) . I felt comfortable w/ the "quick sanitize vs. sterilize" method considering that we've learned mycelium is strong enough to resist contamination at this stage of colonization.

For my adaptation, the lid goes back on the jar after adding the casing to keep CO2 levels high while mycelium grows into casing. When about half colonized (3 days), I remove lid, and proceed w/ foil around jar/FAE/light exposure.

Some of my jars have produced 8 flushes (diminishing somewhat over time) and require little maintenence other than misting every few days. Longevity of the production can be several months from the same jar.
 
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