Growing mushrooms with fine vermiculite

I've been wanting to do this for a while but I've been trying to find coarse vermiculite for this (which seems to be what is necessary for a proper substrate) but after wasting $40 and three orders later, all I have now is three different bags of vermiculite, because for some reason these websites won't fucking tell you what kind it is and there's no standard labels for the different grades. "Medium" is still fine. "Professional" is still fine. It's a load of horse crap but whatever. Now I have three bags of fine verm and I can't find coarse anywhere.

I tried mixing a substrate with the first bag of fine verm I got but it just felt like wet sand, both with and without the brown rice flour. Is there any way I can do this with the fine verm?

Your help is appreciated.

if you are absolutely bent on doing that PF method which really isn't all that much easier than other more productive methods and is rather wasteful of spores anyway then go ahead and use your fine vermiculite, it will still work just fine.

Which tek do you recommend? I don't have the money to spend on expensive equipment, but I'm willing to hear your opinion regardless.

Sorry to hear you wasted your money. Fine verm is actually preferred over chunky verm. Mycellium colonizes it easier. You had what you wanted all along and didn't know it.

Blegh... I've heard people say that previously as well, that's not the first time I'm hearing this, but the problem was mainly that I tried mixing the substrate using the fine verm and it felt like wet sand. It just didnt seem right. When I throw it all into the jars, is it okay if it feels like that? Mix in 1 part water with 2 parts of the fine verm, then add 1 part BRF, and mix it in, and then it's fine? Or was I doing it wrong

Popcorn and plain old casing works better, is just as easy and gives you tons more mushrooms than the PF method. I am not down on the guy who invented it, he made millions before he was put in jail, he figured out how to keep you coming back for his syringes and that is one smart marketing device. It was so smart that people are still using it long after he is out of the picture.

Well my dog bought his syringes from Spores101.com (which he highly recommends - very good prices, FAST shipping, and they gave my dog two free B+ syringes with his order).

I find it hard to believe that people are only using the PF method because some dude invented it to waste syringes. Highly qualified people still swear by this method and I trust their expertise.

What is this popcord and 'plain old casing' method you are referring to?

Boil popcorn in water till just a few kernels burst, drain the popcorn, put the popcorn in what ever container you are using to sterilze. Innoculate the popcorn and shake it every few days until you have full coverage, probably 10 days, depending on how you innoculated to begin with. Then empty the popcorn into a container, tray, shoebox whathave you. Give it a day or two more and case with 50/50 vermiculite and coir sweetened with a bit of lime. Put that in what ever incubation box you already have set up for the PF and wait till it colonizes the casing. Then start spraying water on the surface, after a bit you hve lots more mushrooms than you could get with the PF method. If you wish, after your 4th flush or so you can dunk the entire pop corn cake for another flush. the PF method was meant to get around casing by making the casing inherent in the substrate and it was meant to work for people withoug large pressure cookers. Indeed though, the guy found a way to get you to buy lots of syringes. In fact one only needs a tiny fraction of the liquid in a single syringe in order to grow an unlimited amount of mushrooms. He knew this which is why his tek is so wonderful, I recall the tek recoomends using a significant portion of a syringe for each jar - what is it? half pints? Anyway, more power to him.

use wild bird seed.its the best tek there is hands down ive been growing pounds for a couple years so i know what im talking about.go to shroomtalk.com and ask around they will all tell you the same thing and theres ton of recipes on there.lots of cool people too.

Everyone on shroomery is telling me that PF tek is the best. And seeing as I already have all of those ingredients, I'd rather not have to buy a whole bunch of new things.

BustedParaphernalia said:

Well my dog bought his syringes from Spores101.com (which he highly recommends - very good prices, FAST shipping, and they gave my dog two free B+ syringes with his order).

I find it hard to believe that people are only using the PF method because some dude invented it to waste syringes. Highly qualified people still swear by this method and I trust their expertise.

What is this popcord and 'plain old casing' method you are referring to?

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pf tek works fine but you dont get even close to half the amount as you will with doing wild bird seed in bulk.and get a pressure cooker it is the best thing in the world for a mycologist.just fill the jars with wild bird seed an inch from the top and put a lid with a 1/4" hole in the center with a tyvek envelope cover on next then tighten the ring down and then pressure cook the jars for 90 minutes.some say 60 mins but i do it for 90.then let them cool to room temp then innoculate the jars thru the tyvek and the hole in the center and spray in a circle around the jar it dosnt take but 2 cc's.and as you pull the needle out cover the hole with medical (breathable tape) and put them in a tit (tote in tote) style heater and when they colonize you can bulk them out.go to shroomtalk they have all you need to know brother.or intense visuals is a good site too.and spores 101 is a great site i get mine there and at ralphs spores his are better and you usually get a free 1 with order.cambodians are a great beginner strain and the shrooms are huge! and trip balls on em.good luck

Right now I'm short on money. I can't just go around buying more new stuff, my dog stole half of the money from my bank account to start growing pot.

My dog will consider the wild bird seed tek though, but he doesn't need to grow bulk he just wanted some homegrown for personal use. He doesn't live in an area where he could find many buyers.

I've heard that you don't need an incubator if your room temperatures are around 80 degrees, which they are since it's summer. I have an aquarium heater but I don't have totes and I don't have a car to buy any, and shipping for big items like that is expensive. My dog will probably buy this stuff and some bird seed after his first experiment growing mushrooms, which will likely be via PF tek.

In any case, thanks for the advice, I'll pass it on.

Nothing wrong with bird seed but I find it kinda sticky and sort of expensive. There is a way to avoid an incubation chamber completely. boil the grain of your choice in quart jars, innoculate them, let them grow out, it won't take very long, a few days. Case the jars and place a baggie over the jar. Spray it every day and you will find that they grow just fine in the micro climate in the jar/baggie - you can't get any cheaper than that.

I'm going to make a fruiting chamber for sure, just not an incubation chamber. Once I have something growing I'm sure I'll be able to convince one of my friends to drive me to a store

That is one amazing dog you have there! All the dogs I've ever had just eats, sleeps, and shits.

46&2 said:

That is one amazing dog you have there! All the dogs I've ever had just eats, sleeps, and shits.

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He was a rescue. One day I'm thinking I'm taking a wounded dog under my wing, the next day he's got a bong in one hand and a joint in the other, spilling cheetos all over my sofa >:O