update on my first mushroom grow

When that happens slowly pull up the syringe while pushing down.

Be very careful because, as you've experienced, it throws out a fucking ridiculous amount of spore in a short time if you're not careful.

Good luck,

taGyo said:

Light isn't a primary pinning trigger,

High humidity is. Don't wrap it.

Birth it, dunk it and flip it sounds solid, never seen it done that way but it makes a lot of sense. The problem is it may not fit upside down but we'll see. It plumps up quite a bit after a 24hr dunk.

If you don't use the terrarium you will be open-air fruiting. You're just going to have to mist more when the verm gets dry. Don't overmist, only when the majority of it is dry. Pay attention to how it looks wet. It will sparkle like wet sand. When it's dry it won't sparkle as much and look more like dry sand. That's when you water again.

The verm is just to trap the moisture and hold some of the humidity. Humidity is a primary pinning trigger.

Click to expand...

Makes a lot of sense. I'm usually gone most of the day because I work, so I'm not sure if I have enough time for the maintenance... If I do it like this, could I just keep the jar in the terrarium without punching holes just to keep the moisture in a little longer? I really have no access to a drill lol.

Yeah you can but make sure to aerate it whenever you come home. When you're around leave the top off. Shrooms give off CO2 and like a supply of O2. If you have a 1/4" screw driver you can heat it up and just melt holes in the plastic.

taGyo said:

When that happens slowly pull up the syringe while pushing down.

Be very careful because, as you've experienced, it throws out a fucking ridiculous amount of spore in a short time if you're not careful.

Good luck,

Click to expand...

Thanks for the words of advice. I'll try to remember that the next time I need to inoculate a jar.

taGyo said:

Yeah you can but make sure to aerate it whenever you come home. When you're around leave the top off. Shrooms give off CO2 and like a supply of O2. If you have a 1/4" screw driver you can heat it up and just melt holes in the plastic.

Click to expand...

That's a solid idea... If I can do that then I may not even need to keep it in the jar. Would I produce more mushrooms if I just dunked and rolled it or would it make a difference if I used the jar?

If you have perlite I'd heat the screw up and make a Shotgun Fruiting Chamber,

If you don't then keep it in the jar.

taGyo said:

Light isn't a primary pinning trigger,

High humidity is. Don't wrap it.

Birth it, dunk it and flip it sounds solid, never seen it done that way but it makes a lot of sense. The problem is it may not fit upside down but we'll see. It plumps up quite a bit after a 24hr dunk.

If you don't use the terrarium you will be open-air fruiting. You're just going to have to mist more when the verm gets dry. Don't overmist, only when the majority of it is dry. Pay attention to how it looks wet. It will sparkle like wet sand. When it's dry it won't sparkle as much and look more like dry sand. That's when you water again.

The verm is just to trap the moisture and hold some of the humidity. Humidity is a primary pinning trigger.

Click to expand...

Don't want to get into a pissing match but light is indeed a principle pinning trigger. Co2 ratios are secondary moisture is simply a sustaining environmental factor.

hNo it's not.

Explain to me what light does to initiate pinning so I can explain to you what other process we have found is at work.

You may be thinking of a time when mushroom growers used to cover their bins with trash bags or paint them black during colonization. This has been proven false.

humidity and moisture are two different concepts. Humidity is a primary pinning trigger, simply getting the cake wet is not.

air flow leads to humidity. Growers only care about CO2 during colonization as the mycelium spreads quicker. Once you introduce o2 it believes its at the surface and begins the fruiting process.

Just move into popcorn. They need the O2 to fruit. They like humidity. Think of Florida, they grow like crazy there. Oh yeah... i'm back.

taGyo said:

hNo it's not.

Explain to me what light does to initiate pinning so I can explain to you what other process we have found is at work.

You may be thinking of a time when mushroom growers used to cover their bins with trash bags or paint them black during colonization. This has been proven false.

humidity and moisture are two different concepts. Humidity is a primary pinning trigger, simply getting the cake wet is not.

air flow leads to humidity. Growers only care about CO2 during colonization as the mycelium spreads quicker. Once you introduce o2 it believes its at the surface and begins the fruiting process.

Click to expand...

I've composed a large response twice and the system has failed. I will do so again asap.

My tests indicate light as a primary trigger.

DaSprout said:

Just move into popcorn. They need the O2 to fruit. They like humidity. Think of Florida, they grow like crazy there. Oh yeah... i'm back.

Click to expand...

Popcorn?

In a paper on the reactivity of light sensitive basidiomycetes, E.R. Badham finds that blue-uv light at peaks on 370, 440 and 460 stimulatimg the mycelia for as little as half a millisecond per day tended to cause primordia.


It must surely be difficult to avoid such minute exposures at even the serious hobby level.

We know for certain that the mushroom in question is photosensitive. Altering a point light source location over growing fruit will prove this in a matter of hours.

The reason for this must be obvious given that this is not a response of a plant depending on photosynthesis.

It is the exposure to light that signals above ground arrival.

I am not saying that there are not other factors, concentration of co2 being one of them.

Further, air movement is not a relevant factor of RH. The percentage of moisture in the air is a function of available moisture, surface area and temperature.

I thought surface evaporation and GE were the primary triggers? However, I've only completed one complete mushroom grow so I don't know shit.
First one used 5 gal "mono-buckets" this go around I'm experimenting with trays and bubble wrap

tightpockt said:

I thought surface evaporation and GE were the primary triggers? However, I've only completed one complete mushroom grow so I don't know shit.
First one used 5 gal "mono-buckets" this go around I'm experimenting with trays and bubble wrap

Click to expand...

Orchestration of several factors are best. Just cresting your casing along with lowered co2, a cold shock and light will get you the best yield in every case of photosensitive species.

canndo said:

I am not saying that there are not other factors, concentration of co2 being one of them.

Further, air movement is not a relevant factor of RH. The percentage of moisture in the air is a function of available moisture, surface area and temperature.

Click to expand...

Well I'm not even going to get into why all of the lighting stuff is wrong.

Air movement creates RH. Humidity is evaporation from the substrate, O2 lifts it into the air and creates RH.

The fact that you said cold shock tells me you're with the people who put trash bags around their colonizing jars to let light out because they think it induces pinning.

Cubensis is a tropical species and does not benefit from a cold shock. Where does that happen in nature?

Mushrooms grow in the shade, I did a test that showed they preferred indirect light to direct. If you grow mushrooms under a light they tend to bend over and make sure their caps are facing said light, almost like a buffer. No doubt mushrooms USE LIGHT, that's not what I'm debating, but we still don't know for what.

tightpockt said:

I thought surface evaporation and GE were the primary triggers? However, I've only completed one complete mushroom grow so I don't know shit.
First one used 5 gal "mono-buckets" this go around I'm experimenting with trays and bubble wrap

Click to expand...

They are.

You're right. Gas Exchange is more for colonization, Fresh-Air Exchange is for fruiting, surface evap causes humidity. In the wild mushrooms tend to pop after a fresh rain.

@canndo Go to the http://www.shroomery.org/forums/ and tell them what you said and see how quickly you get corrected by guys who do this for a living.

canndo said:

We know for certain that the mushroom in question is photosensitive. Altering a point light source location over growing fruit will prove this in a matter of hours.

The reason for this must be obvious given that this is not a response of a plant depending on photosynthesis.

It is the exposure to light that signals above ground arrival.

Click to expand...

What response would happen in a matter of hours? I grow these things and have been for a while, I can let you know that my tubs under the light tend to get meatier and have bigger caps but the ones I neglect off to the side are still just fine and all grow straight up.

As for light telling the mushrooms that they're at the surface...
No...
It's fresh air... That's why we tape the tubs for high CO2 levels. Once you add O2 the surface starts to evaporate and the mushrooms know they're by the surface.

I colonize tubs in the light and in the dark depending on where I can fit them. None of them pin until I tell them to or unless I let them go for a long time. High CO2 prevents pinning to an extent. A primary pinning trigger that is often overlooked is colonization of the substrate. If the mycelium has nothing left to eat, they will fruit to drop spores and prolong their life cycle.

Depending on what substrate and method of fruiting you're using this could take a while.

Do this for me:

Colonize a tub in darkness. Give it FAE and no light. See what happens.

At least you were somewhat sensible. I thought you were going to tell me the light tells them which way to grow because that one gets real old real fast.