how to grow mushrooms the easy way

canndo

Well-Known Member
Much trouble with border breaks or harvesting ?


All of your callings make perfect sense. Eight flushes. Great.
 

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
I've seen this term "border breaks" a lot but I'm not really sure what this means. Are you referring to when they grow up from the sides of the jar against the glass?

Harvesting is not a problem. They break off easy w/ a twist of the stem at the base and don't disturb the substrate
 

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
Yes, I get border breaks occasionally.

When wrapping the jar in foil, I put it about a 1/4 inch above the level of the casing. Not sure if this helps or not but I've never really had any major issues where I thought harvesting was a pain in the ass. On the contrary, it's easy as pie once you get the hang of it.

I haven't tried bulk but I wonder how my production coming out of 7 jars would stack up against a bulk grow w/ the same amount of spawn. I'm producing 8 flushes (so far) and the amount of time it takes is longer however the jars don't contaminate AT ALL and I save time w/ the set up considering the jars are producing for much longer.

For my next round, I'll keep a log of production on 7 jars (this is a "batch" that fits in the pressure cooker) over the lifespan of the spawn to see how many grams of cubensis are produced.
 
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awesomegrow420

Active Member
Hey whats up people, So i decided to give growing mushrooms a go since growing weed in my area is just to stressful. I ordered 8 syringes from thesporedepot and im going to give golden teachers a try first using pf tek in BRF cakes. My house temp is usually around 75 F and i just ordered some temp/humidity readers. I plan to make a fruiting chamber and do everything that i have seen in the pf tek videos that i have watched on lets grow mushrooms website. so heres my questions..

Going to buy
2 large clear storage containers for fruiting (plan to put like 10 cakes in each). (do i need to drill holes in the containers for air flow or can i leave it closed with lid on and open a few times a day? or should i use the poly-fil stuff with bigger holes in bin? i would prefer to leave closed for contamination reasons.)

2 60W equivalent (15W) CFLS.
(I plan to keep the light bulbs outside the fruiting chamber is this okay? how close should the light be? do i need one light per fruiting chamber? )
 

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
Hello "awesomegrow420"
Welcome to the thread and feel free to poke around.

Your best bet for pf tek questions is to inquire on a pf tek thread. This thread is the anthesis of pf tek and is designed to be a SUPERIOR ALTERNATIVE . Read through it and give it a TRY - you won't be disappointed

Good luck!
 
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awesomegrow420

Active Member
Florida. Still very illegal to grow. it just got passed for medical for debilitating diseases this election, and yea i saw that this thread does popcorn, but i figured i would post here since it was the most recent/active mushroom thread instead of making my own for a small question.
 

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
Any advice to someone who wants to grow mushrooms but doesn't want to buy a pressure cooker? Can i steam these in a hot water bath or crock pot intead of pressure cooker?
 

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
My advice to someone who does not want to buy a pressure cooker is to BUY A PRESSURE COOKER. All kidding aside... It's a MUST HAVE

The science of WHY lies in the difference between sanitizing and sterilizing. If you boil something for a "really long time", all you do is clean it really well.

When a product is "sanitized" - glasses at your local bar, they are brought up to a minimum rinse temperature of 180F. If this doesn't happen, certain bacteria remain and the local health department will slap the bar with a violation.
When you go to a surgeon to have your gall bladder removed, the knife that cuts you needs to be "sterilized" or you risk getting a contamination/infection. This process requires a minimum temperature of 250F. This temperature can only be reached by steaming "under pressure". Google AUTOCLAVE for the long version on this.

When you sterilize a substrate you effectively kill EVERYTHING alive. When you then introduce mushroom spores, there is nothing else in the substrate to compete with them for survival.

The $100 you spend on a pressure cooker will guarantee that the other $100 spent on spores, substrate, casing, jars, isopropyl alcohol, plastic baggies and a mister isn't wasted.

20161130_215623.jpg

Results like this will not happen outside of a sterile environment. Seriously, get a pressure cooker and you'll be SAVING money.

Peace
 

DesertHydro

Well-Known Member
if you are a DIY kind of person build yourself a laminar flow hood. if you arent, you can buy mine for a nominal fee :) FH is not needed 100% but i was getting nearly 99% success rate. i did EVERYTHING in front of the flow hood, from inoculation, g2g transfers, liquid culture prep, casings, and sub/spawn mixing. i NEVER had contams until late into multiple flushes when they were old and weak. you can build a FH for 2-300$ and its worth EVERY penny. any q's hit me up. i was doing cubes for a very long time. retired now lol

the biggest piece of advice i can give is move away from glass jars and start using spawn bags with breathable filter patches. so much easier and they are cheap as hell.
 

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
Yodaweed, I was assuming that you don't want to spend the money for a pressure cooker. Is this the issue?
 

ThroBak

New Member
Impressive crop nicemarmot. I am a curious beginner and am wondering how much dried shrooms did you get from that tray. Starting with 12 quart jars and 25 pounds of corn sounds like a whole lot. If I started with half that amount, would I still be able to harvest a modest amount? Are there problems with starting smaller?
 

nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
Your inclination to start small is a good one.

You'll make mistakes and learn as you go and probably have contaminates the first time. Don't set a harvest goal but rather have a goal of getting SOMETHING to grow.

Don't get discouraged. It takes a bit of practice.

Keep us posted.
 
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nicemarmot

Well-Known Member
The dry weight in the above referenced photo (the trays drying) is 30 grams. Just over an ounce.

From a different flush, here's a photo of a cubensis from a jar that is just about to kick. The last flush from a jar is generally a GIANT tree of a shroom

20161204_192356.jpg
 
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