http://www.shroomery.org/8421/Panaeolus-cyanescens-FAQ
This is extremely crude, but I hear it works.
Prepare a spore syringe using the prints.
Prepare PF Tek type jars, it is not necessary to use as much substrate as you usually would. Inoculate the jars, using plenty of spore solution.
Grow the jars out somewhere warm. Mid 90's seems to work fine.
Wait until they are fully colonized and give them a couple more days.
Get yourself some fresh cow or horse manure (a dried out cow patty worked fine) mix with a little vermiculite and water to get the proper moisture. You want about 2 cups of shit cake. Nuke it in the microwave, or pressure cooker.
Put some wet perlite in the bottom of a plastic container, shoe box size works great. Crumble the shit and a colonized cake together over the perlite. This should be covered, placed somewhere dark and warm until it is colonized, about 6 days.
Case with a thin layer of properly moistened peat moss/calcium carbonate mix. Definitely less than 1/2" thick. Give it a couple of days then introduce light from a florescent or window light. Give it fresh air, but keep the humidity high. Lower the temperature a little if you can. Expect a couple of large flushes which start in less than two weeks, and are about 3 days apart.
[SIZE=-2]by ambrose[/SIZE]
Tek 2:
Germinate spores on Nutrient Agar, under as sterile an environment as possible. Transfer to fresh plates. Take a good pure plate and directly inoculate into Substrate mentioned before, in Jars. Wait 5- 14 days depending on quantity of inoculate. shake jars, and lay out in trays. Case with a very thin layer of casing soil. Cover for 24-48 hours. Remove cover and place in grow box(whatever you use to fruit in). Pins visible at 5 days from casing. Buttons at day 7, mature fruit at day10-17 depending on grow box environment.
A high evaporation rate, while maintaining moisture content of casing is all that is necessary.
I would say they are easier then most cubensis strains. Not all cubensis strains though. The manure based substrate does not contaminate easily, until you have gotten allot of flushes. Rye grain substrates contaminate easier, and result in small shrooms.
I found the mycelium to be quit resistant to contaminants, and very aggressive. It just LOOKS weak. It is a colony of fine threads, wispy. Cubensis just happens to be ROPY, and thick. So comparing the two by appearance would suggest weak mycelium for the Cops. They are not weak!!!!
When growing any shroom on an off-substrate, the mycelium will be less then ideal. I have no air pumps, no heating element, nothing high tek. If you saw the set up, you would think I was pulling your leg.
My indoor environment, with the AC on always remains between 74- 84 F approx. I use shallow casings, so internal temps within the substrate are never extreme. I did find the Cops. like slightly lower vegetative temps. but not LOW. The range of temps in my home, have grown mexicana, tampanensis, cubensis, and the Cops. Any subtropical shroom will produce in a relatively broad range of temps.
Cubensis, and Pans./Cops., mexicana, tampanensis, and all the other subtropicals, require no COLD SHOCKING. They really don't require any kind of major temperature change. I think the internal temperature change from Jar, to casing is sufficient. Maintaining a constant temperature of 80 F throughout the grow cycle: germination, vegetative, and fruiting. You still get fruits.
Manipulating temperature at the various stages of growth for subtropical shrooms, acts as an optimizer, it is not a necessity. You final product will happen quicker.
With the Cop.s, I don't think a day or two faster is worth the effort. From Spore to Spore in six weeks MAX.
pure cultures in two weeks.
pure spawn two weeks later, MAX.
Pins in five days from casing.
Mature sporulating caps in 10 days from pins, MAX.
Usually much faster. The first flush takes the longest, because the mycelium is so young. Once the mycelium reaches that peak, it happens much faster.
Cultures run plates in 3-5 days.
2 cups substrate colonized in 3-7 days.
Pins at 5 days from casing.
Mushrooms at 10-12 days from casing.
At optimum temps, and environmental conditions, with peak mycelium in culture, every 16-24 days. This in a very low tek indoor setup. Times are approximated!!! The stuff is fast.
Outdoors in a rubbermaid with perlite humidification, on my back porch. Fruits matured in three days. So that's 14 days from culture to spore.
[SIZE=-2]by teonan[/SIZE]
Tek 3:
Use Birdseed spawn to inoculate pasteurized straw. Mix well and pack into a clear tray and cover the top with tinfoil (punch a few small holes with a needle for ventilation). For the spawn run temp, around 80-86 deg will provide the fastest growth. Once colonization is complete (this species is FAST-often only 1 week is needed) case the tray with a thin layer of sterile peat/limestone (4-6 parts peat, 1 part limestone). Now the casing shouldn't be too thick-just enough to cover the surface. Recover the tray with tinfoil and allow the casing to become colonized (check it in about 1-2 days). When you see the mycelium peekin' up, remove the tinfoil and place the tray into a humidified grow chamber. Temps should be around 73-75 deg. F. Within one week the trays will EXPLODE with fruits. They will be small but very potent-nice inky blue stains here and there.
