Mushroom Growing Reference

This is a work in progress, it is no where near finished yet. I will update this as much as I can so check back later. In no way did I create these teks outlined here. I am simply creating a thread that has good information and links all in one area. Hope you enjoy. I will reserve another post just in case. Feel free to PM me with questions or concerns.

Table of Contents

I. BasicsII. AssemblyIII. PF tek
I. Basics

Sterile technique is the single most important thing in this hobby. You will need to understand this fully and be able to execute it perfectly. Contamination is the number one thing you do not want. It can take out your whole project and infect other projects if sterile technique is not practiced or the mold was not disposed of fast enough. Cutting corners on your sterile technique is not a smart thing to do. Some things you must have inside your grow room at all times are: 70-90% iso alcohol, 10% bleach solution, H202 sprayer, and some air & surface sanitizer. Make sure to rub your gloves down with alcohol before touching anything. Before messing around with your jars(especially inoculation), it is recommended that you shower, brush your teeth, and use antiseptic mouthwash. Wearing dust masks is also a great thing to do when working with exposed mycelium. If you are not using a dust mask you should refrain from breathing on it. Rubbing your tools with alcohol is also something that is required to prevent cross contamination. Flame sterilizing is using a flame to sterilize your needle by getting the needle point red hot(takes about 15 seconds). Remember, you can never be "too sanitized".This is something else that is very important. You will want an area that the temperature does not go over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. 70-78 is the recommended temperature for the fruiting stage. Closets make a very good location for growing. Most contamination come from the first 3 feet of the floor, so choosing a location that is 3 feet or higher than the ground is a good choice(It's fine to be on the floor, too).Spores -
The very first thing you need before you start growing is mushroom spores. You can order spores online at plenty of vendors. I highly recommend SporeWorks or Spores101, they both have great customer service and stock. Psilocybe Cubensis spores are illegal to possess in California, Idaho, or Georgia. If you are ordering from sporeworks, they have a deal going on if you are a Shroomery member, you get a free syringe with your order. There is a comment section on the checkout page to write it.

Mason Jars -
Depending on what method of growing you are doing and the size of your PC, you will certainly need mason jars. For doing the PF tek, you will want to get half-pint wide mouth mason jars. Wide mouth mason jars are the same size throughout the whole jar so that your mushroom cakes will easily slide out. If you are going to do grains your first time around, you will want to pick up some quart mason jars, regular mouth is fine here.

Tyvek -
Tyvek is used as a filter for your jar lids. It can be found for free at your local post office(USA). You can also buy it at some home improvement stores in the paint section. It is usually a full suit or sleeves.

Pressure Cooker -
Absolutely needed for anything other than the PF tek. You can find them for $80-100 at your local super mart. Get a 23 QT or higher if you can afford it. All-American is a really good brand and definitely a good buy.

Vermiculite -
Vermiculite is needed for your substrate/casing. It creates a really great airy substrate with lots of moisture. It can be found at most garden centers, some Wal-Mart's have it also. Try not to get the fine vermiculite, coarse is the proffered type for this hobby. Fine will work too though.

Perlite -
Perlite is needed for it's large surface area that holds a lot of water. It is used to keep the RH up to par inside your FC. Any type will work, it does not matter if is in enriched with plant food.

Glove Box-
A glove box is a sealed box with holes cut in the side to prevent draft. It is supposed to be 100% sterile inside the box. This is where you will do most of the work(inoculating,G2G,etc).

Incubator-
An incubator is used to help the jars colonize at the best rate possible. You need to set the temperature of your incubator at 80-82 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature mycelium colonizes the quickest at. Mycelium will still colonize just fine at room temperature, but an incubator will make everything faster and you will not regret getting one. They are usually a tub with water and an aquarium heater in it, with another tub inside of it where you will keep your jars.

Fruiting Chamber-
Fruiting chambers are needed to keep your mycelium at a RH of 95-100%, which is a huge pinning initiation. A FC combined with lots of FAE will make the mycelium produce fruit bodies.

Sterile Procedure Supplies-
Like I said before, you will need to buy some 70-90% iso alcohol and some surface & air sanitizer. You might as well pick up some rubber gloves(either disposable, or some dish washing gloves)

Hygrometer-
You are going to need a hygrometer to monitor your RH to make sure its in the correct range. Analog hygrometers are the way to go as digital hygrometers tend to mess up and display the wrong RH. See if your hygrometer needs to be calibrated, if so, you can do that by wrapping it in a wet towel for an hour or two, then set the pin to 100%.

Thermometer-
Might as well pick up two of these. One for the fruiting chamber, and one for the incubator. You need to make sure both of those temperatures are up to par.

Micropore tape-
This stuff is located in the first aid section. It is a breathable tape that is used for covering the holes in your lid before and after inoculation. It is a type of medical tape. The back of the package should say "breathable" on it somewhere.

Silicone-
You don't really need silicone, it is just used to make S.H.I.P.'s (Self Healing Inoculation Ports). Using silicone you can use one tyvek filter disk forever.

II. Assembly

There are plenty of different ways of making a glovebox. I will link to different glove box teks. You should figure out which one is most appealing to you and the one that forms to your situation the best.
Shadow Box
Regular Glovebox - My glove box is basically this exact setup. Except mine is flipped upside down because I had an opaque lid.
$25 Glovebox
Revised Glovebox

Like I said before, an incubator is used to keep your jars warm enough for them to produce at their best. Remember to keep it set at 80-82 degrees Fahrenheit.
Quality Incubator - I would definitely make this one! Way more stable than a TiT, and you won't have to deal with stagnant water.
TiT Incubator - I cannot find a tek for this one. It's really simple though. You just need two totes. One with water with the aquarium heater in it(Aim for a 300 watt aquarium heater). I use this type.Tiered greenhouse FC - If you can afford it, this is definitely the way to go!
Large FC - A good choice. Doesn't use perlite.
Small FC - Almost the same as the above.
Cheap cake FC - Good if your doing the PF tek small scale.
Poor Man's Pod - Great choice. If you are going to buy a kit instead of building, then I suggest you order it off MushBox. They have reasonably good prices on their kits. They are also an affiliate with Spores101 so they also have excellent customer service. I would get the substrate upgrade, so you also get 12 PF tek jars that are pre-sterilized. Meaning you can just inoculate them right when you get them and start incubating! Before moving on to the next section, you will want to make sure your jar lids are correct. There are plenty of different ways of making your lids. I do mine with a single tyvek filter disk, with a dab of RTV silicone(regular silicone works too, just make sure it is 100% silicone and can withstand 250 degrees Farhenheit).
Simple Tyvek Lids - These are the lids I use. They work great and will last a lifetime.


III. PF tek

The PF tek is a great way for beginners to really understand the life cycle of mushrooms. Starting with the PF tek is great because starting with grain can get frustrating when you get a contamination.

Recipe for 5 cakes -
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup water
2 cups vermiculite

You are going to want to start out with 2 cups vermiculite, then add the 1 cup water. The goal here is to get this substrate to field capacity. Once the vermiculite and water is mixed really good, introduce the 1 cup BRF and start mixing. It should look really moist and fluffy. Pick some up in your palm and squeeze it. Some drops should come out then it should stop, that means its at field capacity. Using this recipe, it should get it to field capacity so you might not need to add more water.

Now you are going to load up your jars. Make sure you are using half pint wide mouth jars. Load up the substrate into your mason jars until they are 1/2 inch left on the top. You will want to rub this lip down with a dry paper towel. Doing this will get the substrate off the inside lip. If there is substrate on that inside lip, contaminates can use it to wick down into the main substrate. Now fill the rest of that jar with some dry vermiculite. This dry vermiculite acts as a filter for the substrate(you do not have to use the dry verm filter). Put your lid rubber side up, and tyvek filter disk on the top. Now screw the ring down on the lid to close it. Your pressure cooker must be able to reach 15 PSI (250 degrees Farhenheit) to achieve full sterilization. Get all your jars you are going to pressure cook, and cover the tops in foil. This is to keep water from getting on the filter and into the jar. You need to put something in the bottom of the pressure cooker to ensure that you do not cook the substrate. I usually use dish rags, but you can also use jar lids if you have any extra. Load up your pressure cooker with all of your jars, pour water into the pressure cooker until 1/4 to 1/2 the jars are submerged, close it up, and start heating it up to 15 PSI. Once the pressure cooker reaches 15 PSI, turn the stove down to medium, and start the timer for 60 minutes.

To do the boil sterilization method, you need to have a pot big enough to fit the jars you want to sterilize. Put something in the bottom of the pot to ensure you don't cook anything(dish rags, jar lids, tin foil, etc). Load the jars up and pour water until 1/4 to 1/2 the jars are submerged. To achieve full sterilization with this method the water needs to be at a full boil for 90 minutes. Once the water starts boiling, turn the stove down to the lowest it can go while still boiling the water. If you notice the water level is going down, be sure to add more or you might just boil it dry.

Once the PC/pot has cooled, you need to very carefully put the jars into your glovebox for inoculation. Remember to do this while wearing gloves that you rubbed down with alcohol. Once your jars are not warm anymore, they are ready to be inoculated. If you inoculate to early, you risk killing your spores because the substrate was too hot. It's better to wait overnight than to inoculate after PC'ing them. Since you already put all your jars inside your glovebox, you need to bring in some more materials you will need.

Alcohol lamp-
Do not put this inside your glovebox! You will risk an explosion with all the alcohol and air sanitizer inside the sealed tub. Put it in arms reach outside the glovebox.

Alcohol soaked paper towel-
You use this to rub down your inoculation points and your needle after every use.

Air & surface sanitizer-
A main necessity. Be sure to spray your clothes and arms before going inside the room. Also spray the room with it 10 minutes before you go into there to let it settle.

Spores-
The main attraction! Can't forget these.

Jars-
Hopefully you already had these inside your glovebox.

It is now time for inoculation. Open the arm holes of your glovebox and spray in some air sanitizer. Let that settle for a couple minutes and your ready to begin. Hopefully you showered and used mouthwash beforehand. Put your gloves on and spray the sanitizer on your arms and body. Rub your gloves down with some iso alcohol and let it dry. Stick your hands inside your glovebox and start shaking your spore syringes. This is to make the spores break free of each other and make the sparse in the water. Flame sterilize the needle by getting it red hot, then wipe the needle down with alcohol. Let the needle cool for a second(that's all it needs) and insert your syringe into the first port. Aim the syringe to the glass and squirt about .3 CC per hole. You are aiming for about 1 CC per jar. Remember to wipe down your needle between holes, and to flame sterilize between jars. Repeat this for all the jars until you are finished. Now cap your syringe, and put it back where it belongs.After you finish your inoculation, it is time to put them inside the incubator for them to colonize. Patience is key in this part of the hobby. This part can sometimes take upwards to two months without an incubator. With an incubator, you can expect them to reach 100% at 25-30 days. If you just finished inoculation, then there is no need to re-sterilize, so just take your jars out of your glovebox, and put them inside your incubator that is set to 80-82 degrees.

All you need to do now is wait until they are 100%. Once they are 100%, let them sit inside the incubator for another 4-10 days to allow them to take a hold of the substrate.

Once you waited the 4-10 days for the mycelium to get a hold of the substrate, it is time to birth them. Take the jars into your kitchen(or where there is a faucet) with a pot of water next to it. Open up a jar, pour the dry verm somewhere, and lightly hit the top of the jar on a book/wood block/counter and the cake will slide out. Take the cake and rinse it off in the faucet, make sure to get off the excess vermiculite on it. Now put it inside the pot of water. Once all the cakes are in the pot of water, use something(like a plate) to 100% submerge them in the water. Let them "dunk" for 24 hours. After 24 hours, rinse them off again and "roll" them in a bowl of vermiculite. Think of rolling chicken in flour, it's the same deal. Once it is covered in vermiculite, you need to put them inside of your FC on top of a piece of tin foil. That is called the "dunk and roll tek".If you made it this far, then congratulations, your mycelium is at it's most contam resistant stage. When you put your cakes under fruiting conditions, you can expect to see fruit bodies at about day 10. If you do not see them by day 10, not to worry, some substrains fruit slower than others. When a mushroom cake starts producing mushrooms, it is called pinning. A baby mushroom is called a "pin". There are a couple main pinning triggers that tell the mycelium to produce fruit bodies in order to survive and keep the strain going.

Main pinning triggers-
Running out of food
Introduction of light (usually 12/12. They prefer the bluer side of the spectrum. 6500K daylight CFL's are a great choice for light. Christmas/rope lights will work also, with low heat.)
High RH
FAE

Set up a timer so that the lights turn on on a 12/12 cycle. This cycle does not need to be perfect. Mushrooms will still form if they have at least 5 hours of light a day. If you set up your FC, then you should have something that keeps the RH up. Most people use a tub with holes everywhere with perlite in the bottom(AKA shotgun FC). Misting will also be required to keep the RH high enough. FAE is achieved by fanning the tub with the lid for a couple minutes.

Basic day schedule-
Fan at least 3 times a day.
Mist at least 2 times a day.
Always mist before fanning, as it promotes evaporation.
Mist the walls, the substrate, and the perlite when you mist.
Once you see pins form, STOP misting the substrate but keep misting the walls.
The pins will develop into mushrooms, when this happens, you can continue misting as usual.To harvest a mushroom, you simply grab the stem by the base, and twist and pull lightly until it just pops off the substrate. You do not want to rip any substrate off with the mushroom. To harvest at peak potency, pick them when the veil is about to tear. Even if some mushrooms are not fully mature, you should pick them because they may have aborted. Let a few mushrooms mature so you can spore print them to save the genetics. Be sure to save the biggest mushroom off the cakes to print it. You can still dry and consume the mushrooms after they have been printed. The mushrooms are safe to consume wet after harvesting. Cubensis are about 80% water so you would have to eat 80% more than you eat dry.

A flush is when the mycelium produces a whole set of mushrooms. Depending on the nutrients in the substrate, they can have multiple flushes. The PF tek cakes we did will get about 4 flushes. After the harvest, you should have a clean mycelium cake again. This is when you do the "dunk and roll tek" once again. This re-hydrates the mycelium and it is ready to produce more mushrooms. You do this every time after a flush until it is done producing fruits.

Drying your mushrooms after harvesting is something basically everyone does. What everyone wants are "cracker dry" mushrooms. To achieve this, you must first dry them normally, then dry the rest with some desiccant. To normally dry your mushrooms, lay out a couple layers of newspaper with a fan blowing on them. Let them sit for a day or two. These will be dry enough to eat, but if you put them in a bag, they will re-hydrate and eventually mold.
If stored right, these mushrooms will last quite awhile. You can either store them in ziplock bags, or mason jars. If you are going to store them in mason jars, be sure to put some desiccant in there to suck the moisture out of them. If you choose to put them in ziplock bags, You should open them every once in awhile to make sure they are not getting too moist or anything. If you made them cracker dry, you will be fine storing them in bags. Just don't store them too long without any desiccant.

Reserved~~